MBE
- Born
- 9 October 1861
Dunedin, New Zealand - Died
- 29 August 1964
Lakemba, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Activist and Trade unionist
- Alternative Names
- Collins, Henrietta (former name, 3 August 1881 - 30 July 1894)
- Wyse, Henrietta (maiden name, 9 October 1861 - 3 August 1881)
Summary
Henrietta Greville established her life-long involvement with the labour movement when she moved to the goldfields at West Wyalong, following the breakdown of her marriage to John Collins. Here she pegged out a claim, sold meals to the miners and helped establish a branch of the Political Labor League, as well as meeting her future husband, miner and union organizer, Hector Greville. To help support her family Greville, at times, worked as a seamstress. Later she became an organizer for the Australian Workers' Union, the Women Workers' Union, and for some time acted as its delegate at the Trades and Labor Council. As a Labor candidate, Greville was defeated for the federal seat of Wentworth in 1917 and the state seat of Vaucluse in 1927. Greville became associated with the Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales in 1914 when she joined an economics class. By 1918 she was branch secretary at Lithgow, became a member of the executive in 1919 and the first woman president in 1920. Greville was still active with the association in 1954, at the age of 94. On 1 January 1958 Henrietta Greville was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for social welfare services in New South Wales.
Henrietta's parents Henry Isaac Wyse & Rebecca nee Hutchinson moved their 8 kids to New Zealand seeking gold (in vain) in 1859 but returned to Victoria in 1886 before settling in Howlong, NSW in 1868.
Helen Jamieson - 15 April 2011, 7:18 PM EST
Helen,
Thank you for this information.
AWAP Administrator - 20 April 2011, 2:49 PM EST