Henry Alfred 'Harrie Skinner (July 12, 1854 – October 1936) was the founder of the Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACA)[1].
Harrie Skinner was the scheme behind several celebrities such 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).
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".
With the eye for spectacle, Harrie was the only businessman who agreed to back a foreign aviator who arrived in Sydney claiming he would build a machine that would flap its wings and fly.
The machine's builder was distraught, despite his share of the takings, and stories were placed in the newspapers about "ruffians from Woolloomooloo" sabotaging the flight.
The following tale relates a trip taken with good friend William 'Billy' Elliott driving a new vehicle to Bulli one Saturday.
In the early days when horseless carriages were still drawing crowds of onlookers wherever they went, the difficulty was finding a place to stop the car.
On arriving, a tire was flat, and he proceeded to pump the tyre up, surrounded by an audience of hundreds, according to a story printed in The Motor in 1927, Mrs Skinner objected to this publicity, and threatened never to get into the car again.
As car numbers began to increase on New South Wales roads, and public safety became an issue for police, the authorities, who had already worked in close association with the club on motoring issues, approached it to provide an experienced driver to undertake the examination of drivers for licences.
Harrie Skinner's work for the RACA and his founding role earned him the honour of the first Honorary Life Membership of what was by then the Royal Automobile Club of Australia.
A year before his death in 1936, an honorary portrait of him was unveiled at a special presentation at the RACA's Club House in Macquarie Street, where it remains on display.
His body was buried in Waverley Cemetery, with his self-penned epitaph on his headstone: "Life is Done, Time Ends, Eternity's Begun".