Labour Australia

John Squire (Jack) Amor (1863- ) shearer

Birth: 20 April 1863, at Huntly near Bendigo, Victoria. Son of English-born parents Thomas Amor, miner, from Wiltshire, and Sarah nee Squire from Devonshire. Death: ? Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

• Shearer, Queensland.
• During 1894 pastoral strike, led group of militant strikers, including James Martin, camped near Five Mile Creek strike camp, Ayrshire Downs; probably responsible for burning seven woolsheds in vicinity; assaulted strike-breaker at Oondooroo July 1894, then disappeared, leaving Martin in charge of gang. Wanted for questioning over arson case (with £3,000 reward offered for his apprehension);
• went under assumed name of Dawson to William Lane's Cosme settlement, Paraguay. In August 1897 he left the colony and went to Asuncion with Lizzie, the wife of fellow colonist William Mabbott. Mabbott “went after them with a revolver, but returned to Cosme saying he was glad he had not been able to find them”.
• Worked as stevedore in Bahia Blanca. Killed in wharf accident.

Sources
Gavin Souter, A Peculiar People: the Australians in Paraguay (Sydney, 1968); Stuart Svensen, The Shearers' War: the story of the 1891 shearers' strike (Brisbane, 1989).