Australian Dictionary of Biography

Sidney Sinclair, 1960s

Sidney Sinclair (1915–1999), businessman, philanthropist, and Jewish community leader, was born on 16 May 1915 in London and named Schulem Solomons, youngest of four sons of Morris Solomons, journeyman tailor, and his wife Esther Maria, née Gilbert (Gelbart), both Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland. Due to the impact of the Depression, Schulem had to leave school at the age of fourteen. After working as a cadet journalist with Reuters news agency, in 1933 he joined S. Simpson Ltd, a leading menswear company, rising to be production manager at the age of twenty-one, export manager at twenty-three, and marketing manager at twenty-eight. Having changed his name by deed poll to Sidney Sinclair, he married Passe (Patricia) Sherman, a London-born daughter of Russian immigrants, on 27 December 1938 at the Great Synagogue, London.

After World War II the Sinclairs ‘decided to move somewhere away from the turmoil’ (Loew 1989, 9), choosing Australia over Canada and South Africa. Emigrating in 1948, they settled initially at Parramatta, Sydney, where Sidney established a menswear clothing manufacturing company, Anthony Squires Pty Ltd, with his cousin Louis Klein (1917–1975). Building a new factory at St Marys, they attracted tailors and other personnel from British and European fashion houses. In 1952 Sinclair also co-founded Martin Wells Pty Ltd, a manufacturer of spectacle frames, with the optometrist Eric Hurst and the engineer and spectacle frame expert Dino Zingarelli.

Anthony Squires grew to be one of largest clothing manufacturing companies in Australia, with divisions providing for different sectors of the menswear market. Its brands included Parini formal wear, Sax Altman casual wear, Fonzel business shirts, and Cleeco casual shirts. It was listed on the stock exchange in 1965 and in December 1969 the board, including Sinclair and Klein as joint managing directors, accepted a takeover offer from Dunlop Australia Ltd, which valued the company at $4.7 million. Sinclair stayed on as a managing director until 1976, when he joined the international fashion company Ermenegildo Zegna NV, as a marketing strategist. The company’s only non-Italian director, he developed its Australasian market and carried out marketing surveys in Asia, South America, and Africa.

A strong supporter of the wool industry, Sinclair insisted that Anthony Squires use only natural fibres. An adviser to the International Wool Secretariat, in 1980 he established the Ermenegildo Zegna Trophy for Extrafine Wool Production. He was also the founding president (1964) of the Men’s Fashion Council of Australia and became an honorary life member (1998) of the Australian Superfine Woolgrowers’ Association. Appointed to several Federal government committees, he served on the Export Development Council (1968–72) and Trade Development Council (1972–80), joining delegations to the Soviet Union, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Japan. He was also a member of the Australia-Japan Business Co-operation Committee and a Federal advisory panel on trade with East European countries.

Active in the Sydney Jewish community, Sinclair was a founder and later life member of the Parramatta Synagogue. After moving to Wahroonga and later the eastern suburbs, he was a member (1966–99) of the board of the Great Synagogue, serving as its president (1977–80) and applying his organisational skills to extend its social and cultural programs. In 1978 he chaired the synagogue’s centenary celebrations committee and led a congregational tour to Israel. A board member from 1980 and later president (1989–90) of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society, he was also a councillor of New South Wales Jewish War Memorial, a member of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a trustee of the Goulburn Jewish Cemetery, and an active fund-raiser for the Jewish National Fund. Beyond the Jewish community, he joined the board of the refugee organisation AUSTCARE in 1990 and was elected vice-president. He was also a long-time member of South Sydney Rotary.

Highly regarded and trusted by both sides of politics, Sinclair had a dynamic personality but was unassuming in all that he did. In 1988 he remarked ‘I don’t do anything for kudos. I do things … for the satisfaction and enjoyment I derive’ (Loew 1989, 9). In a eulogy, Rabbi Raymond Apple described him as being ‘always on the go; he had a creative intellect and was a fountain of ideas; he was a man of style, integrity, conscience and compassion. He was incisive and decisive, an inspiring leader and a generous colleague’ (Coulton 1999, 28).

Sinclair was appointed OBE in 1978 for services to commerce and industry and AM in 1988 for services to the wool industry and the community. Survived by his wife, his children David and Wendy, and his six grandchildren, he died of lung cancer on 12 October 1999 at Woollahra and was buried in Macquarie Park cemetery, North Ryde. A portrait painted by Louis Kahan is held by the family.