Background
He was educated by the Christian Brothers at Street Joseph"s School, Rozelle in Sydney before his father took the family to New Zealand pursuing opportunities in the meat trade.
He was educated by the Christian Brothers at Street Joseph"s School, Rozelle in Sydney before his father took the family to New Zealand pursuing opportunities in the meat trade.
He was active in the thoroughbred industry as a racing administrator and racehorse owner. Born in Balmain, New South Wales, Henry was the sixth of ten children born to Thomas Tancred, a butcher from California, United States of America, and his Victorian-born wife Anna, née O"Connor. There while still a teenager Tancred worked as a drover and a slaughterman.
Tancred, a number eight played with the Petone Rugby Club from 1914.
Upon his return to Sydney in the 1920s he was active as a player at the Glebe-Balmain club He made representative appearances for the New South Wales state side.
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.
Tancred thus claimed a total of two international rugby caps for Australia.
Harry would later be involved in the administration of both the Randwick and Drummoyne Rugby Clubs. Tancred"s great-grandfather was a butcher. Peter"s son Thomas, Henry"s father, branched out in 1869 and started a wholesale and retail meat business on Glebe Island in Sydney before taking the family to New Zealand.
Under Henry"s leadership, they established the Tancred Bros meat business which by 1956 was the listed company, Tancred Bros Industries Limited one of Australia"s largest wholesale butchering firms.
He was elected to the Committee of the Sydney Turf Club in 1941, appointed Vice-Chairman in 1945, served as Chairman from 1953-1959, and retired from the Committee in 1961. In 2007 Tancred was inducted into the Sydney Turf Club Hall of Fame as an associate.
Henry was founding Chairman and Managing Director of the business from 1932 till 1959 and from 1946-1961 was a member of the Meat Board, the national producer-owned company that regulates promotes the meat industry in Australia.