[2] After two years he became manager of the Liverpool branch of the copper-smelting business founded by his grandfather, Vivian & Sons.

He is credited with originating the "sliding scale" of miners' wages after the strike of 1889, though other authorities attribute the idea to William Thomas Lewis, afterwards Lord Merthyr.

He was one of the chief promoters of the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, helped to further extend the harbour facilities of the town and championed the merits of Welsh coal in Parliamentary debates.

There is a bronze statue of Henry wearing a frock coat and gown in St. David's Shopping Centre, Swansea, created by Italian sculptor Mario Raggi.

They had one son; Lord Swansea took as his third wife, on 10 November 1870, Averil Beaumont (1841 – 14 January 1934), daughter of Capt.