People Australia

Tom Young, c.1914

Thomas (Tom) Young (1895-1976) coalminer and trade union official

Birth: 24 September 1895 at Burrum, Howard, Queensland, son of Thomas Young (1850-1910), an agricultural labourer, later station master and Elizabeth, née Beattie (1856-1896). Both parents had been born in Yorkshire, England — Thomas in North Newbald, and Elizabeth in Beverley. Marriage: 28 August 1923 at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Manse, West Street, Towoomba, Queensland, to Wilhelmina Prentice (Minnie) Wilson (1906-1987), born at Edinburgh, Scotland. They had four sons. Death: 10 July 1976 in St Stephen’s Church Hospital, Maryborough, Qld. Religion: Anglican (on service record), buried with Methodist forms. 

• His parents and older siblings had arrived in Queensland by 1883. His mother died when he was an infant. His sister Jessie Voss may have brought him up; he listed her as his next of kin on his service record.
• Was a miner at Burrum, having served in the 4th Infantry Battalion, when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 20 August 1914. Was wounded at the Gallipoli landing on 5 April 1915, serving with the 1st Machine Gun Battalion. Rejoined his unit at Gallipoli on 10 July. Transferred to the Camel Corps in January 1916. Served with the 9th Battalion then with the 3rd Machine Gun Company in France in 1917 and 1918. Came back to Australia in 1919, and was discharged in Brisbane on 26th April.
• Returned to Howard where he lived for the rest of his life. May have worked briefly for the Postmaster General’s department then took up mining again in the mid 1920s. Was secretary of Burrum branch of the Miners' Federation from about 1937 until the 1950s.
• Member, Queensland Board of Management during and after World War II. Queensland delegate to Miners' Federation's national conventions in 1940s & 1950s.
• Was employed as a shiftman in the Jubilee Colliery, owned by the Queensland Collieries Company when he gave evidence before the Mine Industry Tribunal in July 1950, describing his 25 years as a miner at Burrum.
• Elected member federation's central council 1952; was defeated in 1953 by Tom Millar; re-elected in 1954.
• Cause of death: carcinoma of liver (months) and coronary arteriosclerosis (years).
• A sign to the memory of Tom and Minnie Young was erected in front of their memorial hall at Howard.
• His brothers James and William also enlisted in the AIF in world War I: William (1893-1966), a miner, was also wounded at Gallipoli; James (1882-1945), a labourer, served in France, and also served in the Australian Military Forces in World War II.

Sources
Pete Thomas, The coalminers of Queensland: a narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union. Volume 1 Creating the traditions (Ipswich, 1986).