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 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 ...

, Hoyle is credited with helping to craft the rhetoric justifying its successful 1908 split from the

New South Wales Rugby Football Union The New South Wales Rugby Union, or NSWRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within Australia it is considered ...

Early life

The son of a sea captain, Hoyle was born in

Millers Point, New South Wales Millers Point is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the north-western edge of the Sydney central business district, adjacent to The Rocks, New South Wales, The Rocks and is part of the Local go ...

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, New South Wales, Millers Point, a suburb of ...

. 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. His ...

in 1868. Hoyle gained employment for the

New South Wales Government Railways The New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was the agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. Management The agency was managed by a range of differe ...

in 1876. While there he became a foreman and got married, setting up his house within the St Peter's,

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surroun ...

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, 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 The ''Freeman's Journal'', which was published continuously in Dublin from 1763 to 1924, was in the nineteenth century Ireland's leading nationalist newspaper. Patriot journal It was founded in 1763 by Charles Lucas and was identified with radi ...

'', 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 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 The 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain was the first ever such tour for the newly-formed Australia national rugby league team (or 'The Kangaroos'). The tour was to England and Wales and coincided with the first Wallabies Rugby Union tour of ...

was conducted during Hoyle's tenure with the NSWRFL as well. At the beginning of the 1909 NSWRFL season, the League, which was almost broke, met and kicked out its founders Hoyle,

Victor Trumper Victor Thomas Trumper (2 November 1877 – 28 June 1915) was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found ...

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 na ...

. Harry Hoyle was later awarded Life Membership of the

in 1914.

Political career and later life

Hoyle joined the Labor Party before the 1910 election and became the member for the

, 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 sa ...

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 William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...

, but was often referred to as the "Assistant Treasurer". He was promoted to

Secretary for Mines The position of Secretary for Mines is a now defunct office in the United Kingdom Government, associated with the Board of Trade. In 1929, the department took over responsibility for petroleum. In 1940, the department was divided with Geoffrey ...

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. S ...

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 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 Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra. Vauclus ...

. He was buried at South Head Cemetery 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