People Australia

Thomas McNair (1845-1908) coal miner, trade union official

Birth: 21 December 1845 at Dalserf, Larkhall, Lanarkshire, Scotland, son of Thomas McNair, miner, and Myra, née White. Marriage: 29 March 1867 at Larkhall, Scotland, to Agnes McIntyre. They had seven daughters and three sons. Death: 10 January 1908 in Melbourne, Victoria.

• Miner of many years' experience in Scotland, New Zealand and Australia.
• Arrived with wife and older children in New Zealand aboard the Christian McAusland on 29 August 1875. Took family to Melbourne, Victoria, aboard the Tarawera in November 1888.
• Was in radical Coalville (Victoria) group of miners that included Robert Mitchell & A. A. Wilson. Chaired numerous meetings of local branch of Victorian Coal Miners' Association.
• With John Connolly was in deputation seeking reinstatement of miners after collapse of 1903-1904 Victorian coal strike. Still resident in Korumburra district in 1908 electoral roll but died at his daughter Mary Genin’s residence in Melbourne.
• Cause of death: pernicious anaemia, and heart failure.
• Father-in-law of Robert Semple.

Korumburra Times; Outtrim News; 1906 Victorian  Royal Commission into Coal Industry; P. D. Gardner, Too old to rat: the radical miners of South Gippsland 1893-1904 (Ensay, Victoria, 1994).