Family background
Alfred Victor Henry was born in about 1890 in Greendale, New Zealand, the son of Irish immigrants John Henry (1859–1908) and his wife Sarah Ellen née Bloomfield.
He married Anne Winifred Lyons on 11 May 1911 and the couple lived in Christchurch before moving to Sydney in 1912. The pair lived in the North Shore and had a daughter together. They then resided at 56 Westmoreland Street, Glebe.
After returning from service during World War 1, Henry petitioned for ‘restitution of conjugal rights’ in September 1919. The case made headlines in The Sun newspaper and it was dismissed by Justice Gordon who believed Mr Henry ‘made an audacious attempt to mislead the court in the case of an innocent woman’. In 1921 Mr Henry attempted to sue his wife for £500, but the case was once again dismissed.
Henry later lived on Breillat Street, Annandale and Cowper Street, Glebe. He died on 11 April 1969, aged 79, and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Rookwood.
Occupation & interests
Alfred Henry worked as a bread carter. On 15 November 1915 he enlisted as a private in the 6th Light Horse Regiment, 14th Reinforcement of the Australian Imperial Force. His unit embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT A62 Wandilla on 3 February 1916.
Henry was stationed at Tel el Kebir, Egypt in March 1916 and soon achieved the rank of bombardier before being posted to France. He was hospitalised in September and then again in December, when he was admitted for appendicitis in Reading, England. In December 1917 he was declared permanently unfit for general service. He returned to Australia on 11 December 1918.
From about 1939 to 1953, Henry worked as a driver of a coal truck for Lopez Brothers, contractors for the Australian Gas Light Company at Mortlake.
Community activity
Alfred Henry was a member of the NSW Bread Carters’ Union, however was expelled from the union in July 1933. He was president of the Transport Workers’ Union of NSW and the Toxteth branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), as well as vice-president of the West Sydney Federal Electorate Council and delegate to the State Electorate Council for the electoral district of King.
Local government service
Alfred Henry was Alderman for Glebe Ward, 2 December 1950 to 4 December 1953. He was a member of the Works Committee and the Health and Recreations Committee from 1951 to 1953.
He resigned from the ALP in November 1953, after he was defeated in a party executive ballot. Among his quoted reasons for resigning was the ‘undemocratic action of the executive of the NSW branch’ of the ALP and their failure to select at least one of the three Glebe aldermen as candidates for the City Council. He also objected to the party’s attempts to investigate his ‘private’ and financial affairs prior to the ballot.
References
City of Sydney Archives: Aldermen’s Files
Society of Australian Genealogists: Rookwood index
New Zealand, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1840-1902, folio number 3241
NAA: B2455, HENRY A V 2102
‘Girls in England’, The Sun, 24 September 1919, p. 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221987766
“I Don’t Want You!”, The Sun, 30 May 1921, p. 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article221461290
‘Henry’s Hardihood’, Truth, 5 June 1921, p. 11, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169179545
‘City Alderman Quits A.L.P.’, The Sun-Herald, 29 November 1953, p. 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28657101
‘Alderman Quits A.L.P. From P. 1 Bill Seen As “Gag” On People’, The Sun-Herald, 29 November 1953, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28657269