Balls, Bullets and Boots

Published by the New Zealand Rugby Museum

PO Box 36, Palmerston North 4440, New Zealand

www.rugbymuseum.co.nz

First published 2015

© New Zealand Rugby Museum

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

Authors - Clive Akers with Bettina Anderson and Peter Cooke

ISBN 978-0-473-32444-5

This book is copyright. Except for the purpose of fair reviewing, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

Military Advisor: Peter Cooke

Editor: Denis Dwyer

Design: GSA Design

This publication was made possible thanks to support from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board.

With the accompanying exhibition made possible thanks to the above and:

Sponsors - Beca | National Army Museum | New Zealand Rugby

Supporters - Eastern & Central Community Trust | Palmerston North City Council | Central Energy Trust | Manawatu District Council | Infinity Foundation Limited | NZCT | Lion Foundation | Pub Charity | Mainland Foundation

Creative Partner - Unitec

Host Partner - Te Manawa

Transport Partner - NZ Army

FOREWORD

This year when we commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, it is great to see the New Zealand Rugby Museum provide these accounts of First World War servicemen who excelled in our national game. Not just limited to servicemen, these tales also include a pioneering woman coach and a rugby-mad family of military defaulters.

In Balls, Bullets and Boots Clive Akers and his co-authors Bettina Anderson and Peter Cooke remind us that history is often best understood through accounts of individual lives. It is no great surprise to read that men who displayed prowess on the paddock often distinguished themselves on the battlefield, and I am pleased that their achievements will now be more widely known.

It is also of interest to read that New Zealand rugby teams in the Middle East, England and France confirmed their dominance in the game. They certainly attracted attention – as is apparent from the presence of Australian, English, Indian and French troops at the final of the divisional tournament in Egypt, between ‘Wellington and the Māoris’. All Black Frank Wilson’s lively account of the day notes that it attracted the top brass, including Generals Birdwood and Russell.

I commend the New Zealand Rugby Museum for taking on this project as it brings another dimension to our First World War commemorations. The decision to publish as an e-book will ensure access by a broad audience of rugby enthusiasts and historians, wherever they are and whatever age and nationality they may be.

Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae, GNZM QSO

Governor-General of New Zealand

INTRODUCTION

Towards the end of 2013, the New Zealand Rugby Museum embarked on an ambitious project in mounting an exhibition commemorating World War I and the part rugby players and officials played in it. Our intention was to select 15 players and use their stories (presented in words, photographs and sometimes in film) to help tell the wider story of New Zealand at war 100 years ago. It would have been too easy to choose 15 from the near 100 All Blacks who served, but the intention was to cover all aspects of the war, not just the battlefields of Gallipoli, the Middle East, France and Belgium, but also the stories of those at home and how the war affected their daily lives and how rugby was restricted through so many club players being overseas.

This book traces in detail the lives of the characters featured in the exhibition, its purpose being to offer the exhibition visitor a means of learning more about the personalities. The chosen players, along with one woman, range from university-educated professionals to labourers, some of whom experienced difficult upbringings. There were those who fought and survived several years of service while others died within days of entering the battlefield. Some returned home only to have their war wounds, or illness, drastically shorten their lives.

With over 100,000 men serving overseas during the war, we estimate between 20,000 and 30,000 were either active or retired rugby players or officials at the time of enlistment. This number may in fact be much greater. It was generally accepted that ‘if you are sufficiently fit and healthy to be playing rugby you are fit for military service’. Identifying rugby players who served has been a challenging task. The military records of servicemen are well documented but the same cannot be said of rugby players. Newspapers published teams for the Saturday club games but seldom gave an initial. When representative teams were published, one initial was generally included, two initials was rare. In many instances the initial was not that of the player’s given name but a nickname!

