Tom Shannon (Australian politician)

Tom Shannon
Alderman of the Sydney City Council
In office 1 December 1921 – 31 December 1927
Constituency	Cook Ward
In office 18 June 1930 – 31 December 1948
Constituency	Flinders Ward
Personal details
Born	(1884-12-09)9 December 1884 Redfern, Colony of New South Wales
Died	9 June 1954(1954-06-09) (aged 69) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Australian Labor Party (NSW)

Thomas John Shannon (9 December 1884 – 9 June 1954) was an Australian real estate agent, alderman and state politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1927 until his death. He was variously a member of the Labor Party(ALP) and the Australian Labor Party (NSW).

Early life and career

Shannon was born in Redfern, New South Wales and was the son of a cab driver. He was educated to elementary level at St Benedict's, Broadway and worked as a grocer's boy and eventually as a real estate agent. He became involved with community organisations including the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit Society, a provider of social security insurance, and was elected as an Alderman on Sydney City Council between 1921–27 and between 1930–48.

State parliament

Shannon was elected to the New South Wales Parliament as the Labor member for the newly re-created seat of Surry Hills at the 1927 election. The seat was abolished by a redistribution prior to the next election and Shannon transferred to the seat of Phillip where the sitting Labor member Michael Burke had retired. In 1930 he won election as Treasurer of the State Branch of the party.

He retained the seat for Labor at the next 8 elections and died as the sitting member in 1954. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (NSW) during that party's estrangement from the ALP federal executive but he did not support later manifestations of Lang Labor.