Agent TypePersonActivities & OccupationsMerchantsManufacturers, building materialsManufacturers, bricks and tilesFarmersTrade union officialsBank employeesHistoryBorn Waverley, NSW, 3 July, 1890, the eldest son of H.A.G. Rundle and Mary Edney nee Stevens, both of Beechworth, Victoria. He completed his schooling at Carlton College, Melbourne in 1906, whilst living with his parents in Preston. Following his Bankers' Exam result in 1907 he entered the Union Bank of Australasia as a junior officer, to be instructed in all head office departments. Promotion to a clerkship in the General Managers' office was encouraged by typing skills and a fluent copper-plate hand. In 1911 the Charter Towers branch in Queensland was his first country posting. Transferred to Brisbane in 1912, he eventually resigned, returning to the 'Towers' as a book-keeper and jackaroo on a relative's cattle station. From 1914 he assisted his father's management of Luxton's Stores in Darwin. AIF eyesight requriements frustrated his attempts to enlist (glasses compensated for long-sightedness) until accepted in January, 1917, at Charters Infantry before departing Sydney on 23 September. He served on the Western Front from 4 January 1918 until invalided out with trench fever to a Norwich hospital on 15 April. About to resume active service in June the officer-in-charge of the AIF's Legal Deptartment seconded him to record court dispositions with the rank of Staff-Sergeant. In February 1919, he joined the Australian repatriation department in London. Returned to Australia in 1920, he was discharged in Brisbane on 21 February. Encouraged by the Soldier Settlement Scheme and an Agricultural College course he joined a mixed farming project near Wellington, NSW. Upon returning to Melbourne in 1923, following poor seasons and doubtful prospects, he joined a small building materials and metal fittings firm, R.H. Mytton & Co. He attracted city and interstate commissions via building and architect contacts, introduced new domestic lines, oversaw major projects and prospered with Mytton's expansion into the 1930s. In 1930 he married Nell Watling in Sydney. He retired from the Company (publicly listed since 1936) in 1938, attracted by farming and grazing prospects on the Mornington Peninsula at Merricks where he acquired a property and settled with his family in 1940. Farming improvements and a Southdown sheep stud were subject to wartime restrictions and poor lambing seasons; in 1944 the property was sold and a nearby farm purchased with dairying prospects. Other properties followed until 'Warrawee' at Balnarring became the family home for many years. Sold in 1972 Eric and Nell retired to Somers foreshore, with a final move close to their son-in-law's family home in Teplestowe, north east of Melbourne. Post-war farming issues, especially marketing, prompted Eric to joing the newly formed Australian Primary Producers' Union in 1945. A Victorian executive members, he was in 1947 elected Honorary State Treasurer, later accepting a Federal Executive nomination to serve in the same capacity; he retired from the Canberra post in 1964 and the Victorian office in 1965. A Flinders Shire Councillor, 1946-1956, he was Shire President in 1952, His support for a Shire Library (1954), the Port Leo Surf Club (1955), Shoreham and Somers Balnarring foreshore committees and the Peninsula Conservation League were acknowledged. Council colleagues recognized his contribution with a retirement presentation in 1956. He was a J.P. from 1947 to 1982. Contributed by J.H. Rundle 7 January 2014.
