Labour Australia

John Power, n.d.

John Maurice (Jack) Power (1883-1925) rural worker, motor-car proprietor, trade union official, mayor and Australian Senator

Birth: 15 December 1883 at Hay, New South Wales, fifth of eight children of Irish-born parents John Bernard (Johnny) Power (1852-1889), brewery carter, from County Cork, and Maria, née Toohey, a general servant [or Mary, née Parker]. Marriages: (1) 21 January 1911 at Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales, to native born Alice May Duggan (1883-1913). They had two sons. (2) 4 November 1918 at Sacred Heart Church, Darlinghurst, Sydney, to native-born Stella Horrigan (1894-1977), saleswoman. They had one son. Death: 13 January 1925 at Glenbrook, NSW. Religion: Catholic. 

• His father accidentally drowned in the Murrumbidgee River on 9 February 1889. A subscription list for the widow and six surviving children, who were “left in very poor circumstances”, raised £144 2s 8d.
• Worked as rural worker, pastry cook, drayman, taxi-driver and tobacconist.
• President of Paddington Labor League, 1912. Appointed Justice of the Peace in 1913.
• Represented taxi drivers’ union. Vice-president of the Pastrycooks' Union and representative to Australian Labor Party Conference from 1910. President of the Pastrycooks' Union.
• Alderman on Paddington Municipal Council from 1914 to 1918 and mayor in 1917-18.
• Secretary of the ALP Industrial Section 1916-17. Member central executive from 1917 to 1919 and from 1920 to 1923. NSW ALP president from 1921 to 1925. Delegate to Federal conference 1918, 1921.
• President of the No Imperial Federation League 1916. Joint secretary Anti-conscription campaign.
• Appointed member of the NSW Legislative Council on 30 August 1921. Resigned on 20 November 1924.
• Directed ALP publications for federal election 1922. Member, Australian Industrial Fellowship Council 1923. Editor Labor News 1923-1924 and associated with establishment of Labor Daily.
• On 20 November 1924 Power was chosen by NSW parliament to a casual vacancy in the Australia Senate to replace Allan McDougall, but died before he took his seat in parliament. The NSW Parliament then selected W. A. Gibbs to replace him.
• Cause of death: pulmonary tuberculosis.

Sources
Heather Radi, Peter Spearritt & Elizabeth Hinton, Biographical Register of the NSW Parliament 1901-1970 (Canberra, 1979); Labor Daily, 1 November 1924, 14 January 1925; Sydney Morning Herald, 14 January 1925; Australian Worker (Sydney), 1 September 1921, p 7, 14 January 1925 p 18; Labor News, 20 August 1921, p 1; Geoffrey Hawker, ‘John Maurice Power,’ in Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate: https://biography.senate.gov.au/john-maurice-power/