Family background
Thomas Shirley was born c1850 at Hammersmith, Middlesex, England, the son of Thomas Shirley and Mary Ann Webster Bennett. He immigrated with his family to Australia on board the ship ‘Anglo Saxon’ which arrived at Sydney on 21 October 1854. Thomas Shirley married Isabella Scott Brown (1851-92) on 31 July 1872 at Sydney, and they had one son and five daughters. Thomas Shirley died at Waterloo, NSW on 17 December 1911, aged 61 years; he was buried at Rookwood Cemetery in the Church of England section. He left no Will. Thomas Shirley lived at Gerrard Street, Alexandria.
Occupation & interests
As a 19 year old, English-born Thomas Shirley was elected to Alexandria Council in 1869. At that time, the building industry in which he was engaged was too technologically backward, and too labour intensive to achieve significant economies of scale and productivity.
Local government service
Thomas Shirley was an alderman on Alexandria Council in 1869. His son John was also an alderman on the council.
References
‘Suburban Municipal Elections’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February 1869, p. 6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13179458