Alfred Stephen Henry (28 April 1890 – 27 September 1938) was an Australian lawyer and politician. He was a member of 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 ...

from 1931 to 1938, representing the seat of

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

for the Country Party.

Early life

Henry was born on 28 April 1890 at

Warialda, New South Wales Warialda is a town in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, in Gwydir Shire. Situated on the banks of Warialda Creek, the town's name means "Place of Wild Honey" in local aboriginal language. At the , Warialda had a populati ...

. He was the son of Ada Emily () and Thomas Henry James, a doctor. Henry moved to Grafton with his family at the age of five. His brothers included Olympic swimmer Ernest Henry and aviator Goya Henry. He was educated in Grafton and later boarded at

The King's School, Parramatta The King's School is an Education in Australia#Non-government schools, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Pre-school education, early learning, primary school, primary and secondary school, secondary day and boarding school, boardi ...

. In 1912 he was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society for saving a man from drowning at Yamba.

Career

Henry served his articles of clerkship with Frank McGuren in Grafton. He was admitted to practise as a solicitor in 1917 and established his own practice in Sydney in 1919. During World War I he served as a private with the 15th Field Ambulance of the Australian Imperial Force. Henry notably represented his aviator brother Goya Henry in the High Court case ''

R v Burgess; Ex parte Henry ''R v Burgess; Ex parte Henry'', is a High Court of Australia case where the majority took a broad view of the Section 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution, external affairs power in the Constitution of Australia, Constitution but held tha ...

'', successful arguing that the federal government did not have the power to regulate intrastate aviation.

Politics

Henry was elected to the

at the 1931 Clarence state by-election, retaining the seat for the Country Party following the death of Alfred Pollack. He was re-elected at the

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and

1935 New South Wales state election The 1935 New South Wales state election was held on 11 May 1935. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 31st New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting ...

s, but was defeated by fellow Country Party candidate Cecil Wingfield in 1938 after the party endorsed multiple candidates.

Personal life

Henry married Flora Stewart in 1920, with whom he had one son. He owned an estate of outside of

South Grafton, New South Wales South Grafton is a suburb of Grafton, New South Wales, taking in most of the area of the city south of the Clarence River (New South Wales), Clarence River. At the time of the 2016 Australian census, South Grafton had a population of 6,068 people ...

. Henry was killed in a motor vehicle accident on 27 September 1938, when a vehicle in which he was a passenger overturned on the Pacific Highway outside of

Stroud, New South Wales Stroud is a small country town one hour north of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the Mid-Coast Council local government area. The major road through Stroud is the Bucketts Way. At the 2006 census, Stroud had a population o ...

. He was thrown out of the car and crushed to death underneath it, while the driver Thomas Watt received minor injuries. An inquest was held the following month which returned a verdict of accidental death, with the coroner accepting Watt's evidence that Henry had grabbed the steering wheel immediately before the crash.

References

1890 births 1938 deaths National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Australian solicitors People educated at The King's School, Parramatta Road incident deaths in New South Wales People from Grafton, New South Wales {{Australia-National-politician-stub