{{Short description|Politician and rugby league administrator in New South Wales, Australia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = |name = Henry Hoyle |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|JP}} |image= H C Hoyle.png |caption = Henry Clement Hoyle |office = Secretary for Mines |term_start = 31 October 1916 |term_end = 15 November 1916 |premier = William Holman |predecessor = John Estell |successor = John Fitzpatrick |office1 = Minister for Labour and Industry |term_start1 = 31 October 1916 |term_end1 = 15 November 1916 |premier1 = William Holman |predecessor1 = John Estell |successor1 = George Beeby |constituency_AM2 = Surry Hills |assembly2 = New South Wales Legislative |term_start2 = 14 October 1910 |term_end2 = 21 February 1917 |predecessor2 = Sir James Graham |successor2 = Arthur Buckley |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1852|11|20}} |birth_place = Millers Point, Colony of New South Wales |death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1926|07|20|1852|11|20}} |death_place = Vaucluse, New South Wales, Australia |party = Protectionist (1891–1895)<br/>National Federal (1898–1901)<br/>Labor (1910–1916)<br/>Nationalist (1917–) |spouse = |children = |occupation = }} '''Henry Clement Hoyle''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|JP}} (20 November 1852 &ndash; 20 July 1926) was an Australian politician and rugby league football administrator of the 1890s, 1900s and 1910s. A life member of the New South Wales Rugby League, Hoyle is credited with helping to craft the rhetoric justifying its successful 1908 split from the New South Wales Rugby Football Union.<ref name=nsw>{{Cite NSW Parliament |name=Mr Henry Clement Hoyle (1852-1926) |former=Yes |access-date=30 April 2019 |id=956}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=nma.gov.au|title=The game begins|url=http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/league_of_legends/the_game_begins/|work=League of Legends: 100 Years of Rugby League in Australia|publisher=National Museum of Australia|accessdate=9 October 2011|archive-date=21 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821160439/http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/league_of_legends/the_game_begins|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Early life== The son of a sea captain, Hoyle was born in Millers Point, New South Wales on 20 November 1852. He was educated at a Balmain convent school and Fort Street Public School. 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 in 1868.<ref name=nsw/>

Hoyle gained employment for the New South Wales Government Railways in 1876. While there he became a foreman and got married, setting up his house within the St Peter's, Surry Hills parish, of which he became a leading member.<ref>{{cite web|last=Garaty|first=Janice|title=Judging a Man by his Deeds: Henry Clement Hoyle MLA and trade unionist|url=http://australiancatholichistoricalsociety.com.au/events/2009_abstracts.html|work=2009 ACHS Conference|publisher=Australian Catholic Historical Society|accessdate=9 October 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref name=nsw/>

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 for the four-member seat of Redfern.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236151149 |title=The general election |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=5 July 1894 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=5 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{Cite NSW election |year=1891 |district=Redfern |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite NSW election |year=1894 |district=Redfern |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref> After his electoral defeat he was employed to write for ''The Freeman's Journal'', and stood again for the seat of Redfern as the Protectionist candidate at the 1895 election but was unsuccessful.<ref>{{Cite NSW election |year=1895 |district=Redfern |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite NSW election |year=1898 |district=Sydney Belmore |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref>

==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 was founded and Hoyle was elected its first president.<ref>{{cite book|last=Headon|first=David|title=The best ever Australian sports writing: a 200 year collection|year=2001|publisher=Black Inc.|location=Australia|isbn=1-86395-266-7|pages=316|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=66OBschGE_YC}}</ref> 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 rugby league football, the 1908 NSWRFL season. The 1908–09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain 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 and J J Giltinan.<ref>{{cite web|last=Heads |first=Ian |title=Controversy |url=http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/controversy/files/22455/H_controversy.pdf |work=League of Legends |publisher=National Museum of Australia |accessdate=9 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611185855/http://www.nma.gov.au/shared/libraries/attachments/league_of_legends/controversy/files/22455/H_controversy.pdf |archivedate=11 June 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article157326817 |title=Rugby League Split |newspaper=National Advocate |date=16 March 1909 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref> Harry Hoyle was later awarded Life Membership of the New South Wales Rugby League in 1914.

==Political career and later life== Hoyle joined the Labor Party before the 1910 election and became the member for the Surry Hills, defeating his former opponent James Graham.<ref>{{Cite NSW election |year=1910 |district=Surry Hills |accessdate=21 July 2020}}</ref> He was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace 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, but was often referred to as the "Assistant Treasurer". He was promoted to Secretary for Mines and Minister for Labour and Industry in October 1916.<ref name=nsw/>

In November 1916 Labor split over conscription, when Premier Holman, and twenty of his supporters, including Hoyle were expelled from the party for defying party policy and supporting conscription.<ref name="expelled 7 Nov 1916">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15681060 |title=PLL expulsions |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=7 November 1916 |access-date=7 May 2020 |page=7 |via=Trove}}</ref> 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.<ref name=nsw/> He did not contest the 1917 election.

Hoyle died on 20 July 1926 in Vaucluse, New South Wales. He was buried at South Head Cemetery on 21 July 1926.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article158975287 |title=Mr Henry Hoyle |newspaper=National Advocate |date=21 July 1926 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=3 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16307816 |title=Obituary |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=22 July 1926 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=16 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114389810 |title=When Labor split over conscription |newspaper=Evening News |date=20 July 1926 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=9 |via=Trove}}</ref> His wife Maria died two weeks later.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246343404 |title=Obituary |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=4 August 1926 |accessdate=21 August 2018 |page=9 |via=Trove}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}} &nbsp; {{s-start}} {{s-par|au-nsw}} {{s-off}} {{s-new|office}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister without Portfolio<br>(Assisting the Treasurer)|years=1914&ndash;1916}} {{s-vac|next=William McKell |as= Assistant Treasurer}} {{s-bef|rows=2|before=John Estell}} {{s-ttl|title=Secretary for Mines|years=1916}} {{s-aft|after=John Fitzpatrick}} {{s-ttl|title=Minister for Labour and Industry|years=1916}} {{s-aft|after=George Beeby}} {{s-par|au-nsw-la}} {{s-bef|before2=Charles Goodchap |before3=William Stephen |before=William Schey |before4=Peter Howe}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Redfern|years=1891&ndash;1894 |with=William Schey |with2=William Sharp |with3=James McGowen}} {{s-aft|after=James McGowen}} {{s-bef|before=Sir James Graham}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for Surry Hills|years=1910&ndash;1917}} {{s-aft|after=Arthur Buckley}} {{s-sport}} {{s-new}} {{s-ttl|title=President of the<br>New South Wales Rugby Football League|years=1907&ndash;1909}} {{s-aft|after=Ernest Broughton}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyle, Henry}} Category:1852 births Category:People from the Inner West Category:Australian Roman Catholics Category:Australian trade unionists Category:Politicians from Sydney Category:Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:Australian rugby league administrators Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales Category:1926 deaths Category:Colony of New South Wales politicians