Labour Australia

George Sydney Brightman (1916-2001) accountant and trade union official

Birth: 29 June 1916 in Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents George Stanley Brightman (1882-1957), carpenter, and Emily Ada, née Cameron (1882-1965). Marriage: 4 May 1940 at St Clement’s Anglican Church, Marrickville, to Kathleen Napier Buckley (1917-2018), boot machinist. They had one son and two daughters. Death: 3 November 2001 in Sydney. Religion: Anglican. 

• His father was a carpenter with the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board and union representative and long-time member of the committee of management of the Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage Employees Association.
• Educated Cleveland Street Intermediate High School and Sydney Technical High School.
• 1936-50 office assistant and casual organiser, Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage Employees’ Association. 1940-43 accountancy qualification (gained part-time) Metropolitan Business College. 1944-60 part-time lecturer at that college.
• 1950 appointed organiser Metropolitan Board of Water Supply and Sewerage Employees Association. Elected assistant secretary 1955 and secretary 1959-1970.
• Capable and honest conservative union official. Resigned 1970 when the John Glebe-Sid Lake team won union election.
• Accountant in private practice from 1970.
• Was a Freemason.

Sources
George Brightman interviews, 24 Feb 1983, 14 Feb 1984, 29 Dec. 1992, Sydney. Peter Sheldon, Maintaining control: a history of unionism among employees of the Sydney Water Board, PhD thesis University of Wollongong, 1989.