We have compiled a list of over 1,000 servicemen known to have played first-class rugby before, during or after the war. The actual number could be two or three times this figure. NZRFU historian Arthur Swan spent much of his life from the 1920s compiling records of provincial teams, most of his work being sourced from libraries and newspaper offices. The early records of some unions had been lost or destroyed by fire. The basis of all rugby records in New Zealand has been the work of Swan and later Arthur Carman and the NZ Rugby Almanack editors who have followed since. Early historians were not always accurate and corrections are being made on a regular basis by present-day researchers who have access, via the internet, to a plethora of old newspapers, electoral rolls, registers of births, deaths and marriages, and cemetery records. In the digital age, we can now obtain historical records at the touch of a finger without leaving home, a luxury Arthur Swan did not have. He had to travel throughout the country and physically turn each page of available newspapers in libraries in order to record the early years of rugby since the game was introduced to New Zealand back in 1870.

Sports like rugby, soccer and cricket were encouraged at military camps in Egypt, England and France where soldiers trained and rested. These activities were a welcome distraction from war and when time was available, contests took place between the various units of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The men of the infantry and mounted battalions were largely formed on a regional basis – Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago – and when representatives of these battalions met on the rugby field, the rivalry became an extension of pre-war inter-provincial rugby. Other units like the NZ Field Artillery, Tunnelling Company and the Māori Battalion also fielded rugby teams. The battalions always took much pride in having pre-war provincial players in their teams and particularly an All Black or two. Soldiers wrote home boasting of a recent win against another battalion and mentioning the names of All Blacks in their team. Success on the rugby field boosted morale within a battalion, with rugby being a potent symbol of the home that soldiers hoped to return to when their time on the battlefield was done.

Games were also played against units from other Allied forces, particularly Australian and British teams, but also against South African and Canadian teams. New Zealand units based in England frequently played against English and Welsh club sides and gate-takings from these popular events were donated to war charities.

When the war was finally over and the soldiers gathered in England to await transport home, a tournament was held between the Allied forces. Known as the King’s Cup tournament, it was the first international event involving several countries and could be regarded as a fore-runner to the Rugby World Cup. The New Zealand Services team won the King’s Cup and on their way home toured South Africa where they proved to be very popular tourists and inspired the rugby authorities of New Zealand and South Africa to negotiate a visit by the Springboks to New Zealand in 1921. These war-weary returning soldiers sowed the seed for a tremendous rugby rivalry that developed between the two countries over following decades.

New Zealand, as a nation, enjoyed prosperous decades in the 1920s and 1950s; they were times of economic growth and land development and much of that can be attributed to servicemen returning from the wars. Men who had suffered horrible experiences in the Middle East, Gallipoli, France and Belgium returned with a new appreciation of their homeland and strove to make it a better place. After World War II, men returned from battlefields around the Mediterranean and the Pacific with comparable work ethics. They had forged close friendships with other members of their various military units and many returned home leaving a mate or more on a battlefield somewhere on the other side of the world.

Two generations of New Zealand families served to protect our country, Britain and the Empire in two world wars; two generations in which so many families lost a husband, father, brother, uncle or son. Many lost family members in both wars.

Sport advanced greatly following both wars, rugby enjoying a golden era during the 1920s with large grandstands erected to accommodate the increase in public interest. Sport had become a means of blocking out the memories of war and the advance of motorised transport, roading and railway enabled more New Zealanders to participate in or support sporting events. Many of sports’ participants and administrators were ex-servicemen who were to play a major part in sporting activities after the war.

Very little has been written about rugby during World War I and this book provides an insight into the lives of a small sample of men, and one woman, and their involvement in rugby and service during wartime and beyond.

