Labour Australia

Robert Alexander Mitchell (1858-1940) coalminer, trade union official, and farmer

Birth: 12 December 1858 at Brackenhills, Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, son of James Mitchell (1816-1887), iron miner, and Elizabeth, née Crawford (1821-1892). Marriage: 22 April 1889 with Presbyterian forms at the Manse, Palmer Street, Sydney, New South Wales, to Margaret Lamont (1865-1936), a domestic servant born in Scotland. They had four daughters and five sons. Death: 19 May 1940 at Northcote, Melbourne; usual residence Sale, Victoria. 

• In the Scotland census of 1871 Robert was described as a coal miner, aged 12, living with his family at Riccarton, Ayrshire, as he was in the following census, in 1881, aged 21.
• Arrived in Victoria about 1885.
• Was a miner, working at Bulli, New South Wales, in 1889. He had moved to Coalville, Gippsland, Victoria, by the birth of his eldest daughter Elizabeth in March 1890.
• Considered an agitator by the managing director of Outtrim mine (Victoria). Arrived with a party of men from Coalville district (Victoria) that included Thomas McNair and A. A. Wilson.
• Worked at Outtrim mine for seven years and was auditor of Victorian Coal Miners' Association in 1897.
• Made toast to 'trade unionism' at the farewell to Wilson in 1904. Still resident in district in 1908. Moved to a farm at Gunya, Foster, Gippsland, about 1913.
• Occupation given as farmer (retired) on his death certificate. Cause of death: myocarditis and arteriosclerosis.
• His eldest son, Archibald Lamont Mitchell (d.1960) born in June 1891 at Coalville, was wounded serving in the Australian Imperial Forces in World War I and also served in World War II.

Sources
Outtrim News; Great Southern Advocate; 1906 Victorian Royal Commission into Coal Industry; P. D. Gardner, Too old to rat: the radical miners of South Gippsland 1893-1904 (Ensay, Victoria, 1994).