People Australia

John Harold Oswald (Jack) Paterson (sometimes referred to as Patterson) (1906-1968) bank officer, trade union leader and lay preacher 

Birth: 1906 at Rutherglen, Victoria, son of native-born parents of Scottish and English ancestry John Harold Oswald Paterson (1872-1923), a dentist, and Evelina, née Martin (1869-1938). Marriage: 1929 at Rutherglen to Ethel Robina Alice Nankervis (1905-1997), born at Boulder, Western Australia, of Cornish descent. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 24 December 1968 at Cheltenham, Victoria, usual residence Ludstone Street, Hampton. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Was an officer in the Commercial Bank of Australia Ltd (CBA). Worked in several city and suburban branches and in 1936 transferred to Warracknabeal.
• Represented CBA members on the Victorian branch committee of management of the Australian Bank Officials’ Association (ABOA) from 1941. Was vice-president of the association’s federal council in 1942-1945.
• Elected general president of the ABOA in February 1945 and held the post until he retired in 1953; acting-general secretary in 1949. Was president of the Five-Day-Week Council.
• Opposed to the anti-nationalisation stance of S. E. Card et al during this period, he believed that the ABOA should stand aside from bank nationalisation as a political issue.
• Represented ABOA at all conferences with other associations and with banks for eleven years.
• Acting general secretary and editor of The Banker's Journal for fifteen months in 1948-1949 and 1953. Granted life membership of ABOA in 1947.
• Prepared case and advocated before the Commonwealth Arbitration Court for a new award for bank officers in 1950. President of the Five-Day Week Council.
• Lay preacher with Presbyterian Church.
• Cause of death: cerebral haemorrhage (4 days).

Sources
Merrifield Card Index, State Library of Victoria; Bankers' Journal, June 1949 p 10, February-March 1953, p 2; Australian Bank Officer, February-March 1968 p 7.