Family background
John Ignatius Armstrong was born at Pyrmont, Sydney, on 6 July 1908, the seventh son of Irish-Catholic parents, William Armstrong, hotelkeeper, and his wife Ellen, née Hannan. He was born upstairs at his family’s pub, The Butcher’s Arms (later the Dunkirk).
On 25 October 1945 at the Church of the Holy Family, Lindfield, Sydney, he married Joan Therese Josephine Curran. Armstrong died on 10 March 1977 at Bateman’s Bay, NSW, survived by his wife, son and four daughters. He was granted a state funeral and buried in the Northern Suburbs Cemetery at Sydney.
Occupation & interests
John Armstrong was educated at St Bede’s School, Pyrmont, and the Marist Brothers’ High School, Darlinghurst. He worked in his family’s hotel, the Butcher’s Arms (later the Dunkirk), and became prominent in the hotel business in Sydney. He described his early work in the hotel in an interview in 1975:
Then instantly, overnight or at least over the week-end I started work in the hotel at Pyrmont. There was always a job waiting for me and there was no point in letting me get out of practice because I might have left school on the Friday but I started work in the hotel on the Monday morning, and opened in those days of trading from six in the morning till six at night.
He joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the age of 21 and was president of the Pyrmont Branch of the ALP and the West Sydney Federal Electoral Council.
Armstrong was the leader of the shareholders’ committee of the Greater Union Theatres Ltd in the 1930s, later becoming chairman of Metropolitan Theatres and Investment Co Ltd. He was also a Director of Amalgamated Pictures Ltd and other companies. According to Douglas McClelland, Senator for New South Wales (ALP), ‘only a handful of people would know of the large part his knowledge of the industry, coupled with his great political acumen, actually played in the course the Labor Government charted in order to bring about the successful establishment of a commercially viable Australian film industry.’
He was a member of the Commonwealth Rationing Committee in 1942 and the National Film Board in 1945. He was a right wing Catholic with strong anti-communist views. The Whitlam Government appointed him Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom and he spent the years from 1973 to 1975 in London.
Community activity
Known as the ‘Golden Barman’, Armstrong was recognised for his charitable work. He was a keen sportsman and boxing champion of metropolitan Catholic schools and later a bowler and golfer. He was an avid art collector and a patron of Australian artists in England during his term as High Commissioner. The ceiling of his Collaroy home was painted by the artist John Olsen.
On his death in 1977, Douglas McClelland, Senator for New South Wales (ALP) said:
The late Mr Armstrong was a man who loved people, a man with a great sense of humour, a man who had a love of life and an understanding of men. Within the Labor movement he was known very affectionately as the ‘Golden Barman’…..
Many stories were told about him. Many stories were told by him about himself. He always enjoyed a joke about himself and at his own expense. I well remember him telling me why he was appointed as Minister in charge of the Royal Tour in 1947 by the then Prime Minister, Mr Ben Chifley. His story was that he was called into the Prime Minister’s office one day and the Prime Minister said to him: ‘John, I am going to appoint you Minister in charge of the Royal Tour. The reason I am doing it is that you have more suits than anyone else in the Cabinet, which means that you will not need any clothing coupons to enable you to do the job’.
Parliamentary service
John Armstrong served in the Australian Parliament as a Senator for NSW from 1938 to 1962. He was the youngest person then elected to the Australian Senate. He was Minister for Munitions 1946-48, for Supply and Development from 1948-49, and Minister in Charge of the Royal Visit in 1948. He was Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1951 to 1956.
In his first speech in the Australian Senate in September 1938, Armstrong said:
I am glad of the opportunity at last to enter this chamber which filled a very large place in my boyhood dreams. On my first visit to this chamber years ago, the hope was born in me that I might be able, some time, to serve my party in this place to the fullest extent of my ability. The day has come when I can begin to do so.
Honours & awards
Armstrong was made a Companion in the General Division of Order of Australia in 1977. After Armstrong’s death, Reginald Withers, Senator for Western Australia (LNP) said:
For many years John Armstrong strongly believed in the establishment of an Australian system of honours, a view he put forward as far back as the late 1940s. His own contribution to public life was therefore appropriately recognised on Australia Day this year when he became a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Local government service
John Armstrong was encouraged to enter politics by Elizabeth Healey, a ‘famous Pyrmont Labor identity’. Armstrong was aged just 25 when he was elected an alderman for Philip Ward from 3 December 1934 to 31 December 1948 and again from 4 December 1965 until 13 November 1967, when the council was placed under the control of a City Commission.
He was a member of the Finance Committee, 1935, the Health and By-Laws Committee, 1935, 1937-38, the Works Committee, 1936-48, the Electricity Committee, 1936, the Health and Recreation Committee, 1939-48 and the National Emergency Services Special Committee, 1940-45.
Armstrong was Lord Mayor from 1965 to1967. He was elected councillor of the Sydney County Council in 1948 and became its Chairman in 1963-65.
References
John Armstrong interviewed by Mel Pratt for the Mel Pratt collection [sound recording], 1975, National Library of Australia, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-221572621
Edmund Campion, ‘Armstrong, John Ignatius (1908–1977)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/armstrong-john-ignatius-9384/text16487
Armstrong, John Ignatius (1908-1977), The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate, vol. 2, 1929-1962 (Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 2004), pp. 439-443, https://biography.senate.gov.au/armstrong-john-ignatius/
Matthews, Michael R 1982, Pyrmont & Ultimo history, Pyrmont Ultimo History Project, Ultimo, NSW, pp. 69-97
City of Sydney Archives: Aldermen’s Files; Photos: CRS 54/37 & 54/59 online; CRS 71/243, and THC 88/339
Joan Rydon, Biographical Register of the Commonwealth Parliament 1901-72, ANU, 1975
John Ignatius Armstrong, Pyrmont History Group, https://pyrmonthistory.net.au/armstrong-john-ignatius
‘Supply Bill (No. 2) – First reading – Senator Armstrong‘ (first speech in the Senate), Senate Hansard, 27 September 1938, Parliament of Australia
‘Death of Former Senator John Ignatius Armstrong, AC‘, Senate Hansard, 15 March 1977, Parliament of Australia