Harold Percival Croydon Tritton was born in 1886 in Five Dock as the second son of Edgar Joseph Tritton, a labourer, and Frances née Lane.[1] After leaving school at 13 he undertook a range of jobs including fisherman, newsboy, factory worker, apprentice and builder's labourer.[1] From 1905 he worked as a shearer across inland New South Wales – alongside his friend, "Dutchy" Holand.[1] Outside of shearing he also worked as a fencer, timber cutter, coach driver, road worker, fossicker, rabbiter and a boxer – the latter provided his nickname, "Duke".[1]
While working in rural areas, Tritton started performing as a folk singer, often accompanied by "Dutchy" Simpson.[2] During that time he wrote bush songs such as, "Shearing in a Bar", "The Gooseneck Spurs" and "Hughie".[2] In December 1909 he married Caroline Goodman.[1] Early in their marriage they lived in Mudgee and Tritton worked in Cullenbone.[1] He was initially rejected for army service during World War 1 due to "flat feet"; after being accepted in 1918 he saw no active service since the conflict ended soon after.[1]
The Tritton family moved to Sydney in 1919 where he worked delivering timber, they returned to Mudgee in 1927 after a timber strike.[1] In 1933 they bought a property in Cullenbone where the family of ten children lived until 1938 when they moved back to Sydney.[1] During World War 2 he attempted to enlist and worked as a timber deliverer until he was accepted in April 1942 as a private in the Australian Army.[1][3] He returned to Cullenbone until he retired to Sydney in 1957.[1]
In the 1950s Australian folklorist, John Meredith, was collecting and recording "old-timer singers born in the late 1800s, singing and playing old bush songs."[4] Tritton responded to an article in The Bulletin in November 1954 by Meredith calling for "'missing' verses, songs and bush ballads."[4] In 1957 two of his songs were recorded for a various artists' album, Australian Traditional Singers and Musicians via Wattle Records.[5]
Tritton sometimes joined Meredith's ensemble, The Bushwhackers, as a singer, which was heard on radio and appeared in public performances.[4] He wrote his memoirs, Time Means Tucker, in 1959, which appeared in The Bulletin.[1] In 1964 it was re-published, as a book, by Shakespeare Head Press.[6] Tritton died in May 1965, aged 78 and was survived by his wife, Caroline, and nine of their ten children.[1] According to Tribune's D. K., "[he] could talk about the big shearing strikes from close knowledge, could yarn as easily with the Governor-General as with a young folk song enthusiast – and his life spanned more than a half century of Australian experience and tradition."[2]