Clive Akers

April 2015

ROLL OF HONOUR

New Zealand Representatives

† KIA – killed in action; ‡ DOW – died of wounds

Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

ROLL OF HONOUR

From Rugby Field to Battlefield

The Carroll Brothers

Stella Regina Wright (nee Hickey)

Rugby in the Middle East

Trooper Karl Donald Ifwersen

Major William James ‘Bill’ Hardham VC

Sergeant Albert Joseph ‘Doolan’ Downing

Sergeant Henry ‘Norky’ Dewar

Captain Harvey Maitland Chrystall

Sergeant Beethoven ‘Beet’ Algar

The Brownlie Brothers

Trooper Eric Tristram Gerald Harper

Wartime Rugby in England and France

Captain Guy Collyns MC

Second Lieutenant Frank Reginald Wilson

Private Robert Stanley Black

Private James Alexander Steenson Baird

Private George Maurice Victor Sellars

Lance Corporal Reginald Taylor

Private James ‘Jim’ McNeece

Second Lieutenant Philip Lyell ‘Dad’ Bennett DSO MC

Corporal Tom French

Sergeant Major David Gallaher

Sergeant Hubert Sydney ‘Jum’ Turtill

Second-Lieutenant Harry Waldo Collier MC

The Dansey Brothers

Lance Sergeant Ernest Henry Dodd

Rifleman Alexander James ‘Jim’ Ridland

Post-War Rugby in England and France

Sergeant Nathaniel Arthur ‘Ranji’ Wilson

Second-Lieutenant Hohepa ‘Harry’ Jacob MC

Home Again

APPENDICES

GLOSSARY

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Index

From Rugby Field to Battlefield

During the early years of the 20th century New Zealand was a young colony settling down after the unease of the New Zealand Wars of earlier decades. The land, already inhabited by the Māori, could have been claimed by the Dutch or the French or the Germans, but Captain Cook claimed New Zealand for Britain as a small addition to the ever-expanding British Empire. From 1840 settlement began in earnest as land speculators and businessmen saw opportunities. The discovery of gold brought prospectors from Australia, America and China as well as from Europe.

Most settlers were from Britain and for many decades England was regarded as ‘Home’, even by the younger generation born in New Zealand. When Britain got herself involved in war with the Dutch farming settlers in South Africa, several contingents of volunteer soldiers from New Zealand sailed to the conflict between 1899 and 1902. Over 6,100 went with the New Zealand forces and 1200 to 1500 other New Zealanders served in Australian or British units. Many New Zealanders enlisted for the adventure – the opportunity to be ‘with the boys’ and to put into practice the drills and instruction received at school cadets corps. Military service was seen as a welcome distraction from mundane work in isolated communities. In all, 228 New Zealanders died, over half from illness and disease.

War had been a part of life for generations of Europeans. Britain, either protecting or extending its empire, somehow managed to regularly instigate conflict somewhere on the globe. With few job opportunities in Britain, the navy and army offered travel experiences, clothing and regular meals and thousands served the British Empire abroad at any one time. The proportion of deaths while in the armed services seemed of little concern. More soldiers and sailors likely died from disease and illness than from combat.

The Imperial Government directed that Māori could not serve in the South African War – blacks should not be employed against whites. But even though this was a white man’s war many Māori did enlist and get to South Africa. It was during the South African War that New Zealanders first played rugby in South Africa, mainly against British units. After the war many New Zealand soldiers remained in South Africa and groups of Kiwis formed rugby clubs in Pretoria, Ladysmith and Durban.

The other outstanding feature of this post-war period was the prominence of a new and powerful Durban Club, the New Zealanders. From 1904 to 1906 they dominated matters and their attractive play did much to popularize the game in Durban where Soccer till this time had held undisputed sway. ¹

From the 1860s schools formed cadet corps providing instruction in military drills and rifle shooting and contests were held between schools. The secondary schools provided the basic training for the future soldiers and it was these established schools that provided the officers of army units in later years. The schools’ cadet corps training installed in the boys the expectation that they serve their country and the empire whenever and wherever the need.

One of the first threats to New Zealand’s security was in the mid-1880s when it was feared a Russian invasion could take place. Concrete fortifications were built at the entrances to the harbours of Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers, each housing a heavy artillery gun designed to protect the port from naval invasion.

