People Australia

John (Jack) Williams (c.1858-1934) labourer and trade union official 

Birth: about 1858, place and parentage unknown, possibly in England. Unmarried. Death: 10 February 1934 in Dalkeith Private Hospital, South Melbourne; usual residence City Road South Melbourne; buried at Fawkner Cemetery. 

• Was reputedly a member of the small group which formed the first Wharf Labourers’ Union (later Waterside Workers’ Federation) in Melbourne. Was assistant secretary of the union for forty years.
• Worked on Victorian Labor paper Tocsin early in his working life.
• Long-term union delegate to Melbourne Trades Hall Council. He “practically had worked up to the last minute”.
• Cause of death: erysipelas of the head and toxaemia (2-3 weeks).
• He may have been born in England, as a death notice inserted by “his life-long friends Mr and Mrs Summers” requested “English papers please copy”.

Sources
Labor Call, 15 February 1934 p 6.