People Australia

Arthur Vernon, 1916

City of Sydney Archives, 681742

Arthur John Luskey Vernon (1859-1947) hod-carrier, labourer, trade union official and alderman

Birth: 17 December 1859 at Millers Point, Sydney, New South Wales, son of English-born parents George Vernon (c.1820-1893), a tea tester, later storeman, from South Molton, Devonshire, and Henrietta Eliza, née Johnson (1833-1869), from Garston, Liverpool. Marriage: 1899 at Sydney to native-born Julia Alice Love (1866-1938). They had no children. Death: 11 June 1947 at Sacred Heart Hospice, Darlinghurst, Sydney; late of Ormond Street, Paddington. Religion: Anglican. 

• Vernon was an industrially oriented union official, increasingly conservative by 1920s, a hod-carrier, rockchopper and rock miner prior to his professional career as union official.
• He was educated at Trinity school, Millers Point. His father was a member of the Sydney Storemen’s Society.
• Arthur was United Laborers’ Protective Society delegate to NSW Trades and Labor Council in 1891-1893 and 1895-1896; member of the organising committee of TLC in 1892-1893 and 1896; executive committee member of the TLC 1895.
• Worked as a labourer in outback NSW and Queensland in 1893.
• Honorary or part-time official of the United Laborers’ Protective Society from 1899 to 1904. ULPS delegate to TLC 1900-1920; member of TLC Parliamentary Committee 1901.
• Full-time Secretary ULPS from 1904 to 1920. Unsuccessfully fought secession and consolidation of Builders’ Labourers Union (later Builders’ Labourers’ Federation) before Industrial Court 1908-1912. Had a “special organizing ability” and was a “keen debater . . . (with) a genial disposition’.
• Was Australian Labor Party candidate for Australian Senate in 1908. Contested Federal seat of Wentworth for ALP in 1910.
• Executive officer of PLL Eight-Hour Demonstration Committee. Member Paddington branch ALP, active in Catts’ ALP Propaganda Committee 1920-1921 prior to AWU counter-attack. Opposed the “Trades Hall Reds” within the TLC in the 1920s.
• Elected ALP alderman for Cook Ward in Sydney City Council in December 1915. Ousted by court action on 2 March 1916, he was re-elected to the position two weeks later. Retired from council in December 1918, after he had lost Labor preselection.
• Took an active interest in repatriation matters after World War I and was appointed to the Repatriation Board in June 1920.
• After leaving ULPS office, worked as a watchman for three years. Was organiser for Cleaners, Watchmen, Caretakers Union, later Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union.
• Successfully fought expulsion from ULPS in 1931.
• Cause of death: carcinoma of stomach.

Sources
Worker, 19 November 1908; ULPS Minutes, 1899-1905, State Library of NSW; Trades and Labor Council of NSW minutes 1890-1915; Labor News, 1919-23; Labour History, 56.