Thomas John Houghton (24 December 1861 – 30 August 1933) was an English-born Australian politician, union official and a printer and publisher.
Houghton emigrated to Australia with his family as a young child. He served an indentured apprenticeship in the printing industry with a local newspaper at Grafton, the beginning for him of a close association with the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. He was active in the typographical union during employment at the Government Printing Office. In 1889 he was appointed permanent secretary of the Sydney Trades and Labour Council and had an important involvement in the setting up of the Labor Electoral League and its district branches in preparation for selecting labour candidates for the 1891 general election in New South Wales.
In June 1891 Houghton was amongst the initial group of Labor Party members elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, in his case representing the Glebe electorate. At the 1894 election, with the Labour Electoral League insisting on absolute solidarity with caucus decisions, Houghton's bid for re-election as an independent labour candidate was unsuccessful. He maintained links with the labour movement, forming a company that published The Australian Workman newspaper. From the late 1890s until his death in 1933, Houghton worked within the printing industry, as an employee and as a printer and publisher in his own right, at a number of locations in eastern Australia.
Biography
Early years
Thomas John Houghton was born on 24 December 1861 at Liverpool in county Lancashire, England, the son of George Houghton and Frances (née Fairclough). His father was a painter and glazier.Family records, Ancestry.com.Mr. T. J. Houghton (The Glebe), Evening News (Sydney), 24 June 1891, page 3.
The Houghton family emigrated to New South Wales aboard the ship Parramatta, probably arriving at Sydney in December 1866. Thomas' sister died during the voyage. Both parents of the family died after a "few years" in Australia.Mr. T. J. Houghton, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 29 June 1891, page 6. Young Thomas probably attended school in Sydney. He had only "a moderate amount of schooling, but made very good use of his opportunities in this direction".
Houghton left school in about 1874, aged thirteen. After working as an office boy "in one of the city institutions", in July 1875 he was apprenticed to the printing trade on the staff of the Grafton local newspaper, The Clarence and Richmond Examiner, owned by James D. Gray and James McNaughton. Houghton spent the next six years as an indentured apprentice at Grafton, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, "to learn the trade and business of a printer".The Trades and Labor Council, Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 September 1889, page 28.Old "Herald" Employees, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 November 1927, page 19.Personal, Daily Examiner (Grafton), 14 April 1928, page 4.
In March 1877 Houghton appeared on summons at the Grafton Police to answer a complaint by A. Helmich, who stated he had been subjected to "much annoyance and insult" in the public street by Houghton and others, culminating in "the use of filthy and disgusting language". Houghton, a youth of fifteen, "had nothing to say in mitigation". He was fined five shillings, or 24 hours' imprisonment, and "warned that a second offence of the kind would be severely punished".Grafton Police Court, Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton), 17 March 1877, page 2. In October 1878 at the Grafton Police Court, Houghton and eight other "boys" were charged with "behaving in a riotous manner" in Queen Street. They had been engaged in an activity called "tin kettling", carried out by "beating on kerosene tins and cans, and hooting". Most of the young men received fines, though Houghton "was admonished by the Bench and discharged".Grafton Police Court, Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton), 12 October 1878, page 2.
By early 1881 Houghton was actively involved with an amateur dramatic club at Grafton.Grafton Borough Council and Ulmarra Assembly Rooms, Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser (Grafton), 24 May 1881, pages 2, 3.
A Grafton newspaper made the following comments about Houghton as a youthful resident of the township (in response to a November 1891 visit to Grafton by Houghton, who had been recently elected to the Legislative Assembly): "From his boyhood's days – as we were informed by one who knew him then – his mind has had an anarchical twist; a kind of unrest, impatient of restraint". The writer added a reproach: "It would be well if he would educate himself to restrain this propensity".Mr. T. J. Houghton, M.P. at Grafton and Echoes and Opinions, Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton), 14 November 1891, pages 3, 4.
Government Printing Office
From about August 1881, after completion of his apprenticeship indentures, Houghton was employed as a compositor at the Government Printing Office (GPO) in Sydney, where he remained until 1889.Mr. T. J. Houghton, Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), 5 September 1933, page 4.Mr. T. J. Houghton, of Grafton..., Northern Star (Lismore), 23 February 1887, page 3. He joined the New South Wales Typographical Association soon after being employed and shortly afterwards was appointed as a workplace 'collector' for the union. At the GPO Houghton was engaged in the printing of Hansard, the transcripts of New South Wales parliamentary debates.Mr. T. J. Houghton, Tasmanian News (Hobart), 13 June 1904, page 2.
