People Australia

James (Jim) Ward (1881-1964) ironworker, trade union official, alderman and bath house attendant.

Birth 1881 at West Bromwich, Staffordhire, England, son of Benjamin John Ward (1851-1928), puddler, and Agnes, née Dickens (1849-1915). Marriage: 1910 at St Leonards, Sydney, New South Wales, to Lizzie Orme (1883-1972). They had at two daughters and three sons, one of whom died in infancy. Death: July 1964 in his usual residence, at Strathearn Avenue, Coniston, Wollongong, NSW. Religion: Methodist. 

• First worked as ironworker near Birmingham, England, aged 13, working 12-hour shifts commencing 4.00 am. In 1911 he was a blacksmith, living at West Bromwich.
• Came to Australia in 1909. For twelve months he was a resident of Henty in the Riverina. In 1910 he settled at Lithgow, NSW, where he was treasurer of the first Ironworkers’ Union, Lithgow, and a puddler in Cecil Hoskins steel works. He was vice-president and president of the Lithgow branch, Federated Ironworkers’ Association (FIA) from 1911 to 1923, when he became secretary of the branch.
• In 1920s he was an Australian Labor Party alderman on Lithgow Council, president of the Hospital Committee and secretary of the Labor Day Committee, and member of FIA federal council.
• With relocation of Hoskins steelworks to Wollongong, he formed a branch of the FIA in August 1928 and became its first full-time secretary, with premises above the tobacconists shared with the Illawarra Trades and Labor Council, of which he was also president.
• In 1933 he accused the FIA leadership of financial mis-management. Threatened to sue for wages. Branch was small and struggling with about 60 members, collapsing during Depression due to unwillingness of FIA officials to pay wages, as well as employers’ anti-union bias and fear of scapegoating.
• On dole before resuming work as heater at Australian Iron and Steel Pty Ltd (previously Hoskins Ltd) for twenty-four years, in charge of change house at soaking pits.
• Cause of death: coronary occlusion (Coroner’s report).