Family background
Thomas ‘Tom’ Ormond Powell was born c1888, the son of Edmund James and Alice Powell.
He married Fay Eunice Gladhall (-1976). They lived at 166 Redfern Street, Redfern.
Powell died on 25 October 1964 at Summer Hill, NSW, aged 76 years. He left a will.
Occupation & interests
Thomas Powell was a hairdresser and tobacconist.
Community activity
Thomas Powell was a founder of the Redfern Municpal Band. After opening the Redfern Free Kindergarten in 1944, Mayor Powell, a local hairdresser, told the press Redfern’s post-war programme included a civic centre with a public library, gymnasium, recreation rooms, clinics for maternal and infant welfare and an anti-tuberculosis clinic.
Local government service
Thomas Powell was alderman on Redfern Council, representing Redfern Ward in 1941-47. He was mayor in 1944. Upon his first entry into the mayoral chair he was greeted by council’s brass band playing ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’. He was quoted as saying, ‘My wife and I got a terrible shock. We didn’t expect anything like that. It was a wonderful reception.’
References
‘Municipal Elections’, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1941, p.6, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17778013
‘Brass Band Plays New Mayor into the Chair’, Daily Mirror, 18 December 1943, p.5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article272059926
‘Barber Boosts New Loan’, Sun, 10 September 1944, p.5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229269663
‘Clinic Preferred To Tennis Court’, Daily Telegraph, 21 March 1944, p.9, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247752927
‘Council Provides For Children’, Daily Telegraph, 1 March 1944, p.8, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247755644