Labour Australia

Jack Cochrane, n.d.

Labor lost one of its pioneer political champions on Thursday, when John Patrick Cochran died. Brilliant in speech, witty always, and without animosity to his foes, Jack Cochran endeared himself to all who met him. He was member in the days of single seats for Darling Harbour, and while he represented that constituency neither the House nor the country had cause to regret that Mr. Cochran was in Parliament.

"Jack Cochran's speaking," was enough to empty lounge and refreshment rooms and it was woe betide the interrupter, for Cochran, with all the wit of his forebears, would, with a smile which destroyed any semblance of malice, annihilate him and send the House into a roar of laughter.

Mr. Cochran remained faithful to the end to the principles which he stood by in the stirring days in 1891, when Labor, taking the advice of the papers — which now seek to destroy it —went to the polls and asserted its right to gain what it sought by constitutional means.

John Patrick Cochran was so well esteemed that he was chosen as the secretary of the Trades Council which office he held until elected a member for Darling Harbor.

After his Parliamentary career was ended, he was a principal officer of the United Laborers' Union. Active work done by him, night after night, at the last Federal and State elections, showed that his heart still beat true to the principles which he stood by when the giant Labor found its strength after the great maritime strike.

Men who then stood on the same platform, and voiced the same sentiments as he broke away and proved recreant; but not John Patrick Cochran. There may have been many Labor men as good as Mr. Cochran, but never one more faithful to his trust.