Labour Australia

John (Jack) Dudley (1906-1972) painter, alderman and trade union official

Birth: 8 November 1906 and baptized at St John, Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, son of Frederick Moore Dudley (1867-1936), an iron sheet-roller, and Amy, née Wright (1876-1962). Marriages: (1) 27 July 1927 at Lithgow, New South Wales, with Presbyterian forms, to native-born Phyllis Myrtle Ransley, later Stevens (1908-1983), a book-keeper. The marriage ended in divorce. (2) 1937 at Lithgow to native-born Annie Isabelle Urwin (1912-1995), a waitress. Death: 24 April 1972 at Lithgow. 

• Arrived in Sydney with his parents and siblings in 1910. Family settled at Lithgow where his father, who came to Australia under contract to the Lithgow works of G. and C. Hoskins, worked as a sheet-roller, but had little employment after the mill closed in Lithgow. John’s brother Frederick Moore Dudley (1897-1953), an iron-worker, served in the 17th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, in World War I.
• John Dudley worked as a painter. Previously a member of the Operative Painters’ Union, in 1940 he joined the Lithgow branch of the Arms, Explosives and Munition Workers’ Federation; in 1941 was elected president.
• Was president of the Western Districts branch of the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia (FIA) from 1944. Trustee from 1943 and delegate to National Conference, FIA, from 1944.
• Active in the Lithgow branch of the [Federal] Australian Labor Party from the 1930s. Was a prominent Grouper, supporter of Laurie Short.
• Active in Lithgow community affairs, alderman of Lithgow City Council for 21 years from December 1947. President of Lithgow Rugby League.
• Appointed MBE 1969 for public and community service.

Sources
Robert Murray and Kate White, The Ironworkers: a history of the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia (Sydney, 1982); Labor News, October/November1969, March/April 1972.