People Australia

Harry Ostler, sketch, 1913

Truth (Sydney), 18 May 1913, p 5

Henry Patrick (Harry) Ostler (1880-1950) ship’s painter, Socialist and IWW activist 

Birth: 1880 at Balmain, Sydney, New South Wales, son of Henry Ostler (c.1839-1894), seaman stoker, later watchman, born in Scotland, probably at Dundee, and native-born Margaret, née O’Shaughnessy (1846-1917). Marriage: 10 September 1924 at Methodist Church, Paddington, Sydney, to Mabel Gladys Warrington (or Harrington) (1898-1975), [stated to be a widow], born at Birmingham, England. They had no children. Death: 7 September 1950 at Manly district hospital, usual residence Shackel Avenue, Brookvale, Sydney, NSW. Religion: buried with Presbyterian forms. 

• Longtime member of Australian Socialist League/Socialist Labor Party (SLP). At 1906 SLP annual conference he moved unsuccessfully that the Party adopt Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) principles and create an industrial union based on the 1905 IWW Preamble.
• On formation of IWW Club in Sydney in 1907 he was elected secretary pro tem.
• SLP candidate for Senate in NSW in 1913. Also stood for seat of Redfern in State elections in November that year and in March 1917 when W. J. McKell defeated Jim McGowen.
• With J. O. Moroney he represented the SLP at abortive unity discussions with the Australasian Socialist Party (ASP) in 1913-1914. Was SLP delegate to failed 1919 unity conference with ASP, breaking ranks with fellow delegates to propose that a new body be called the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
• Following merger of SLP and Industrial Socialist Labor Party in 1920 he became member of executive of new SLP.
• Cause of death: ruptured oesophageal varices (hours), cirrhosis of liver and liver failure (months).

Sources
R. Sharpe MA thesis, 2003; Christopher Cunneen, William John McKell: boilermaker, premier, governor-general, (Sydney 2000), pp 51 & 52.