John Edward Birt (11 December 1873 – 21 June 1925) was an Australian politician. He was born at

Woolloomooloo Woolloomooloo ( ) is a harbourside, inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1.5 kilometres east of the central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is in a low-lying, former dockla ...

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 ...

to seaman John and Margaret (née McDonough) Birt, and educated by the Marist Brothers in

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city suburb in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the Ci ...

before working in a grocery and then in retail stores. From 1904 he worked as a commercial traveller and later as a public service clerk, becoming involved with the Public Service Association. He was president of the

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

Labour League, founded the Darlinghurst branch, and was a member of the executive from 1908 to 1910. In 1919 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 ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member for

. With the introduction of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

in 1920 he became one of the members for

, and served until his death at Darlinghurst in 1925.

References

1873 births 1925 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Politicians from Sydney Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales {{Australia-Labor-NewSouthWales-MP-stub