Obituaries Australia

At Liverpool Hospital in the early hours of Monday morning, Mr. John Patrick Ryan, of Canley Vale Road, Canley Heights, passed away. This quiet unassuming gentleman had been ill in hospital for the previous eight weeks, but his illness could be traced back quite a few years.

Jack Ryan was born at Melbourne, where his people still reside. He came to Sydney as a young man and in his profession as a master butcher conducted shops in the Woollahra district. Ill-health forced him to leave the city and he and his wife and family came to Canley Heights, where he commenced poultry farming. He modernised the poultry farm and was one of the first to realise the value of cages in egg production. He introduced this system on his farm with great success. Jack Ryan was actively associated with the Poultry Farmers' Association, and was at one time secretary of the St. John's Park branch of the A.P.F.A.

The late Jack Ryan was a philospher, an advanced thinker —not a radicalist, but a firm believer in educational reform for the worker. He actively associated himself with the Workers' Educational Association and his keen intellect greatly contributed to its successful propagation.

Always staunch in his allegiance to the Labour Party, Jack Ryan was for some time a research officer at the Trades Hall, the hub of the powerful trade unions of Australia.

When the family came to Canley Heights, Jack's health would not allow him to take a very active part in local politics. He was a member of Canley Heights branch of the A.L.P. and was content to let his wife Edna assume a position of responsibility in that branch. A great advocate of her husband's political views. Mrs. Edna Ryan became elected an alderman of Fairfield Council at the last triennial elections, and is now a Deputy Mayor of the Council, in which there is a majority of Labour aldermen.

We join in with the many friends of the late Jack Ryan in extending sincere sympathy to his widow and children, namely, Julia (a University student), Lyndell (a pupil of Fairfield Girls' High School) and Pat (who is a harbour master in one of the busy North Coast ports).