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Henry Lawson
Born	17 June 1867 Grenfell, NSW, Australia
Died	02 September 1922 Abbotsford, NSW, Australia
Cause of death	cerebral haemorrhage
Spouse	Bertha Marie Louise Bredt
Children	Joseph (Jim) Bertha unnamed deceased
Relatives	Louisa Lawson nee Albury Peter Lawson formerly Niels Hertzberg Larsen

Henry Lawson (17 June 1867 – 02 September 1922) was an Australian writer.

Early life

• born on the One Mile lead (goldfield), Grenfell, location of the present-day memorial. http: //newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16023976
• his preface to Short Stories in Prose and Verse (first book, 1894): "The first seventeen years of my life were spent on the goldfields, [...]."
• the name of the post office (and presumably the surrounding area) changed from "New Pipeclay" to "Eurunderee" in 1877

Sydney years

• fell or jumped off a cliff near Manly: SMH report, 08 Dec 1902: http: //newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14498841

Death

• state funeral, SMH 05 September 1922: http: //newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16022883
• headstone inscription: http: //austcemindex.com/inscription.php?id=6067509

Family:

• father: Niels Hertzberg Larsen, from Norway; in Australia changed his name to Peter Larsen/Lawson; bushman, miner, builder
  • headstone inscription: Niels Hertzberg Larsen, at Hartley Vale: http: //austcemindex.com/inscription.php?id=4862318 (note that the BDM Index lists him as Peter H. Lawson)
• mother: Louisa Albury, became Louisa Lawson, prominent Sydney feminist, activist, publisher
• siblings:
  • Charles
  • Peter
  • Gertrude (twin)
  • Annette (twin); died of illness less than a year after birth
• grandfather: Henry/Harry Albury, bushman, influential during Henry's childhood

• wife: Bertha Marie Louise Bredt ( – 19 July 1957); step-daughter of William McNamara, Sydney socialist bookshop-owner and union organiser
  • transcripts of letters from Bertha to Henry from the Lothian collection, La Trobe Journal, 1981; see VIII on the expected birth of their third child in about November 1903 and the associated note #1 (the baby died at birth): http: //nishi.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-28/t1-g-t2.html#fn1-083-ref
  • "decree of judicial separation" (divorce? or just separation?): SMH 05 June 1903: http: //newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/14525554
  • headstone inscription: http: //austcemindex.com/inscription.php?id=6067508
• husband of sister-in-law: Jack Lang, Labor politician, became Premier of NSW

Friends and associates:

• J.A. Archibald, co-founder and editor of The Bulletin; bequeathed money for the Archibald Prize
• Mary Gilmore nee Cameron; Australian writer
• Isabel Byers, friend and housekeeper for the last 20 years of his life
• C.J. Dennis, Australian writer
• William Lane, publisher of the Boomerang and editor of the Worker, involved in the 1891 shearer's strike; hired Lawson in 1890-2; later went to Paraguay to establish New Australia and Cosme

References, resources, and other sites:

• Wikipedia: http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lawson
• Wikisource (poems, short stories and essays): http: //en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Henry_Lawson
• Project Gutenberg Australia (ebooks): http: //gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#lawson1
• Project Gutenberg (ebooks): http: //www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a119
• NSW BDM (no author, date, or references, but shows birth & death certificates): http: //www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/lawson.htm
• good portrait c.1907; haven't checked copyright: http: //nishi.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-70/fig-latrobe-70-004a.html
• good portrait c.1915; haven't checked copyright: http: //acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=440375
• good bio from a reputable source; references aren't online, though: http: //adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100016b.htm

Aspects of Henry (also called Harry):

• few years of formal schooling
• partially deaf from the age of 9; fully or almost fully deaf from 14?
  • his deafness was affected by surroundings; see Tom L. Mills: 'Henry Lawson was wonderfully well treated by Wellington folk. He was not lionised, for this rather taciturn and gawky Australian genius was very shy of the limelight in those days and his deafness when in a room was a handicap. Strange to say, his hearing was good —even sharp and sensitive—in the open and on the crowded thoroughfare. Often he pulled me up sharply as we walked down Cuba Street into town with the remark: "You needn't shout, Tom—I'm not deaf, you know!"' http: //www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov09_01Rail-t1-body-d14.html
• he put himself through night school in Sydney but failed the final exams
• in the earlier part of his life he worked as a builder, apprentice coach painter, sawmill hand, telegraph linesman, teacher, and in a shearing shed
• influenced by his mother's radical friends in Sydney - activists, bohemians, writers
• his work dwelt on the bush but for most of his working life he lived in cities
• possibly asked Mary Cameron to marry him, but she turned him down
• for a short time, he and Bertha ran a Maori school in New Zealand; their son Jim was born in NZ
• possibly fell in love with a woman he met in Melbourne, Hannah Thornburn
• wife Bertha might have tried to kill herself when they were in London; on return to Australia they separated
• was gaoled at least twice for failure to pay maintenance costs for his children and alimony for his wife
• may have had depression or manic depression; spent time in mental hospitals
• his mother, two brothers, wife, and first editor (J.A. Archibald) also spent significant amounts of time in mental hospitals
• later in life he was often drunk and probably alcoholic, and was known to beg for money in the streets
• his work was famous during his lifetime but he lived in poverty
• his work was popular and inflential in the years of the 1890s shearer's strikes and leading up to Federation
• long association with The Bulletin, a politically and socially-influential publication
• at his death, the Premier of NSW (...?) decreed a state funeral and thousands of people lined the streets between the cathedral and Waverley cemetery
• his life and work have been commemorated in numerous public ways (e.g. memorial in Sydney Botanic Gardens; his face on the old $10 note; coins issued for the Bicentennary)

An interesting chap with interesting connections at an interesting period of Australia's history. Needs a good page.