People Australia

Martin James (Jim) Smith (1870-1930) journalist and trade union official

Birth: 15 April 1870 at Portland, Victoria, son of Irish-born parents Patrick Joseph Smith (1837-1918), a gardener, from County Fermanagh, and Ellen (Nellie), née Fitzgerald (1845-1813), from Fermoy, County Cork. Marriage: 1919 at Highgate Hill, Perth, to Ella Frances Reidy (1891-1949), born in County Clare, Ireland. They had one son, who died in infancy, and two daughters. Death: 20 October 1930 in his home at Joel Terrace, Perth. Religion: Catholic. 

• Started newspaper career on the staff of the Hamilton Tribune aged 18.
• Moved to Western Australia about 1894. Worked at the Southern Cross Herald, Coolgardie, about 1894, at Perth Morning Herald as Fremantle representative in 1896, at Daily News for a short time, and at the West Australian from 1903.
• Was Supreme Court reporter for West Australian, deputy chief of staff and assistant sub-editor.
• A foundation member of the Australian Journalists’ Association (AJA), he served on its executive from its beginning and held many offices. Organiser with Fred Gates of first journalists’ union in WA, Metropolitan Journalists Association which in about 1911 became the WA division of the AJA.
• President of the WA branch of AJA in 1911-1914, 1916 and 1925-1930, he was a frequent delegate to the councils of the AJA. He was AJA representative on the Board of Journalistic Studies at the University of Western Australia, and on WA’s Centenary Celebrations Committee, 1929. The Federal Council of the AJA awarded him a gold honour badge for his valuable contribution to the association.
• Member of the Catholic Men’s Society and of the Celtic Club.
• Cause of death: celebellar abscess (2 years), respiratory failure, cardiac failure (18 hours).

Sources
Death certificate Perth 1721/1930; marriage certificate Perth 453/1919; Journalist, 24 April 1931, p 63, 21 November 1930; Westralian Worker, 17 September 1926, p 2; H. J. Gibbrey and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987).