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of his Alex Macdonald lecture earlier this year, and provides an insight into the union and community campaigns which were active in the leadup to the Qld State election in 2014. Readers of this issue will also enjoy the short story about Old Wally and his work on the Suffolk Coast in England in the 1960s. Ted Riethmuller has evoked the hard work, the cold weather and the camaraderie of the workers in this bleak setting. The articles in this issue, including Bevis’ article on Egerton with its use of the oral history archive, and Jordan’s article on Bacon which discusses the archival sources on her life, remind us of the richness in the archives just waiting for the labour historians to uncover and make accessible to the rest of us. BLHA President’s Column Greg Mallory The Association has run two successful events in the past six months. Firstly there was the annual Alex Macdonald Lecture held in May. The lecture was addressed by Professor Roger Scott who spoke on the community 2 campaigning in the then recent State election campaign organised by various unions and community groups. The lecture was well attended and generated good discussion. The second event was the ‘Young Labour Historians Symposium’ which was held in August. The symposium was addressed by six students who were graduates of the summer school of the ‘Queensland Speaks’ Project of the University of Queensland . The papers presented covered a range of topics relevant to labour history in Queensland in the past 40 years. I would like to thank everyone who was involved in making these two events successful and particularly India Anderson and Johanna Bevis who organised the students. I would also like to thank the three chairs of the day, Ros McLennan from the QCU, Professor Roger Scott and Senator Claire Moore. The Association helped sponsor the film ‘Pig Iron Bob’ film which was screened at the QCU Building in April. The MUA was the main organiser of this event. In September we are hosting with the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division and the law firm Maurice Blackburn the film ‘Blood on the Coal’. I would like to thank Emma Thornton for organising this. The National Conference Committee has been meeting regularly and is about to put forward a formal proposal to the Federal Executive. The conference will be held in September 2017. Recently a number of Executive members met with the outgoing Secretary Ron Monaghan of the QCU in order to strengthen our relationship with this body. The QCU have been very generous to us with providing free meeting space as well as significant funding each year. We will continue to work closely with the QCU and we were pleased the incoming secretary Ros McLennan was able to chair one of our sessions at the “Young Labour Historians Symposium’. A sub-committee has been set up to develop closer links between the BLHA and the trade union movement. The committee has met once and have had feedback from the Plumbers Union who are interested in meeting with us. I would like to thank Executive members for their work during the year and particularly our Secretary Craig Buckley. BLHA membership this year currently stands at 43 individual members, eight organisational memberships, and six life members. 3 No More Labour for the Knight: An Overview of Sir Jack Egerton’s Leadership Johannah Bevis Sir John (Jack) Alfred Roy Egerton was a formidable figure within the Queensland Labour Movement from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Better known as Jack Egerton, he is described by political historian, Ross Fitzgerald, as ‘one of the most colourful and influential characters in the history of the Labor Party in Queensland’.1 Egerton was an active member of the Queensland and Australian trade union and labour movement in various capacities; he became State Secretary of the Boilermaker’s Society in 1943, and then served in contemporaneous roles as President of the Trades and Labour Council Queensland (TLCQ) from 1967 to 1976 and as President of the ALP Queensland Central Executive (QCE) from 1968 to 1976.2 Yet his leadership in these roles has largely been overshadowed by the knighthood he received in the latter part of his career. Through his dual positions, Egerton increased the influence of the TLCQ within the Queensland ALP, which gained him credibility and clout on a federal level as an ALP powerbroker. Over time he created a culture of leadership within the 4 Queensland ALP that seemed unable to relate to an increasing diversity within its membership. Further, his career raised doubts over how much control an individual should accrue through simultaneous political positions. This paper first covers Egerton’s notorious ennoblement, before briefly detailing his background growing up in rural Queensland and his early career as a boilermaker. It will then describe Egerton’s initial rise in political power through the expulsion of Gair and the TLCQ’s power struggle with the Australian Worker’s Union (AWU). The paper then discusses Egerton’s involvement in federal politics through the ascent and decline of his relationship with Gough Whitlam. Finally, this paper analyses Egerton’s leadership through interpretations of his colleagues as contained within the interviews on the Queensland Speaks website. Jack Egerton remains infamous for the knighthood which he accepted in 1976. Obituaries published after his death in 1998 make little mention of his expansive career in the labour movement, instead choosing to focus on the controversy that surrounded his title.3 In 1976, Egerton had long held powerful positions within the labour movement as Senior Vice-President of the ALP Federal Executive, as well as President of the TLCQ and the Queensland Labor Party’s QCE. The honour was suggested by the Queensland conservative Bjelke- Petersen government in order to ‘to manufacture problems within Labor ranks’.4 It was later awarded by Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser ‘in recognition of service to the government and trade unions’.5 Fraser had only just been appointed Prime Minister at the end of 1975, following the dismissal of Whitlam, his ALP predecessor.6 On 12 June 1976, the title was bestowed by Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General who had sacked Whitlam.7 Whilst Bjelke-Petersen’s motive may have been to destabilise the Queensland union movement, it seems that Fraser had chosen to twist the knife a little further by knighting Whitlam’s once staunch ally. knighthood, unable to understand why Egerton went against the rules of the Labor Party.8 Three days after he received the honour, Egerton claimed that he was ‘surprised’ at the criticisms levelled against him, stating ‘I know of no ALP rule I have broken — I don’t know what I am being accused of’.9 His acceptance of the honour had been perceived by those within the ALP and its affiliated unions as a betrayal in the wake of Whitlam’s dismissal. Furthermore, the Knighthood was seen as an imperial legacy which had

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