People Australia

Jack Moir, 1946

Worker (Brisbane), 25 February 1946, p 6

John Alfred (Jack) Moir (1879-1955) printer, trade union official and alderman

Birth: 9 March 1879 at Aberdeen, Scotland, son of John Alfred Moir (b.1858), printer and compositor, and Jessie Ann, née Milne (b.1860). Marriage: 10 May 1912 at Brisbane, Queensland, to Isabella Milne (1877-1960. They had no children. Death: 25 March 1955 in Redcliffe Private Hospital, Redcliffe, Queensland. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Served apprenticeship to lithographic printer.
• Secretary of Aberdeen branch and of Kirkcaldy branch of Lithographic union. Secretary of the Aberdeen Printing and Kindred Trades Association. Union representative to the Scottish Trade Union Congress. President of Lithographic Scottish Branches Conference 1905.
• Arrived in Sydney in 1908. Represented Lithographic Union on Sydney Labor Council.
• Moved to Brisbane in 1909. Performed yeoman service in interests of tramway services in Queensland. Represented union on Trades and Labor Council (TLC) 1909. Secretary and organiser of the TLC in Brisbane from 1909 to 1911 at least.
• Secretary of the first Qld Trades Union Congress. Organiser for the Australian Labor Federation in 1910-1913. Secretary of the General Strike committee in 1912.
• President of the Amalgamated Workers’ Association, Brisbane branch. Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, South district.
• Performed organising work for the Plumbers, Brickmakers, Hotel, Club and Café Employees’ Union, Brewery Employees’ Union and Candlemakers’ Union.
• Was a tireless opponent of conscription.
• On different occasions was president, Melbourne and Sydney Lithographers, vice-president Plumbers, and vice-president Brewery Employees. Secretary of the North Brisbane Workers’ Political Organisation.
• Alderman, Greater Brisbane City Council, from 1934 to 1937. Labor candidate for State seats of Cunningham in March 1918, Aubigny in May 1926 and Hamilton in May 1935.
• Formerly advertising manager for the Daily Standard (Brisbane), was manager of the Worker (Brisbane) from 1943 to 1953.
• Was described as a close friend of E. G. Theodore “and together they helped to organize the North”.
• Cause of death: congestive cardiac failure (weeks), senile myocardial degeneration (months) and Parkinson’s disease (years).

Sources
Railway and Tramway Record, 28 February 1911 p 10; Labor Year Book, 1934-35 p 233; D. J. Murphy (ed.), Labor in Politics: State Labor Parties in Australia, 1880-1920 (St Lucia, Qld, 1975).