Labour Australia

Thomas Doyle, n.d.

Thomas Patrick (Tommy) Doyle (1885-1951) iron worker, trade union official and politician

Birth: 17 February 1885 at Chippendale, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Thomas Doyle (1853-1907), engine-driver, and Catherine, née Doyle (1852-1921). Marriage: 1904 at Sydney to native-born Amelia Jane (Mildred) Conroy (1884-1965). They had two daughters and three sons. Death: 18 March 1951 in the Sacred Heart hospice, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Religion: Catholic. 

• Educated at St Benedict’s school, Chippendale, and St Mary’s Cathedral School. Reputedly served in the Boer War. Was a Rugby Union footballer.
• Ironworker, then secretary of Eskbank Ironworkers’ Union, Lithgow. First president Blast Furness Employees, Lithgow.
• Clerk, Trades Hall, Sydney.
• Anti-conscription during World War I, associated with William McKell in trying to form One Big Union. Secretary of the United Laborers’ Protective Society from 1921 to 1930.
• Member, Australian Labor Party central executive from 1923 to 1926. Member Eight Hour Committee, Harbour Trust.
• Appointed ALP member of the NSW Legislative Council on 21 December 1925. His term ended on reconstitution of the council on 22 April 1934. His appeal against the legislation failed in the Privy Council.
• Subsequently worked as a clerk in the Government Stores.

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt and Elizabeth Hinton, Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); Correspondence file for Radi, Spearritt and Hinton; Labor Daily, 13 January 1927.