People Australia

Thomas Riding (1858-1937) iron turner and trade union official 

Birth: 30 May 1858 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, son of John Riding (1832-1900), engine fitter, and Sarah, née Kitson (b.1829). Marriage: on Easter Saturday 1880, at Lower Broughton Wesleyan Methodist Church, Manchester, to Ada McCallum (1860-1954). They had one daughter and four sons. Death: 5 February 1937 in hospital at Brisbane, Queensland, usual residence Bulimba, Brisbane. Religion: Methodist. 

• In the 1881 England census Thomas and Ada were living at Broughton, Salford, Lancashire, and Thomas was working as an engine turner.
• Arrived in Queensland with his wife in 1884. Metal turner with Messrs Evans, Anderson, Phelan and Co., Kangaroo Point, for thirty-two years and with Wilson Engineering Co. for eleven years.
• Joined the Steam Engine Makers’ Society in 1877 in England continued until amalgamation in 1920. Secretary of the Steam Engine Makers’ Society from 1888 to 1920. Continued as member of Amalgamated Engineering Union until 1927 when he retired.
• Lived in Duke Street, Bulimba, for forty-six years.
• Was a long-time preacher in the local Methodist church and a strict teetotaler. Member of the Commonwealth tent of the Independent Order of Rechabites in Brisbane.
• Cause of death: senile myocarditis, hypostatic pneumonia and syncope.

Sources
AEU CC Monthly Report, October 1927 p.28-29.