Labour Australia

James (Jim) Fingleton (1876-1920) tram driver, trade union official and Labor politician 

Birth: 7 December 1876 at Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, son of Irish-born parents James Fingleton (c.1846-1885), baker, and Mary, née Nolan (1850-1883). Marriage: 1903 at St Peter’s Church, Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, to native-born Belinda May (Mary) Webb (1878-1955). They had two daughters and four sons. Death: 13 October 1920 at Waverley. Religion: Catholic. 

• Arrived from Melbourne in NSW with parents about 1878. He and his three surviving siblings were orphaned at an early age.
• Helped to organise Australian Workers’ Union in western NSW with Donald Macdonell and Jack Meehan. Joined NSW Railway and Tramway Department; conductor from 1902 to 1908, driver from 1908 to 1913.
• Union organiser and president of Waverley Tramway Mutual Relief Association.
• Joined Australian Labor Party in 1894, member of Waverley branch 1913. Opposed conscription.
• Elected first Labor member of the Legislative Assembly for Waverley on 13 December 1913. Was defeated in February 1917. Elected member for Eastern Suburbs on 20 March 1920.
• His eldest son Leslie James Fingleton (1904-1963) served in the Australian Imperial Force and afterwards in the Royal Australian Air force in World War II. John Henry (Jack) Fingleton (1908-1981) was a notable cricketer and journalist, Glen Harold James Fingleton (1910-1965) was a trade union official, and Walter Patrick Joseph Fingleton (1915-2012)) was a priest.
• Cause of death: pulmonary tuberculosis. 

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt and Elizabeth Hinton, Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); Worker (Wagga), 28 August 1913; Maritime Worker, 14 July 1965