J.S. ('Jack') Hanlon was a journalist, cartoonist and also briefly a Queensland Labor M.L.C. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Ballarat, and before coming to Brisbane had initially worked on Ballarat newspapers and then the Perth Daily News. He edited the Brisbane Worker from 1915 until 1943, when he moved to Sydney to become editor of the Australian Worker. During World War I, under Hanlon's editorship, the Brisbane Worker became a leading opponent of conscription and a trenchant critic of Australian wartime prime minister Billy Hughes. Hanlon was not related to one time Queensland Labor premier Edward 'Ned' Hanlon (1887-1952).
