He was an entrepreneurial businessman influential in meat wholesaling and exporting who together with his brothers, built Tancred Industries to become one of Australia's largest wholesale butchering firms.

[2] He was educated by the Christian Brothers at St Joseph's School, Rozelle in Sydney before his father took the family to New Zealand pursuing opportunities in the meat trade.

In a 1918 article in the Free Lance, a Wellington based newspaper Tancred was described as a "big and burly youth… he is a fine specimen of a New Zealand lad, and takes a lot of stopping when he gets possession of the ball".

In 1923 the New Zealand Māori rugby union team visited and Tancred appeared in two games of the three match series in which the Waratahs were undefeated.

With no Queensland Rugby Union administration or competition in place from 1919 to 1929, the New South Wales Waratahs were the top Australian representative rugby union side of the period and a number of their 1920s fixtures, including Tancred's two appearances in Sydney in June 1923, were decreed in 1986 as official Test matches.

His brothers Arnold and Jim were also Australian national rugby representatives both making the 1927–28 Waratahs tour of the British Isles, France and Canada.

[8] That same season he was picked for the New Zealand team to tour Australia and became Kiwi number 120 in the process.

He played there again against Toowoomba where New Zealand rounded the tour off with a resounding 42-12 win, scoring two more tries in the process.

[18] In 1920 he moved to the Western Suburbs club in Sydney no doubt after having caught their eye while on the 1919 tour.

[21] He scored two tries for them during the season which saw City win both the first grade championship and also the Roope Rooster.

His grandfather Peter established himself as a wholesale butcher in Kent Street, Sydney in 1844 before travelling to the US to further his prospects.

Peter's son Thomas, Henry's father, branched out in 1869 and started a wholesale and retail meat business on Glebe Island in Sydney[30] before taking the family to New Zealand.