People Australia

John Joseph (Tiger) Ryan (1900-1967) sugar industry worker and trade union official

Birth: 7 July 1900 at Tipperary, Ireland, son of John Ryan and Hannah [Hanoria), née Hannigan.  Marriage: 14 December 1928 at Pawngilly, Queensland, to Louisa Lavina Margaret Cleary (1901-1989). They had three sons, one of whom predeceased him. Death: 10 March 1967 in district hospital, Innisfail, Queensland. 

• Arrived in Queensland about 1918.
• Joined Communist Party in 1920s.
• Became well-known in North Queensland for his leadership of Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) members in the sugar industry. With Jack Henry and others he took a prominent role in the early sugar strikes in the 1920s and with struggles over Weils disease in the 1930s.
• Secretary of the South Johnstone section of the AWU up to a few weeks before his death when he became ill.
• Cause of death: pulmonary embolism (minutes), thrombosis of femoral vein (3 days).

Sources
Tribune (Sydney), 5 April 1967 p 11.