People Australia

Henry Rouse (alias Henry Beresford Garrett), a cooper, was sentenced to 10 years' transportation for stealing, with two other men, some £50 worth of cloth from a tailor in Bingham, Nottinghamshire. He was described as being 6 feet ½ inch (183 cms) tall, with light brown hair, dark brown hair and a scar at the corner of his left eye. He could read and write. He arrived at Norfolk Island in 1846 aboard the Mayda. In 1847 he was moved to Hobart. From March 1849 he worked for six months for John Johnson at New Wharf, Hobart. From July 1850 he worked for six months for Jonathan Darley at New Norfolk and from March 1851 he worked for Joshua Jennings for six months at New Town, Hobart.

In the early 1850s he worked as a cooper in Geelong, before moving to the Ballarat goldfields, where he lived with an 'actress'. He was nicknamed 'Long Harry' because of his height. On 16 October 1854 with three accomplices, he robbed the Ballarat branch of the Bank of Victoria of at least £14,000. He escaped to England but a detective spotted him in London and Henry Beresford Garrett, as he now called himself, was returned to Melbourne for trial. He was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour.

Granted a ticket of leave in 1861 he headed for the Otago goldfields in New Zealand. After obtaining weapons by robbing a gunsmith, he and several companions became bushrangers. Henry Garrett was arrested in Sydney in December, and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in Dunedin in May 1862. Released in February 1868 he was sent back to Victoria by the Otago police and then deported back to Dunedin, where he worked as a cooper in a brewery. On 9 November 1868 he was arrested while burgling a seed merchant. He had also broken into a chemist's shop. A search of his dwelling found skeleton keys and a variety of poisons. He received 10 years' gaol for each burglary, to be served consecutively.

Garrett remained in Dunedin gaol until 1881, when deteriorating health brought about his transfer to Lyttelton. Released in April 1882, he again worked as a cooper. In November 1882, he was caught attempting to steal a bottle of wine from a merchant, and sentenced to the maximum possible gaol term of seven years. More hard labour followed, this time at Wellington's Mt Cook gaol. In July 1885 he was transferred to The Terrace gaol, which had a hospital where he died of 'chronic bronchitis' on 3 September 1885.

*information from entry on Henry Beresford Garrett in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography written by David Green in 1990.