Henry "Harry" Clement Hoyle (20 November 1852 – 20 July 1926) was an Australian politician and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football administrator of the 1890s and 1900s. A life member of the New South Wales Rugby League, Hoyle is credited with helping to craft the rhetoric justifying its successful 1908 split from the New South Wales Rugby Football Union.

Early life

The son of a sea captain, Hoyle was born in Millers Point, New South Wales on 20 November 1852. He was educated at a Balmain convent school and

Fort Street Public School : ''For the secondary / high school of similar name see Fort Street High School.'' Fort Street Public School (abbreviated as FSPS) is a government co-educational primary school located in Millers Point, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Austr ...

. At age 10 he began his working life in Balmain with Booth's sawmills. He was apprenticed as a Blacksmith with P N Russell & Co,. then worked at

Mort's Dock Mort's Dock is a former dry dock, slipway, and shipyard in Balmain, New South Wales, Australia. It was the first dry dock in Australia, opening for business in 1855 and closing more than a century later in 1959. The site is now parkland. Hist ...

in 1868. Hoyle gained employment for the New South Wales Government Railways in 1876. While there he became a foreman and got married, setting up his house within the St Peter's, Surry Hills parish, of which he became a leading member. Hoyle was active in an 1882 iron trade strike. He was a founding member of the Railway and Tramway Service Association of New South Wales, becoming its first president in 1885. In 1890 he was dismissed by the railways for his union activities. In 1891, as a member of the

Protectionist Party The Protectionist Party or Liberal Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1887 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. The party advocated protective tariffs, arguing it would allow Australi ...

, Hoyle was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for the four-member seat of Redfern. With the reduction of the size of the Legislative Assembly before the 1894 election, the Redfern electorate was reduced to being a single-member seat, and Hoyle was subsequently defeated by the Labour Party at that election. After his electoral defeat he was employed to write for '' The Freeman's Journal'', and stood again for the seat of Redfern as the Protectionist candidate at the 1895 election but was unsuccessful. At the following election in 1898, Hoyle stood as the National Federal Party candidate for the seat of Sydney-Belmore, but was unsuccessful against the sitting

Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states, was an Australian political party, formally organised in 1887 in New South Wales, ...

member, James Graham.

New South Wales Rugby League

On 8 August 1907 at Bateman's Crystal Hotel, George Street, Hoyle chaired a meeting of fifty, comprising several leading rugby players and officials. The

New South Wales Rugby Football League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

was founded and Hoyle was elected its first president. Hoyle then went about making arrangements for a New South Wales representative rugby team to host New Zealand's like-minded All Golds touring side. He then chaired meetings around Sydney at which he gave speeches to help attract players and clubs to the newly created league, ending up with nine. These nine teams signed with the NSWRFL played in Australia's first season of

football, the 1908 NSWRFL season. The 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was conducted during Hoyle's tenure with the NSWRFL as well. At the beginning of the

1909 NSWRFL season The 1909 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the second season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Eight teams contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural So ...

, the League, which was almost broke, met and kicked out its founders Hoyle, Victor Trumper and

J J Giltinan James Joseph Giltinan (1866–1950) was an Australian entrepreneur who helped to introduce the sport of rugby league football to Australia. The J. J. Giltinan Shield, which is awarded annually to the National Rugby League minor premiers, was ...

. Harry Hoyle was later awarded Life Membership of the New South Wales Rugby League in 1914.

Political career and later life

Hoyle joined the Labor Party before the 1910 election and became the member for the Surry Hills, defeating his former opponent James Graham. He was commissioned as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

in 1911 and was also a Trustee of Taronga Park from 1912 until 1926. In January 1914, he was appointed as an Honorary Minister in the cabinet, charged with the duties of Colonial Treasurer, an office held by the Premier, William Holman, but was often referred to as the "Assistant Treasurer". He was promoted to Secretary for Mines and Minister for Labour and Industry in October 1916. In November 1916

Labor split The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. ...

over conscription, when Premier Holman, and twenty of his supporters, including Hoyle were expelled from the party for defying party policy and supporting conscription. Hoyle joined Holman's

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are ...

with the members of the various conservative parties which became the Nationalist Party but was not retained in Holman's new Nationalist ministry. He did not contest the 1917 election. Hoyle died on 20 July 1926 in Vaucluse, New South Wales. He was buried at

South Head Cemetery The South Head General Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery located at 793 Old South Head Road, Vaucluse, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1845 to 1950. It is also known as Old South Head Cemetery and the South Head Cemetery. The ...

on 21 July 1926. His wife Maria died two weeks later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyle, Henry 1852 births People from the Inner West (Sydney) Australian Roman Catholics Australian trade unionists Politicians from Sydney Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Australian rugby league administrators Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales 1926 deaths