Henry Ernest Boote (1865 – 1949) was a prolific and influential Australian editor, journalist, propagandist, poet, and fiction writer.

[3] Young Henry left school aged ten years and found a job in a printery, a position known as a 'printer's devil', performing tasks such as mixing ink and fetching type.

The dealer engaged Boote to copy pictures hanging at the Walker Art Gallery and later sent him to Wales to paint "from nature".

[6][7] While the vessel "was laying in Sydney Harbour", Boote was "engaged under agreement" by an agent of the Master Printers' Association for work at the Brisbane printing office of Messrs. Warwick and Sapsford.

On the day after his arrival in Brisbane, Boote went to the Trades Hall and met with the Secretary of the Queensland Typographical Association, Albert Hinchcliffe.

[1][8] Boote's application to join the Queensland Typographical Association (QTA) was considered at a special meeting of the union management on 25 May, with a representative of the employees at Warwick and Sapsford being present.

[11] In 1892 Boote was recorded as being employed as a compositor, living at Tillot Street near Boggo Road Gaol in Dutton Park, Brisbane.

[14] Boote's first published articles appeared in Brisbane's The Worker newspaper, the official journal of the Australian Labour Federation.

The editor, Henry Boote, was described as "one of the ablest of the new cult of Queensland Labour pressmen, and besides being a strong but moderate and clever writer, he is witty and original".

Power, had some bitter words to say about the fairness of the election, specifically referring to a leaflet printed by the Truth which he described as "a tissue of lies reeking with venom".

In early September a "farewell social" was held for him at the Hibernian Hall at which he was presented with "a handsomely framed address" on behalf of the directors, shareholders and employees of Truth Co. Ltd.[32][33] On 25 January 1902 Boote temporarily replaced Francis Kenna as editor of Brisbane's The Worker newspaper.

[36] The accusation was refuted in a detailed article in The Worker, citing evidence that Boote had been en route to Brisbane for the duration of the strike.

[5] The accusation that Boote had been a 'blackleg' was revived two years later by William Maxwell, the state Labor member for Burke, during a debate in the Queensland Legislative Assembly on 1 August 1905.

On the night of 30 March 1911 "a farewell send-off" to Boote by the Australian Labour Federation was held at the fashionable Café Eschenhagen in Queen Street, Brisbane.

[2] At the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 there was widespread political support for Britain and the Empire, with some dissension within the labour movement.

[45] With The Bulletin having embraced conservatism and actively supporting the war (and conscription in later years), The Australian Worker remained the most radical publication in general circulation throughout Australia.

[46] As the war progressed Boote campaigned against wartime profiteering in the pages of The Worker, supported by Claude Marquet's cartoons on the subject.

[45] In August 1914 Boote instituted a regular feature called 'Odd Moments', made up of poetry, literary sketches and reviews from a variety of contributors.

Described as "a characteristically trenchant piece of journalism", the article was a rallying call to the labour movement as exemplified by Boote's closing sentence: "Organised Labor especially should not rest until the prisoners are set free, or their criminality established on testimony less grotesque, less tainted, and less obviously twisted and distorted to the needs of an unscrupulous prosecution.

On 14 December an article by Boote was published in The Australian Worker, singling out the case of Donald Grant, one of those sentenced to fifteen years.

The jury at his trial was described as being "as stupid as it was vindictive"; of Justice Robert Pring it was remarked that "only a Judge as insolent as he was bitterly biassed could have handed out fifteen years".

[56] In August 1918, after revelations in the press about police informants seeking more money, the New South Wales government appointed Justice Street to conduct a Royal Commission into the matter.

In early December 1918 after Street concluded that "no fresh facts have been elicited before me raising any doubt in my mind as to the guilt of the convicted men", Boote began a series of seven detailed articles, published weekly in The Australian Worker, critically examining Street's report and analysing the evidence and allegations of bribery.

[57] The collected articles were published as Set the 12 Men Free in late February 1919 by the Labour Council of New South Wales.

[58] After the Storey Labor government was elected in New South Wales in April 1920 a second Royal Commission made adverse findings against the police informants and recommended the release of most of the twelve men.

[61] In April 1934 Boote's forty years of continuous association with the labour movement press in Queensland and New South Wales was celebrated at a "complimentary dinner and social evening" at Adams' Hotel in Sydney by the executive council of the AWU and 'The Worker' Board of Control.

[4][62] Boote was a confidant and friend of Labor leaders such as Ted Theodore, James Scullin, Andrew Fisher, John Curtin and H. V. Evatt.