Family background
Colin Campbell Colbourne was born at Sydney in 1902, son of Robert Colbourne and Margaret nee Mitchell. In 1931 he married Winifred Teresa Ellis at Sydney. There was one child, Iris. He died on 21 December 1979, aged 77 years. Winifred Colbourne died 18 December 1953, aged 49 years.
Occupation & interests
Colbourne worked as a boilermaker with the Railways Department at Rozelle. A member of Lang’s team from Glebe Branch, the position of mayor was rotated among the senior members. Colbourne became Mayor in 1943.
Community activity
Margaret Colbourne (1869-1948), his mother, was a foundation member of the Miscellaneous Workers’ Union and an active ALP member from 1906, conducting political meetings at her home at 413 Glebe Point Road and later at 24 Broughton Street, Glebe. Brougham Street was renamed Colbourne Avenue after her. Colin was a Glebe alderman in 1941-48, and Mayor in 1943. He also served as a Glebe ward alderman on Sydney City Council from 1950 to 1953.
Parliamentary service
In 1963 Col Colbourne was appointed as the government representative on the Board of Directors of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Local government service
Colbourne was elected in the February 1941 recount of the December 1940 Glebe municipal elections as a Lang Labor candidate. He was an Alderman for Glebe from 1942-44 and served as the Mayor of Glebe Council in 1943. He was re-elected in December 1944 as an Official (McKell) Labor candidate for a three year term.
Following the absorption of Glebe Council with the City of Sydney in December 1948, Col Colbourne was elected as the Sydney City Council Alderman for Glebe from 2 December 1950 to 4 December 1953. Between 1951 and 1953 he was a member of the Works Committee and the Health and Recreations Committee.
Colin Campbell Colbourne was well known for his iron grip on local party politics. Colbourne Avenue in Glebe is named after both the Alderman Colin, and his mother Margaret.
References
City of Sydney Archives: Aldermen’s Files; Photo
Society of Australian Genealogists: Rookwood index
Who’s Who in Australia 1955, 1968
Hogan, Michael 2004, Local labor: a history of the Labor Party in Glebe, 1891-2003, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW
NSW Government Gazette, No 11, 8 February 1963
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February 1941, p. 12
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1944, p. 6
‘Labor of love: or pay?’, The Sun, 20 October 1953, p. 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230747397
‘Colbourne’s condition not changed’, Truth, 13 December 1953, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168108653
Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 1953, p. 9
Sydney Morning Herald, 29 December 1979, p. 25