People Australia

Henry Foord (Harry) Rawson (1882-1963) bank officer and trade union official 

Birth: 1882 at Motueka, New Zealand, son of Alfred Pearson Rawson (1848-1911), surveyor, or sea captain, born at Kegworth, Leicestershire, England and Sarah Isabel, née Wilson (1859-1932), born in New Zealand. Marriage: 1908 at Christchurch, New Zealand, to Constance Ellen Hamilton (Ellen) Bremner (1881-1934). They had four sons. Death: 27 April 1963 in hospital at Bega, New South Wales, usual residence Montague Street, Bermagui, NSW. Religion: Salvation Army. 

• Educated from 1896 to 1897 at Nelson College, Nelson, New Zealand, which his father and uncles had also attended. Worked for the Bank of New South Wales in New Zealand from 1899 for ten years. Was transferred to Sydney about 1910.
• Accountant and acting manager, Pitt Street branch, Bank of New South Wales, in 1919. Initiated a meeting to form an industrial association among employees in banking industry in April 1919 which led to the United Bank Officers' Association of NSW.
• The Bank of NSW attempted to forcibly transfer him out of the city to the Dubbo branch in July 1919 with a warning of dismissal if he continued union activities. He refused the transfer and another officer was appointed in his Pitt Street branch position and he was dismissed in September 1919 after about 19 years of service.
• The United Bank Officers' NSW, then small and with few financial resources, took his case to the NSW Arbitration Court and won his reinstatement. He gained financial support from UBOA members' levy of about 50 supporters while an appeal case against registration of the union was prepared and heard in the Arbitration Court which was won on appeal in 1920 and for Henry's reinstatement in 1921. The case attracted wide interest as it was “the first case of its kind to occupy the attention of a judge of the Industrial Court in Australia”.
• Was honorary treasurer of the UBOA from 1919-21?
• Appointed Manager Cobargo branch, Bank of NSW in 1929. Manager of some larger branches in NSW. Retired from Bank of NSW in 1947 in executive position of inspector with Southern Inspection Division.
• A widower from 1932, he retired to Cobargo, where he was honorary patron of the Returned Services League.
• Cause of death: cerebral thrombosis and gastric ulcer.
• His son David Hamilton Rawson (1915-1942) served in the Australian Merchant Navy in World War II and was buried in a Commonwealth War Grave in Papua New Guinea. His son James Hamilton Rawson (1918-1994) served as a soldier.

Sources
Bankers' Journal, 2 June 1947, p 4; Banker, May-June 1963, pp 6-7, November-December 1962, p 7; NSW Banker, June 1946, p 12, July 1946, p 6, April 1947, p 11.