Researching John West

West was born in England, the son of The Reverend William West and his wife Ann, née Ball. West emigrated to Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania) in 1839 where he officiated as an Independent minister at Launceston for sixteen years. West attracted half of the members of the Congregational ministry of Charles Price. West's contribution to Launceston and Australian life was great and varied promoting private and charitable enterprise. With James Aikenhead and J. S. Waddell, West founded The Examiner newspaper in 1842. He co-founded the London Agency Association to promote Colonial interests, an Immigration Society, the Mechanics' Institute, City Mission, Public Hospital, General Cemetery, and Cornwall Insurance Company in Launceston and the Hobart Town High School.

John West was a leader in the movement seeking the abolition of transportation of convicts to the Australian Colonies. Affronted by the social, economic and moral effects of convictism, he promoted Colonial opposition to transportation from his pulpit and editorials in the Examiner and Hobart's Colonial Times, though historian Babette Smith has exposed West's demagogic rhetoric against convict society. He founded the Launceston Association for the Cessation of Transportation which developed into the first intercolonial political organisation, the Australasian Anti-Transportation League, in Melbourne in 1851. For this occasion he collaborated on the design of the League banner, the precursor to the Australian National Flag. The success of united action against Transportation, which was abolished in 1853, led West to expand his interest in representational government through his essays on Federation, Union of the Colonies, (under the pseudonym John Adams) published locally and in The Sydney Morning Herald during 1854.

In 1854 the proprietor of The Sydney Morning Herald, John Fairfax, invited John West to become its first official editor, and West moved to Sydney from where he guided debate on matters of colonial, national and international importance until his sudden death in Woollahra, Sydney, in 1873. His two-volume History of Tasmania, published in 1852, analysed the development of the Colony, the penal system and the condition of the Aboriginal people. Later research disclosed few errors, and West is regarded as one of the founders of Australian historical writing. He is honoured by the Examiner-John West Memorial Lecture in Launceston and the John West Medal at the University of Sydney.

Born in 1888 in Ulverston to an Irish father and an English mother, the West family relocated to Dublin where John Snr. worked for the Ordnance Survey Ireland, in due course his son John joined him there while also beginning his football career.

He was top scorer for Bohs during the 1912/13 season. His goalscoring record for that season showed a total of 23 goals from 31 games in all competitions. This places him in the top 20 goalscoring seasons of all time for Bohemians. This was all achieved without payment as Bohs were strictly amateur during these times.

He later had spells at Belfast United and Cardiff City and was coach at Drumcondra during the 1930s.

John had a lifelong love of music and would often sing and perform at social functions related to Bohemians. In the early 1920s he began singing professionally and enjoyed some success, appearing on stage frequently in Dublin and also touring Britain and Italy.

His election to the position of Depute Provost drew both praise and criticism, due to his young age. His older sister, Kirsty Blackman (born 1986) is also a SNP politician, elected as councillor for the Hilton/Stockethill area in 2007 and as MP for Aberdeen North in 2015. West masterminded Kevin Stewart's election as Aberdeen Central MSP in May 2011.

He did not seek to be re-elected in the 2012 Scottish Local Elections.

As commanding officer of the third-rate HMS Excellent, West served off the coast of Catalonia and landed with a naval brigade with orders to help defend Rosas which was under attack from some 5,000 French troops in an action during the Napoleonic Wars. He took 250 of his ship's men and rescued a group migueletes (Catalan mercenaries) who were at risk of losing their lives, but not before having his own horse shot out from under him.

As a senior officer, West went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.

Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was ordained in 1830 and began his ordained ministry career as curate at Monkstown, County Dublin. He was the incumbent at St Ann's Dublin, and then archdeacon of the city before his appointment to the eanery, a post he held for 25 years. He died on 5 July 1890.

His son Charles Dickinson West became an engineer and naval architect.

West was born at Mount Ararat to goldminer Isaac West and Ann McMann; he received what he described as "a very imperfect education". A stablehand from the age of thirteen, he worked at Brunnings Nursery in St Kilda, attending night school to qualify as a schoolteacher and teaching at Tatura and Murungi in the Goulburn Valley. He campaigned for vine and fruit culture after rust destroyed a wheat crop in 1878 and became farming editor of the Shepparton News. He married Milvina Gardiner on 7 April 1882 near Bacchus Marsh. He also printed the Goulburn Valley Yeoman and the Euroa Advertiser and wrote for the Argus and the Australasian. West was also one of the initial syndicate of five who established the first irrigation settlement in Victoria at Ardmona.

Producing impressive results with his irrigation system, he was sent to California to study irrigation methods by the commissioner of water supply, Alfred Deakin, in 1890; on his return he began training other horticulturists. Also politically active, he founded the Triple Reform League, a free trade organisation, in 1894. A supporter of Federation, he ran unsuccessfully for the Federal Convention, the Victorian Legislative Assembly and the Australian House of Representatives (running for Moira). Returning to journalism, he joined the Argus in 1903 and was secretary of the National Union from 1909 to 1919. He retired in 1919 to a farm at Toolern Vale and continued to be active in the local community. West died in 1926 of a cerebral haemorrhage.