Henry Zwar

Zwar was born in 1873 in Broadford, Victoria, the younger brother of Albert Zwar. His parents, Michael Zwar and Agnes Zimmer, were Sorbs from Bautzen in Saxony, Germany, who had sought asylum after taking part in the 1848 revolution. The British government told them if they emigrated to Australia, they would be treated as British subjects, and they moved to Broadford in 1850.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22808570 |title=The Zwars celebtate a century. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=4 February 1950 |access-date=11 June 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Zwar was elected as a United Australia Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Heidelberg at the 1932 state election. He was re-elected four times for the United Australia Party, and regularly attended and voted in party meetings, though he did not necessarily vote the party line, claiming "conscience as the final court of appeal".{{cite book | url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/zwar-albert-michael-9230 | title=Zwar, Henry Peter | chapter=Zwar, Albert Michael (1863–1935) | publisher=Australian Dictionary of Biography | access-date=23 January 2015}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12146194 |title=DECISION REGRETTED BY PREMIER. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=10 October 1945 |access-date=23 January 2015 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

The UAP had become the Liberal Party by the 1945 election, at which an electoral redistribution abolished Heidelberg, placing Zwar in the new, notionally Labor seat of Preston, while shifting the more conservative areas of his old electorate to the new seat of Ivanhoe.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12149414 |title=LIBERAL WIN EXPECTED IN IVANHOE. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=26 October 1945 |access-date=23 January 2015 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} In October 1945, Zwar announced that he would not be an endorsed Liberal candidate for the forthcoming election and would contest as an Independent Liberal; he also stated that he did not belong to the Liberal Party and paid no party subscription.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12150569 |title=MR CAIN EXPECTS WIN IN PRESTON. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=1 November 1945 |access-date=23 January 2015 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12146056 |title=ELECTION SNAPSHOTS. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=9 October 1945 |access-date=23 January 2015 |page=20 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} He was defeated by 143 votes by Labor candidate and Victoria Cross holder William Ruthven.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116618984 |title=THE STATE ELECTIONS. |newspaper=Riverine Herald |location=Echuca, Vic. |date=22 November 1945 |access-date=23 January 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Henry and Jane Zwar lived briefly in Roseberry Avenue, Preston, before moving to nearby Gower Street, where they lived in a house named Rothesay (near the current Preston Library.) The site is now occupied by a childcare centre.

Zwar was president of the Preston Football Club from 1926 until 1944, then served as president of the Victorian Football Association from May 1944 until 1947.{{citation|first=Marc|last=Fiddian|year=2004|title=The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995|page=99}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Argus|publication-place=Melbourne, VIC|title=New football leader|date=9 May 1944|page=9}} Zwar Park in Preston is named in his honour, as is the adjoining Zwar Oval.

Zwar died in Kew, Melbourne, Victoria.{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Carole |last= Woods |year= |id2= http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/zwar-henry-peter-9299 |title= Zwar, Henry Peter (1873–1959) |accessdate=2012-02-18 }} He is buried at Preston Cemetery (plot PRE-C2-043), as are his wife Jane Zwar (nee Cunningham) (plot PRE-C2-042) and two of his three children, Herman Richard Zwar (same plot as Henry) and Enid Jean Zwar (same plot as Jane). Henry and Jane's other daughter Beryl Carrick Hughes (nee Zwar) is buried at Fawkner Memorial Park, Garden Bed F, Position 28.

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Category:1873 births

Category:1959 deaths

Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Australian Anglicans

Category:Australian people of German descent

Category:VFA/VFL administrators

Category:People of Sorbian descent

Category:20th-century Australian businesspeople

Category:20th-century mayors of places in Australia

Category:People educated at Melbourne Grammar School

Category:People from Preston, Victoria

Category:Victoria (state) local councillors

Category:Mayors of places in Victoria (state)

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