People Australia

George Perris, c.1915 [detail]

George Perris (1878-1958) coalminer and trade union official 

Birth: 1878 at Conover, Victoria, son of Alfred Hensey Perris (1855-1920), a miner, born at Yatton, Somerset, England, and his first wife Miriam, née Atkins (1856-1882), born at Tredegar, Monmouthshire, Wales. Marriage: 1908 at Redfern, New South Wales, to Jean McMillan McBride survived him. They had two daughters. Death: 27 June 1958 at Kurri District Hospital, Kurri Kurri, New South Wales; usual residence Third Street, Weston, NSW. Religion: Methodist. 

• Started in coal mines in Outrim, Victoria, in 1891. Later worked at Jumbunna mine.
• Activist at Outtrim during 20-month strike.
• Subsequently moved to Northern NSW coalfields, working at Stanford Mythyr, Heddon Greta, Hebburn No.1 (1902) and Abermain. Returned permanently to Hebburn in 1906.
• Elected secretary Hebburn No.1 Lodge, Kurri Kurri NSW in early 1920s, retaining post until his retirement in 1941.
• Prominent in the revival of the Australasian Coal & Shale Employees' Federation after the crisis of the early 1930s. Member of the Federation's Northern Board of Management. Close associate of Tom (Bondy) Hoare.
• During the 1930s Depression he influenced lodge to support Unemployed Workers' Movement.
• Credited with being 'the father of the pensions scheme' for miners introduced in 1940 (moved original notice of motion for scheme at Hebburn Lodge which was subsequently adopted by Federation Central Council).
• Member Kurri District Hospital Board. Also active in local Co-operative Society, soccer clubs, School of Arts, Workers Educational Association and ambulance classes.
• Cause of death: cerebral thrombosis (6 days), congestive cardiac failure (11 months) and essential hypertension (10 years).

Sources
Edgar Ross, A history of the Miners' Federation of Australia ([Sydney] 1970); Andrew William Metcalfe, For freedom and dignity: Historical agency and class structures in the coalfields of NSW (Sydney, 1988); Common Cause, 31 January 1942, 5 July 1958.