Obituaries Australia

John Neill, n.d.

People (Sydney), 17 December 1914, p 3

On Thursday week last, December 10, at the little country suburban cemetery, Moorfield, near Sydney, the funeral of our late comrade, John Neill, sen. took place.

As many of the members of the S.L.P. as could possibly attend were present.

The General Secretary, J. O. Moronev, paid a tribute to the work, worth, and memory of our old comrade on behalf of the Socialist Labor Party.

John Neill was born in Preswick, Scotland, in the year 1835, and was 69 years of age at the time of his demise. He left Scotland for Australia in the year 1878, landing in Brisbane, where he stayed a year, and then made for Sydney, in which place he had since resided. A shipwright by trade, he suffered all the struggle and hardships of a battling member of the working class, aided by his good wife, who only a few weeks ago predeceased him. Eight children were born, but only four now survive: Comrade J. Neill, jun., who until quite recently was an active member of the S.L.P.; his next son is the well-known full back Rugby League football player in N.S.W., W. Neill; a daughter, Mrs. Andrews; and young Victor Neill.

As a Scotchman, he possessed all the best characteristics of the Celt. His earlier years were largely devoted to religious thought, but like a number of his fellow-countrymen of the working class, his views of life and thought broadened, passing from theology to philosophy. From Radicalism to Laborism, he, by a process of intellectual evolution, finally reached the stage of a convinced revolutionary Socialist. About 16 years ago he became a member of the Waterloo Branch of the S.L.P. Though getting on in years, our comrade became an enthusiastic member of the Socialist Labor Party, the party which put him on the right track of economic thought. As he often himself expressed it, the principles of Socialism as propounded by the S.L.P. were a revolution to him, and made him an unshiftable scientific Socialist. Handicapped as he was in many ways, he found time to devote to an exhaustive study of Marx's capital, of which he had a complete understanding. Few men in Australia have a grip of Marxian economics as had our comrade. The literature of Socialism and its classics were familiar to him, in addition to a wide knowledge of general literature, philosophy, and history. A fine mind, not appreciated in a world of grab, greed, and struggle for an existence.

In 1901 the first Federal election took place in Australia, when the S.L.P. took active political shape by nominating a full ticket of six for the Senate in N.S.W. John Neill had the honor of being one of the first Socialist candidates, and polled the highest vote of the six, some 6,000 odd. It was a standing joke against him that he must have polled some of the late 'Jaw-bone' Neild's votes at that election. He was afterwards selected as a S.L.P. candidate for a Sydney suburban electorate for the State Parliament, Erskineville, but like the rest of his colleagues the vote polled in his name was a small one. 

When the I.W.W. was launched in America, Comrade Neill, with other S.L.P. members, soon fell into line in Australia, as he recognised the necessity for the industrial might of labor to back up its political power to inaugurate the Socialist society that is to be. His son, Neill, jun., was the first secretary of the I.W.W. in Sydney.

Such in brief is the simple record of our late comrade's fight for freedom and justice for the class he belonged to. In common with S.L.P.ers the world over, he had the greatest admiration for the grand old warrior, Daniel De Leon, and only a few weeks ago remarked about the great loss the Socialist movement had sustained by the passing away of this great intellectual giant.

Comrade Neill was a type of man that seems to be passing out — thoughtful, scholarly, kind, and tolerant, with an old world charm of manner and gentleness, a kind of man who makes a movement strong and sweet.

His old comrades value his work, and honor his memory, and in the days to come when Socialism is realised the names of men who played their part in life as did John Neill will be remembered.