Ernest Henry Wreford
banker.
Sir Ernest Henry Wreford (17 December 1866 – 10 May 1938) was an Australian banker.
Early life
Wreford was born on 17 December 1866 in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of draper Henry Wreford and his wife Eliza (née Franklin). He attended North Adelaide Grammar School but began working at the National Bank of Australasia in Adelaide in 1882 after realising that he could not study either law or literature.
Career
From 1896 to 1906, Wreford served as the manager of the Western Australian goldfields in Coolgardie. He was then posted to the bank's London branch as secretary, eventually becoming chief manager from 1912 to 1935 and director immediately upon his retirement in April 1935. The bank's standing prospered during his tenure, which coincided with its mergers with banks including the Colonial Bank of Australia in 1918 and the Bank of Queensland in 1920. At the bank, Wreford earned himself the nickname of "The Chief". However, Wreford was not well-liked by all of his subordinates. He received a knighthood in the same year. Wreford was also a member of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce and the Royal Colonial Institute.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ernest Henry Wreford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.