State funeral for Henry Lawson, in a hurry

1922 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Just two days after his unexpected death from a cerebral haemorrhage, the Commonwealth Government provided a State funeral for the country's favourite bard, Henry Lawson (b. 1867), the first ever held for an Australian writer.

The funeral was hastily but very well organized between Lawson's death on Saturday, September 2, and Monday the 4th, thanks to the intercession of Lawson's publisher and friend, George Robertson of Angus & Robertson. The funeral was attended by Lawson's former radical associate Prime Minister William Morris Hughes; Premier Sir George Fuller; eccentric politician King O’Malley; the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales; poet Mary Gilmore; politician and friend of Lawson, Tom Mutch; some Cabinet ministersLawson's brother-in-law, Jack Lang, and many others. Thousands assembled outside in George St to farewell the poet and author. For the last few years before his death, lost in alcoholism and poverty, Lawson had begged on Sydney's streets around Circular Quay and other parts.

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