John Frederick Drummond (Jack) Jonas (circa 1881 – 2 July 1938) was an Australian politician. He represented the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...

multi-member seat of

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

from 1927 to 1933 for the Labor Party. Jonas was born in

, the son of publican Robert Jonas. His father operated the Sussex and Princess Hotels in Port Adelaide and the Exmouth Hotel at

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

; John was born in the Sussex Hotel. He was educated at the Lefevre Peninsula school before leaving to work in the jarrah forests, on a cattle station and in gold prospecting at

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

and in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Jonas later returned to Port Adelaide for health reasons, and worked as a storeman with Gamblings Limited and other stores in Port Adelaide. He was secretary of the local electorate committee of the Australian Labor Party, the Port Adelaide Trades and Labor Council, and the Port Adelaide Storemen and Packers' Union. He was elected assistant state secretary of the Storemen and Packers' Union in 1924, and state secretary in 1925, serving in that role until 1931. In the community, Jonas chaired the Port Adelaide Hospital Committee and the local branch of the District Trained Nursing Society, and served on the committee of the Port Adelaide Workers' Memorial. In 1926, Jonas successfully challenged incumbent Labor MP

John Stanley Verran John Stanley Verran (24 December 1883 – 30 August 1952) was an Australian politician. Verran was born in Moonta, the son of John Verran, later Premier of South Australia. He went to work in a mine at the age of 11, and later worked as ...

for Labor preselection for his safe Port Adelaide House of Assembly seat at the 1927 state election. Jonas had previously been touted for Labor preselection for a 1925 by-election which had been won by Verran. Jonas won the election, and continued as secretary of the Storemen and Packers' Union in tandem with his parliamentary duties. He was re-elected as state MP for Port Adelaide in 1930, but lost a bid for the Port Adelaide City Council later that year. Jonas was one of only six Labor MPs not to be expelled from the party in the 1931 split over the Premiers' Plan, having sided with the party apparatus over the Labor Cabinet in opposing it. Despite this, he was soundly defeated contesting official Labor preselection for the 1933 election, finishing fifth in a contest for the two available seats. He did not contest the 1933 election. After leaving politics, he took over the District Hotel at

Gumeracha Gumeracha ( ) is a town in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, located on the Adelaide-Mannum Road. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area on the south bank of the upper River Torrens. At the 2006 census, Gumeracha ...

and then was licensee of the Sevenhill Hotel at

Sevenhill The Australian monastic town of Sevenhill is in the Clare Valley of South Australia, approximately 130 km north of Adelaide. The town was founded by members of the Jesuit order in 1850. The name, bestowed by Austrian Jesuit priest Aloysius ...

. He had shifted back to Adelaide and opened a business in

Torrensville Torrensville is a western suburb west of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It was named after Irish-born economist and chairman of the South Australian Colonisation Commission, Robert Torrens. Torrensville is in the City of West Tor ...

a few months before his sudden death in 1938.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas, John 1938 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of South Australia Year of birth uncertain