James Johnston (1854 – 31 December 1930) was an English-born Australian politician. He was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

to labourer Andrew Johnston and Anna Patterson. The family moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1857 and he attended Balmain State School. After leaving school he was apprentice to a boilermaker, eventually becoming a journeying boilermaker himself. On 22 September 1877 he married Sarah Fuller, with whom he had eight children. A committed

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist, he helped to form the Boilermakers' Society and the Queensland branch of the Federated Seamen's Movement. On returning to Sydney he became president of the Boilermakers' Society. In 1891 he was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

for Balmain, representing the newly formed Labor Party. On refusing to sign the pledge, he became a

Protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

, but he was defeated in 1894. Johnston died in

in 1930.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, James 1854 births 1930 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Protectionist Party politicians British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales