Harrie Skinner

Henry Alfred 'Harrie' Skinner was the RACA's founder and first Honorary Life Member. He introduced the first gramophone to Sydney, he was a photographic pioneer, he managed a circus and then some of the great variety acts of the day, and of course he was the founding force behind the Royal Automobile Club of Australia. By the time of his death, aged 82 in October 1936, Skinner had enjoyed an extraordinary life.

Born in England on 12 July 1854, Harrie came with his parents to Sydney around 1870, moving on to settle in Melbourne. From there he found a secure bank job in a small Victorian town, but a life in banking was not for him. At the age of around 21 he ran off "to join the circus" – Cooper and Bailey's Great American International Circus was thrilling Australia at that time, with a tour that included its big top on the site of today's Melbourne Arts Centre in 1877. The young Mr Skinner was attracted by the money to be made touring during that gold rush period. He later claimed to be making as much as £150 a week—but also losing it almost as rapidly.

According to his 1936 obituary in The Truth, Harrie went on to run various sideshows, becoming a manager for the great Harrie Rickards, who practically controlled the variety stage in Australia until 1911. Harrie Skinner piloted such celebrities as the US Minstrels, Ada Ward and Millie Walton and the Fakir of Oolu (actually an English magician called Sylvester, who performed Indian-style levitations). It is likely that Harrie introduced the gramophone to Sydney with a stage performance in mind – the first gramophones were pitted against live musicians in theatre.

But RACA's founder had still more strings to his bow. He was in Sydney as early as 1878, when he took control of the Pier Hotel in Manly, and afterwards the Tivoli in Castlereagh Street and the Agincourt in George Street (he was a great opponent of six o'clock closing). For 11 years from 1882 he published Skinner's NSW Gazetteer, detailing timetables, postal and telegraph information according to the Evening News "replete with all information commonly found in such publications and much that is not". The Gazetteer was a success, but foundered when the Commissioners for Railways began publishing their own timetables "at about one fourth of the cost of production".

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