James “Jim” Ernest Leslie (1871-1948)
Jim was born in Scotland on 15 April 1871 and came to Australia on the Kilochan in 1888 aged 17. A labourer and lumper by trade, he lived in Bunbury for most of his life. He also lived and worked as a labourer at the Boulder Mine in Collie in 1903, and in Fremantle as a lumper on the wharves in 1917 (reference).
During his time in Bunbury Jim was in trouble with the law on several occasions, but he also contributed to his community. In 1900 he and other wharf workers helped build a new home for ‘Happy Jack’, an elderly and destitute man, whose camp and belongings were destroyed in a fire (reference).
Jim was likely the “Mr Leslie” involved in the Bunbury Lumpers’ Union, an organisation designated to protecting the interests of labourers working on the Bunbury wharves (reference).
Jim was first charged in 1901 for disorderly conduct, resisting police and damaging police uniform and pleaded ‘guilty under provocation’. He was accused by Police Constable Lyons, the man who arrested him, that he was being argumentative. He appeared loud and uncooperative in court, so a fine for appearing drunk was added to the other charges (reference).
Four decades passed before Jim next returned to court. In April 1942 he gave a bottle of wine to Dick Bacon, an Aboriginal man, at the Bunbury Railway Station. Unfortunately he was seen doing it, and as “the offence of supplying liquor to natives is viewed seriously”, they were both charged; Jim with supplying, for which he received a fine of £20 (about $1500 today), and Bacon for receiving, for which he was fined £1 (about $75 today) (reference).
Jim then fell on hard times and, in 1943, and again in 1944, he was charged with squatting, having no visible means of supporting himself, and of being a rogue and a vagabond. On the last occasion he was found by Constable Toby Regan in a wheat shed, sleeping on old bags and papers (reference). Jim had not previously committed offences of this nature and had a “good character”. He pleaded not guilty of having no visible means of supporting himself as he was a pensioner.
“I can do just about any kind of work. I worked on the wharf for a while… I hold an engine driver’s ticket, and I can do just about anything”, he said.
Regardless of the evidence Jim was found guilty and given the choice between being admitted into the Old Men’s Home (Sunset Hospital in Nedlands) or spending six months in gaol. Jim exclaimed “I won’t go to the Home!” so he was sent to prison (reference).
Jim likely spent his last years at Sunset though, as this proud old man died in Nedlands on 21 July 1948, aged 76, and is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery (reference).