Henry Scott Bennett

Henry Gilbert Bennett, a radical, better known as Harry Scott Bennett, was born on 1 June 1877 at Chilwell, Geelong, Victoria. He was a foundation member of the Victorian Socialist League in 1897, in H H Champion's Social Democratic Party from 1902, and in Tom Mann's Victorian Socialist Party from 1906. After leaving his employment as a draper's assistant for full-time public speaking, he won the Ballarat West seat in the Legislative Assembly for the Political Labor Council in 1904, serving until 1907. In 1907 Bennett moved to Sydney to work for the Victorian Socialist Club. He travelled to New Zealand in 1909 working there for the Federation of Labor and the Social Democratic Party and in industrial actions such as the 1912 Waihi strike. In 1915 he travelled to the United States to give lecture tours for both the American Socialist Lecture Bureau and the National Rationalist Association. In 1917-1920 he rejoined the Victorian Socialist Party as a Lecturer and organiser. From 1922-1940 Bennett conducted various lecturing tours of NZ. He was also Lecturer and Secretary, NSW Rationalist Association, from 1936-1957. On 24 May 1959 Bennett died in Waverley, Sydney.