People Australia

James Charles (Jim) West (1895-1975), labourer, gas worker and trade union official

Birth: 18 October 1895 at Bemboka, New South Wales, son of native-born parents James Charles West (1856-1933), a labourer, and Jane Elizabeth, née Thompson, late Fleming (1857-1929), who signed with a mark. Marriage: 12 April 1922 at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Cleveland Street, Sydney, to native-born Manilla Elsie Bailey (1899-1974). They had three daughters and three sons. Death: 8 March 1975 at the Repatriation General Hospital, Concord, Sydney; usual residence Braddon Street, Mortlake. Religion: Anglican [on Service Record]. 

• Enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 2 August 1915 and served with 1st Australian Light Horse Regiment in the Middle East. Posted to Europe in March 1919. Returned to Australia in October 1919 and was discharged in Sydney on 13 February 1920.
• After the war West worked at Mortlake (for AGL gas company?)
• He was Mortlake day workers’ representative to State branch management committee, of the Gas Employees’ Union (GEU). Member of NSW branch management committee from early 1930s. Chairman of Mortlake sub-branch. Member of the federal council of union for many years, he was president for one term.
• Jim West was secretary of the NSW branch of the GEU from 1943 until he was defeated in 1965.
• Cause of death: carcinoma of the stomach (years), metastases.

Sources
See article on Jim West in Torch in August 1947, part of which is quoted in Torch, September 1965, pp 3-5.