People Australia

Robert Ferdinand Burbidge (Bob) Norman (1851-1918) builder and carpenter, trade union official and Labor activist 

Birth: 25 May 1851 at Sydney, New South Wales, son of Robert Norman (1820-1880), jeweller, and Maria Jane Burbridge (1815-1894). Both parents were born in London, England. Marriage: 21 January 1875 at Trinity Church, Glen Innes, New South Wales, to Rachel Peck (1854-1938), born at Rosebrook, West Maitland, NSW. They had two daughters and five sons. Death: 25 February 1918 at Amhurst Road, Midland Junction, Perth, Western Australia. Religion: buried with Anglican rites. 

• Worked as a builder in northern NSW. Was bankrupted at Gunnedah in 1885. Moved to Sydney.
• Member Australian Socialist League, Sydney, in 1890s. Reputedly attended the Labor conference in Sydney in 1891.
• Went to Western Australia about 1897. Apparently, his wife and family remained in NSW.
• Bob worked as a builder and carpenter. Co-founder and treasurer of Kalgoorlie & Boulder Workers' Association.
• Selected in April 1897 by the East Coolgardie Political Labor League, he was first 'Labor' candidate on WA goldfields. In 1907 he was president of the Eight Hours Day committee.
• Unable to work from 1914, he was dependent upon the support of others.
• In World War I he “warmly advocated the cause of national service and threw in his voice and influence with the National labor movement”.
• Cause of death: valvular disease of the heart, dropsy and cardiac failure (12 months).

Sources
Verity Burgmann, In Our Time: Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885-1905 (Sydney, 1985).