People Australia

Arthur Newberry, 1929

Sunday Times (Perth), 14 April 1929, p 5

Arthur Laurence Newberry (1865-1931) carpenter and trade union official 

Birth 1865 at Melbourne, Victoria, son of Charles George Newberry (1833-1884), a mechanic, and Eliza, née Lawrence (1836-1875). Both parents were born in London, England. Marriage: 1901 at Sydney, New South Wales, to Mary Ann McKenery. They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 16 May 1931 in his residence at Evaline Street, Campsie, Sydney. Religion: Anglican. 

• His father had arrived in Victoria aboard the clipper Yorkshire on 26 November 1861. Arthur spent his early years in Victoria.
• Member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of Australia (ASC&J), Sydney, from about 1891. Member of strike committee in 1900 in Sydney.
• Sydney branch secretary of ASC&J for three-and-a-half years, later treasurer and held other offices. Australian district secretary from 1909 to 1919.
• Became secretary of the Federated Progressive Society of Carpenters and Joiners after amalgamation in 1919. By 1917 had ninety branches throughout Australia with membership of 19,000.
• Union representative on Labor Council of NSW for 12 months. First elected representative for employees on Wages Board in NSW. Board member dealing with building trade employees in Railway Service.
• Cause of death: chronic nephritis and cerebral haemorrhage.

Sources
H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987, p 137; ASC&J, Monthly Report, June 1917; Labor Daily, 13 January 1927.