People Australia

Henry Hanlon (1853-1926) coal miner, gaoled trade unionist

Birth: 1853 at Usworth, Durham, England, son of Irish-born James Hanlon, and Ann, née Murphy, a dressmaker. Marriage: (1) 1872 at Newcastle, New South Wales, to Mary Ann Jones (1856-1900). They had three daughters and three sons. (2) 1904 at Newcastle to Auguste Helena Bertha, née Honow, late Mossner (1856-1915), a widow with eight surviving children who had been born in Brandenburg, Germany. Death: 11 July 1926 at Lambton, New South Wales. Religion: Catholic. 

• After his father died in about 1860, Henry Hanlon arrived in Australia with his mother and younger brother James in about 1865.
• Both brothers worked in the Newcastle coalmines. By 1880s Henry was an official in the Lambton miners lodge. Later he was a member of the delegate board of the Miners’ Association and leading committee-man in the Eight Hours movement.
• On 31 August 1899 his brother James, married with five children, was killed by a fall of coal at Lambton Colliery.
• On 29 December 1909 at Newcastle Henry was charged with twelve other officials under the Industrial Disputes Act, with inciting a strike and fined by Judge Heydon £100 or two months imprisonment. He was taken to East Maitland gaol on 22 February 1910, the oldest of the convicted delegates.
• Discharged from East Maitland Gaol 11 April 1910, last of the gaoled delegates to be released, after an imprisonment of seven weeks, having been ill in prison.
• Apparently took no further part in mining trade union.