James Stephens

James Stephens (8 August 1821 – 14 November 1889) was a Welsh-born stonemason, Chartist, and Australian trade unionist who was active in the eight-hour day movement in the 1850s.

Early life and work in Britain Stephens was born in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in south east Wales and, like his father (also James Stephens), became a stonemason. As a youth, he moved from Chepstow to nearby Newport, then a stronghold of formative Chartism. Stephens joined the Masons' Society in 1839, and later that year was seriously injured in a fall of thirty feet while working. but like many other supporters of the cause increasingly directed his energies to craft unionism. He became a prominent leader of the masons, acquiring a wide experience as a union organiser. He married Eliza Cuthbert when living in London. He wrote: "It was a burning hot day and I thought the occasion a good one, so I called upon the men to follow me, to which they immediately consented, when I marched them … to Parliament House, the men … dropping their tools and joining the procession". – in having initiated the eight-hour agitation. By 1883, Stephens was living with his wife but had been injured in another fall, was frail and almost blind, and destitute. The Trades Hall mounted an appeal on his behalf, which raised over £500.

Memorials A biography, Bluestone: The Story of James Stephens, by journalist Clive Turnbull, was published in 1945. Turnbull described Stephens as "the man to whom, more than any other individual, Australians owe the conditions under which they live today."

On Labour Day 1990, a ceremony was held at Stephens' grave, to mark its restoration through a trade union fund set up to repair the graves of Victoria's labour movement pioneers.