Born in the London district of Clerkenwell, Hancock was a compositor who migrated to Melbourne in 1884 with his wife Charlotte and their children. He had been influenced early in life by Chartism, especially under the tutelage of his teacher Mr Tuck, and in Australia became interested in the possibilities of working-class representation in Parliament. While no firebrand, his wide experience led to his becoming the Secretary of the Typographical Society and President of the Trades Hall. In January 1890 he was elected to the council of the Working Men’s College (later RMIT).

Following the death of George Langridge, who had represented Collingwood in the Legislative Assembly since 1873, Hancock agreed to contest, in the Labor interest, a by-election for Collingwood in April 1891. Despite opposition from The Age he was elected, and this success was viewed as a portent of Labor's imminent triumph in the eastern colonies.

The conservative editor of local newspaper The Observer was very disdainful: 

John Hancock appealed to the vanity of the boot-makers of Collingwood by asserting they could return him … every boot factory in Collingwood was turned into a Hancock committee room and hundreds of men with lanterns and rolls went from door to door, appealing to the working folk, whether unionists or not, …  go as one man for the labor candidate. The secretaries of the various trade societies sent circulars to all the members thereof resident in Collingwood, pointing out that it was an imperative duty to vote for Hancock, and it is needless to say that a trade society is a much more effective organisation than the best and most energetic election committee.

25 June 1891

On 20 May 1891 Hancock stood alongside Rev. Charles Strong, William Trenwith, MLA, Alfred Deakin, MLA and William Beazley, MLA for Collingwood in inaugurating the establishment of the Collingwood Working Men’s Club. He moved:

That this meeting cordially approve of the establishment of a working-men’s club in Collingwood, to provide opportunities for social intercourse among its members, for the recreation and improvement of leisure hours by reading, lectures, or any other means … believing that such a club … would meet a want and prove a boon to the dwellers in Collingwood.

Mercury and Weekly Courier 21 May 1891, p 3

While Hancock’s victory had encouraged the Trades Hall Council, his initial term in parliament was brief. The trade unions' political organization, the Progressive Political League, was making little impact and Hancock could not even enthuse his own printing union in the cause of labour representation. In the 1892 elections he failed to win the second Collingwood seat by twenty-five votes. In 1894 he moved out of his house in Derby Street Collingwood, stood for the seat of Footscray, and held it until his death.

Known as a genial, witty and convivial figure, Hancock was also more interested than many of his colleagues in developing an independent Labor Party, although he remained a moderate. The Tocsin described him as a Labor member who 'never compromised his principles, and never lost the faith of the workers' but also considered he could have been more powerful if less popular because ‘he took pity upon his opponents, and often only flicked them with the feather duster of his overflowing humour instead of lashing them with the scourge of indignation which he could as readily and as effectively wield.’

Hibbins, A short history of Collingwood; The Age; The Argus; Mercury and Weekly Courier; The Observer; Table Talk; The Tocsin; The Independent (Footscray)

ADB John Hancock

Parliament re-member

Detailed biography of Hancock in 1894 Table Talk

The Tocsin obituary

SLV: photograph