People Australia

James Toohey, 1956

National Library of Australia, 42938534

James Philip (Jim) Toohey (1909-1992) joiner, trade union official and parliamentarian

Birth: 11 July 1909 at Rose Park, Adelaide, South Australia, son of native-born parents James Patrick Toohey (1869-1951), a builder’s labourer, and Lilian, née Morgan (1875-1952). Marriage: 20 February 1937 at St Paul’s Anglican church, Adelaide to Margaret Ann Grace (Maggie) Griffin (1910-1999). They had no children. Death: 18 August 1992 in hospital at Henley Beach, SA; usual residence South Road, Kurralta Park, Adelaide. 

• Educated at Cowandilla State School, SA. Employed as motor body builder at West Beach, Adelaide.
• Shop steward and executive member of the Vehicle Builders’ Union, 1943. Organiser and assistant secretary of the SA branch of the Vehicle Builders Employees Federation of Australia in 1944.
• He was general secretary of the SA Australian Labor Party from 1947 to 1955, president in 1954-1955, member of the federal executive in 1948-1959, sometime senior vice-president. Close colleague of Clyde Cameron.
• Served as councillor on the municipal corporation of West Torrens from 1947 to 1949.
• Was elected to the Federal Senate in May 1953. Retired in 1971 having not sought preselection for the 1970 election
• Was chairman of the SA Lotteries Commission from 1971. Appointed member of the Order of Australia in 1978.

Sources
Who’s Who in Australia, 1950-71; Australian, 4 December 1971; Jim Moss, Sound of trumpets: history of the labour movement in South Australia (Cowandilla,1985), pp 358-361; Malcolm Saunders, James Philip Toohey, in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: https://biography.senate.gov.au/toohey-james-philip/.