People Australia

Warnock, David (Dave) (1879-1954) engine driver and trade union official

Birth: 13 July 1879 at Goodwood, South Australia, youngest child of Scottish-born parents John Warnock (1836-1895), journeyman stone mason, and Marry, née Gunnion (1838-1915), kitchen maid and farm servant. Marriage: 27 November 1907 at St James’s Anglican Church, Broken Hill, New South Wales, to Lily Whight (1882-1971), a nurse, born at Hay, NSW. They had three daughters and two sons. Death: 25 May 1965 in his home at Curtis Road, Old Guildford, Sydney, NSW. Religion: Anglican. 

• His parents and siblings had arrived in South Australia from Scotland aboard the Camperdown on 9 May 1878. The family moved to Broken Hill, New South Wales.
• Worked as a cleaner on the Western Australian Railways at Fremantle, then at Perth from April 1897 until September 1898 when he was dismissed for insubordination.
• Returned to Broken Hill, where he was active in the Federated Engine-drivers’ and Firemen’s Association (FEDFA) from about 1898 and was sometime president. Took an active part in debating societies and was twice delegate to the conference on the wages and arbitration questions.
• Participated in 1909 lockout and was associated with negotiations with the Broken Hill Pty Co. management with Tom Mann, “with whom he was in conflict in the negotiations”. Was secretary of the Combined Unions’ business ventures and manager of its woodyard until resigning in January 1911.
• Labor alderman on the Broken Hill City Council from February 1908 until he was defeated in January 1911. In a defiant speech after his rejection he vowed that “wherever he might be he would always be found fighting against the capitalist”.
• "Through mining companies vindictiveness this stalwart unionist was starved out of Broken Hill early in 1911." He shifted to South Australia where he was prominent in the FEDFA while engaged at the Brighton cement works.
• Having moved to Sydney about 1930, he was active in the Australian Labor Party in the Bankstown area and became friendly with local member Jim McGirr. Was a State Labor candidate for election to Bankstown municipal council in November 1934.
• Worked until illness overtook him a week before his death from coronary occlusion and chronic phthisis.

Sources
George Dale, The industrial history of Broken Hill, (Melbourne, 1918).