Thomas John Houghton and Catherina Suzanne Kritsch were married on 31 December 1884 at Grafton. The couple had three children born from 1885 to 1896.
In February 1887 Houghton received a promotion at the Government Printing Office. At about the same time he was elected by his fellow employees as 'father' to the supernumerary compositors' 'chapel'. In the print industry a 'chapel' referred to a collective of unionised print workers within a workplace. The 'father' of the 'chapel' referred to the senior union representative at the printing establishment.View "The Chapel: Inside Ireland's National Print Museum" by Larry Gallagher, The Craftsmanship Initiative website; accessed 26 March 2026. Houghton later served in other administrative positions within the unionised 'chapel' at the GPO. He was also active on the annual picnic committee.
In July 1887 a "fairly-attended" meeting of the employees of the Government Printing Office agreed to inaugurate a dramatic and musical club in connection with their workplace. Houghton spoke at the meeting, briefly stating the objectives of the proposed club, and was one of those appointed to the committee to draft club rules.Government Printing Office, Evening News (Sydney), 21 July 1887, page 4. Houghton was elected as the first secretary of the Government Printing Office's Dramatic and Musical Society, which "gained for itself the reputation of the premier institution of its kind in Sydney".
In about 1888 Houghton served on the board of management of the Typographical Association and on three occasions he was elected to represent the union at the Trades and Labor Council. He also represented the union on the Trades Hall and Eight-hour Demonstration Committee.
Trades and Labour Council
In March 1889 Houghton was elected as the part-time general secretary of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council (TLC), on a salary of thirty pounds a year.Trades and Labour Council, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 11 March 1889, page 2.Bede Nairn (1973), pages 27-28. In September that year he organised a mass public meeting in the Sydney Domain to raise funds to support striking London dock workers. In October 1889 Houghton submitted his resignation as secretary of the TLC "owing to [the] enormous increase in duties and failing health". He was persuaded to remain and given assistance to perform his duties. In December Houghton was appointed as the Council's first full-time general secretary. He was re-elected to the role on two subsequent occasions without opposition. Houghton represented the Sydney TLC at the Victorian Eight-hour anniversary celebration held in Melbourne last year, on the Intercolonial Labor Federation Conference, on the New South Wales' Labor Defence Committee at the Intercolonial Labor Congress held in Ballarat, at the western miners' demonstration, and on numerous deputations and conferences.Mr. T. J. Houghton, The Australian Star (Sydney), 6 October 1890, page 5. Houghton was described as "the very model of a meticulous secretary".Bede Nairn (1973), page 41.
In March 1890, in his role as secretary of the TLC, Houghton was involved in settling a dispute at Bathurst between a mill-owner named Crago, owner of the National Mills, and his unionised labour-force. Crago had dismissed those of his employees who had joined the recently-formed Mill Employees' Union, but he was eventually persuaded to reinstate the men.Threatened Millers' Strike Averted, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 31 March 1890, page 3. In June 1890 Houghton was elected president of the Sydney branch of the Mill Employees' Union.Millers' Union, Sydney Morning Herald, 23 June 1890, page 6. In August 1890, in a visit to Bathurst, Houghton convinced the proprietors of the local flour mills to employ only union labour.A Trade Dispute, National Advocate (Bathurst), 18 August 1890, page 3.
The maritime dispute that began in August 1890 eventually involved ten unions in New South Wales, including the shearers union, and spread to unionists in three other colonies. The executive committee of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council was engaged full-time in the strike until it was called off in early November. Houghton was a member of the Labor Defence Council, which controlled the strike in New South Wales.Bede Nairn (1973), page 37.
By the close of 1890 the Sydney TLC had decided to form a political organisation "with a view of securing better representation of Labor in Parliament and to effectively organise all that are favourable to the said object". In February 1891 a sub-committee of three, made up of Houghton, Francis Cotton and Robert Boxall, was appointed to "draft a scheme for government" by establishing district Labor Electoral Leagues that would select candidates in each electorate. They submitted their scheme for the organisation and government of Labor Electoral Leagues in March, which was debated, revised and adopted by the TLC.Bede Nairn (1973), pages 40-41.
Political career