Harold Boas


Harold Boas was a town planner and architect in Western Australia. Boas designed many public buildings in and around Perth and was an influential Jewish community leader.

Biography

Early life

Boas was born on 27 September 1883 in Adelaide, South Australia, the third son of noted Minister and Rabbi, Abraham Tobias Boas and his wife Elizabeth, née Solomon. After being educated at Whinham College and Prince Alfred College he was apprenticed to architect Edward Davies between 1899 and 1904 and later studied at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries.

Move to Perth

In June 1905 he moved to Perth where he initially joined architects M. F. Cavanagh & Austin Bastow and later Oldham, Boas, Ednie-Brown & Partners with whom he stayed for many years.
On 29 March 1911 Boas married Sadie Cohen at the Brisbane Street Synagogue in Perth.

Architecture

With his partners, Boas designed many public and private buildings around Perth including the open-aired King's Picture Theatre, the Nedlands Park Hotel, Radio station 6WF, Edith Dircksey Cowan Memorial, the Emu Brewery, the Adelphi Hotel, London Court and the Gledden Building.

Public life

Boas served on the Perth City Council during 1914-16, 1926–42 and 1944, representing the South Ward. He was chairman of the State government's Metropolitan Town Planning Commission from 1928 to 1930 and was a member of the Town Planning Association of Western Australia from 1914. Boas chaired the City of Perth's town planning committee in 1930-33 and 1938–42, and was foundation president of the Town Planning Institute of Western Australia in 1931. He was an inaugural member of the State division of the Town Planning Institute of Australia.
In 1932 Boas stood unsuccessfully for the Western Australian Legislative Council as an anti-secessionist candidate during the debate prior to the 1933 secession referendum.
He founded and edited the Australian Jewish Outlook, a short lived anti-Zionist monthly, in May 1947. However, the periodical went out of circulation after little more than a year as Boas had overestimated the level of support for it.
He was president of the local branch of the United Nations Association, representing Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry at the United Nations conference in Bangkok in 1950.

Later life

In 1969 he was awarded an OBE in 1969 for service to town planning and to the Jewish community in Perth.
Boas died at Subiaco on 17 September 1980.

Honours

The Harold Boas Gardens in West Perth are named in his honour.