From Australia’s Jewish Past
Sir Samuel Sydney Cohen KBE – an outstanding businessman, Jewish community leader and political activist
Samuel was born in Darlinghurst Sydney on 11 March 1869. He was the eldest son of Australian-born parents George Judah and Rebecca Cohen.
Sir Samuel Cohen
Samuel grew up in West Maitland, Newcastle, and was educated there as well as at Royston College Darlinghurst. He began his commercial career at the age of sixteen when he joined the family company – David Cohen & Co. – and soon became a partner. He later travelled to do business with China, Japan, the United States, England, and Europe and, on his return, became manager of the Newcastle and Sydney branches. On 18 April 1901, he married Elma, with Jewish rites, the daughter of Alfred Hart, a merchant, and they had three children.
Samuel soon became prominent in the Newcastle district, taking on the presidency of the Royal Newcastle Hospital Board, was the founder and president of the Newcastle Synagogue, a board member of the Newcastle Club, a committee member of the Newcastle Jockey Club and patron of innumerable cricket and football clubs. He was also vice-consul for Greece from March 1905 and later held the position in Sydney as acting consul until 1923.
In 1915 the family returned to Sydney and later lived in Ocean Street, Woollahra. Samuel’s business acumen and his excellent leadership led to his chairmanship of a vast range of companies. These included his own family business of David Cohen & Co Ltd, the Australian Gas Light Co. (1939-47), John McGrath Ltd (1919-39) agents for Chevrolet and Cadillac cars, the Newcastle and Hunter Steamship Co. Ltd (1944-47), North Western General Stores Ltd (1948) and Edward Lumley and Sons. He was also a director of Tooth & Co. Ltd from 1934 to 48, and the Royal Exchange of Sydney from 1936 to 48. As chairman of the Australian Gas Light Co. during World War II, there were many difficult periods with frequent shortages of coal causing threats to the gas supply. In 1947 he organised the merger between the Clyde Engineering Company which manufactured locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products and Paul & Gray Ltd, who were dealers in supplies and equipment for ships, and a company that Samuel had also been associated with as chairman.
One area that concerned him greatly was the low standard of local government administration. He therefore became a foundation executive member of the Citizens Reform Association from 1921 until 1936 and shared his presidency with Sir Arthur Cocks, a merchant and politician and Sir James Murdoch, a retail trader, politician, and philanthropist. His deep human sympathy, however, found its best expression in his efforts to bring happiness to the tens of thousands of children living in industrial areas. For a quarter of a century, Samuel became president of the New South Wales Kindergarten Union, making it a labour of love to provide free kindergartens throughout the metropolis and to obtain the necessary finance for their maintenance. Samuel was indeed a most generous, sympathetic, and ardent worker.
According to The Hebrew Standard on 14 February 1943, Samuel officially opened the North Bondi Hebrew School and Kindergarten – later to become the first of the Moriah College kindergartens. It was a modest one-classroom cottage purchased by Abraham Rabinovitch, with just a handful of children enrolled. Samuel, in his speech, said: ‘’he hoped it would be such a success that it would be a forerunner of many more such education aids to the progress of the ideal of Jewry.”
Samuel was also a director and vice-president of Sydney Hospital, vice-president of the British Orphans Adoption Society, honorary treasurer from 1930 to 1941 of the University of Sydney’s Women’s College Council, a trustee of the Queen’s Jubilee Fund and an executive member of the Lord Mayor’s Patriotic and War Fund. He served on the board of the Big Brother Movement and the Council of Social Service of New South Wales. For his outstanding leadership, business acumen and public work, Samuel was knighted in the Coronation Honours of May 1937. This proved to be a source of gratification to Jews and non-Jews alike.
Throughout his life, he was a devout and proud Jew who actively associated himself with the welfare of the community. While living in Newcastle, he helped establish the local synagogue and continued to support it generously. On returning to Sydney in 1915, he joined the board of the Great Synagogue as its treasurer and continued his affiliation as a board member for thirty years, seven of which he served as its president. In appreciation of his long and valuable tenure in office, he was elected in 1939 as a life member.
Samuel became deeply disturbed by what was happening to the Jews in Germany and established in 1937 the Australian Jewish Welfare Society, having generously donated to its building fund. He became the organisation’s inaugural president. The Society devoted itself to the many problems incidental to the selection of immigrants and their transport to and settlement in Australia. By 1938, the organisation had helped six hundred men and women to come to Australia, with work being found for them. This then led to the establishment of the Australian Fund for German Refugees, and again, Samuel took on the presidency. He was also patron of the local Mizrachi Palestine Committee, a worldwide organisation for the return of Palestine as a Jewish homeland. Nothing was too much trouble and Samuel gave his time and energy generously as well as financially to all the organisations he was associated with. His name could be found on the subscription lists of practically every Jewish organisation in Sydney.
As a young man, Samuel was dark with a luxuriant moustache. However, in his later years, he was clean-shaven and bald. He was a horse-lover and enjoyed riding through Centennial Park and at his farm in Bowral. He was a member of the Australian Jockey Club and raced many horses. He was a voracious reader, enjoyed the theatre and found time to be involved with the Warrigal and New South Wales sporting clubs, and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
Samuel died, at the age of eighty, in St Luke’s Hospital on 27 August 1948. A large gathering assembled at the Great Synagogue for the memorial service held before the funeral and Rabbi Dr Israel Porush paid fitting tribute to the memory of one who combined with himself the highest quality of Jew and citizen. He was survived by a daughter – Helen Elizabeth Moss and his two sons George and Paul, who served with distinction in World War II and took the name Cullen in mid-1941 as a precaution in the event of being captured by the Germans. Lady Cohen died in 1946.
The first member of this Cohen family – Samuel – came from England and arrived in Australia in 1833. His son was George Judah Cohen, his grandson Sir Samuel Cohen, and his great-grandsons Major-General George Jocelyn Cullen MBE and Major-General Paul Alfred Cullen AC, CBE, DSO & Bar, ED. The family became one of the most well-respected families, making their mark in business as well as in the Jewish and wider community.
The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:
Australian Dictionary of Biography (Martha Rutledge); Wikipedia; the National Library of Australia; The Hebrew Standard; AJHS Journal 2, 10 1948; J-Wire – From Australia’s Past – Samuel Cohen 2021
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