Labour Australia

James Patrick (Jimmy) Gibson (1928-1992) glass worker and trade union official 

Birth: 1928 at Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Herbert Joseph Gibson (1905-1954), motor driver, and Sylvia Florence, née Green (1909-1996). Marriage: 1949 at Cobar, NSW, to Patricia Dawn (Pat) Elkin (1927-2016). They had 3 children. Death: 9 February 1992 at Westmead, NSW. Religion: Catholic. 

• Attended St Mark’s Convent School, Drummoyne, Sydney, and St Benedict’s, Broadway. Began work as a stable-hand when aged 14.
• Aged 17 moved to rural NSW where he worked as a linesman.
• Started working in a glass factory aged 21, joining Australian Glass Workers’ Union in 1950. Treasurer NSW branch and federal councillor 1955. Federal vice-president 1959. NSW and federal secretary for twenty-five years from 1965.
• Awarded OAM in 1980.
• Executive member NSW Trades and Labor Council from 1965 and later was president. Member of 2KY Wireless Committee 1969. Australian Labor Party member from 1952.
• “Someone who may not make a big splash in the history books but perhaps that is the historians’ fault”.
• Cause of death acute renal failure, pancytopenia, metastatic carcinoma bladder and bony metastases.

Sources
Labor Year Book, 1973; Sydney Morning Herald, 13 February 1972.