Frederick Bromley

Frederick Hadkinson Bromley (30 November 1854 – 29 September 1908) was an English-born Australian trade unionist and early Labour leader in Victoria.

Early life Bromley was born in 1854 in Wolverhampton, England. He trained as an artist at the School of Design in South Kensington, and became an artist specialising in japanning, a European imitation of Asian lacquerwork.

Artistic career and trade union activity In 1879, Bromley migrated to Victoria, where he lived in Carlton and worked as a japanner for the tin-making firm of Hughes & Harvey. In the early 1880s, Bromley became active with the trade union movement, co-founding the Melbourne Tinsmiths, Iron-workers and Japanners' Society and serving as its first secretary. Hughes & Harvey refused to accept the industry's eight-hour day reforms and dismissed Bromley for his advocacy, whereupon he became a freelance decorative artist and union organiser—combining his occupations by painting trade union banners.

In 1893, Bromley sued Maurice Brodzky, the proprietor and publisher of the weekly newspaper Table Talk, for libel after Brodzky compared the "feline portion of the Labour party" to the thievish disposition of a cat towards fish—a metaphor which Bromley took as a reference to his support of George Sangster over the latter's unauthorised use of union funds. The jury found in Bromley's favour and awarded him £500 damages, leading to the collapse of a respected newspaper and Brodzky leaving for America.

Bromley led Labour at the 1904 Victorian state election on 1 June 1904, but resigned as leader six days after the election due to ill health, and George Prendergast replaced him.