People Australia

John William O’Flanagan (Jack, 'Brum' or ‘Jack Flan’), known as Flanagan (1875-1930) miner, trade unionist, watchman and writer 

Birth: 1875 at Bendigo, Victoria, son of Michael Terence O’Flanagan (1823-1875), farmer, and Mary Susannah, née Harkin (c.1833-1920). Both parents had been born in County Clare, Ireland. Marriage: 15 November 1912 at the Court House, Broken Hill, New South Wales, [registered under surname O’Flanagan] to a widow, Frances Frederica, née Simeon, late Webb (1881-1965), a housemaid, born at Maitland, York Peninsula, South Australia. They had one son. Death: 7 September 1930 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, Sydney, late of Yass, NSW [registered under surname O’Flanagan]. Religion: buried in the unsectarian section, Rookwood, Sydney. 

• Miner in Broken Hill for many years. Active member of Amalgamated Miners’ Association (later Workers’ Industrial Union of Australia).
• Contributed to literary section of Barrier Daily Truth in earlier times and later wrote many stories under the name of ‘Jack Flan’. Left Broken Hill about 1914 due to sickness from working with lead.
• Worked on various stations with his wife. Between jobs worked in other occupations, including in Sydney.
• Surname on electoral roll at death was Flanagan, occupation “labourer”, on probate documents as “watchman”.
• Cause of death: tubercular lymphadenitis (pulmonary), and acute military tuberculosis.

Sources
Obituary, Barrier Daily Truth (Broken Hill), 23 September 1930, p 2