[1] In 1858 his father deserted his family,[a] His wife married again, and King was raised by his grandparents, Rev.
He won the job of secretary at the foundation of the Pastoralists Union of New South Wales in July 1890, and was an effective organiser of non-union labour and promoter of the owners' arguments in the shearers' strike of the 1890s.
According to the Freeman's Journal, King's "loyalty to his masters and lack of sympathy for the workers, his almost cynical reliance upon "freedom of contract" as the solution to shearing shed discontent, prolonged the strike unnecessarily.
As part of his union-busting tactics, King enjoined large numbers of unemployed men with no bush experience to head for the shearing sheds.
The makeshift billycans affected by some of these travellers, fashioned from a jam tin and a length of wire for a handle, were dubbed "Whitely Kings", also used as an adjective.