Following the South African War, volunteer military units were established throughout the country to provide basic instruction to more of the male population. Mechanised transport was in its infancy and the horse was still the common means of transport for the soldier.

The colony’s initial settlements were at the natural coastal ports and, generally, trade and travel between the settlements was by sea. The introduction of railway gradually provided overland links between the settlements and once the North Island main trunk railway was completed in 1908, a new region was opened up for settlement. At last there was a reliable overland link between Auckland and Wellington. New towns were formed adjacent to the railways, each new village creating opportunities for new settlers. By 1911 the population of New Zealand had reached one million.

While various forms of football had been played among youth since the 1850s, rugby became the most favoured code after its introduction in Nelson in 1870. Rugby suited the colonials, probably because it could be played on any surface – sandy beach, a dry and hard ground or a boggy paddock pugged by cattle. Trees, stumps or water-filled holes were hazards which didn’t deter those who fought to carry the ball to the goal line. Compared with other sports which immigrants introduced into New Zealand, rugby was a relatively simple game and the enjoyment of its physicality by Māori youth also helped boost its popularity.

Sailors from visiting British naval ships often played a form of football against locals when in port, and British regiments or recruits from Australia, based here to settle the troubles during and following the New Zealand Wars also played various forms of football. The Australian code, known as Victorian Rules, became very popular in the main centres for several years but eventually faded away. The NZ Armed Constabulary was very influential in establishing rugby union in the North Island, particularly in Wellington, Wanganui, Taranaki and Waikato.

By the turn of the century each village had its rugby team while the major towns had several teams. Club competitions were arranged and a committee appointed to organise the games within the district. These committees became the provincial rugby unions and contests between provincial union representative (rep.) teams became more common as transport improved. Early teams travelled by boat or horse-drawn coach and later teams by boat or train. In 1892 the provincial unions formed the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), a committee elected to govern rugby in New Zealand.

Tom Ellison, a pioneer of Māori and New Zealand rugby wrote a rugby manual in which he referred to the role of provincial unions as, ‘the fosterers of the good, manly, and soldier-making game of Rugby Football.’ ²

In 1902 The Fifth Earl of Ranfurly, Governor of New Zealand, donated a trophy for inter-provincial rugby. The Ranfurly Shield was held by Auckland for many years before the war and Hawke’s Bay dominated possession during the 1920s.

Since 1882 New Zealand had exchanged visits with state teams from across the Tasman Sea and the first Test match between New Zealand and Australia was played in 1903. But it was rugby teams from Britain that New Zealanders most desired to measure themselves against. A British team visited in 1888 and then a NZ Native Team ventured to Britain where they soon gained a very favourable reputation. Great Britain toured New Zealand in 1904 and in 1905/06 a New Zealand national team toured Britain for the first time under the captaincy of David Gallaher, and hence were known as the ‘Originals’. The team came home as the All Blacks, winners of 34 of their 35 games, the only loss being to Wales (3-0). In 1906/07 South Africa made their first tour of Britain but with less success than the All Blacks. Then in 1908/09 Australia became the third emerging rugby nation to tour Britain. Within four years three of England’s colonies had visited ‘Home’ and displayed rugby skills which alerted the game’s law makers, the London-based Rugby Football Union (RFU), that England would not comfortably dominate international rugby.

The success of the 1905/06 All Blacks popularised rugby and gave New Zealand a sense of nationalism. However, the tourists also brought back to New Zealand a new code of rugby which over the next few years seriously threatened rugby union’s status as the dominant winter team sport. While in England the All Blacks witnessed the Northern Union (later named rugby league) version of rugby and some players liked what they saw. When the team returned home several All Blacks promoted the league game and in 1907 a team was gathered of provincial rugby players, including some All Blacks, and travelled to England where they played league. The team was known as the ‘All Golds’ and upon their return home league became established in several major towns from 1908. The administrators of rugby unions were severely challenged to retain their players as league promoters infiltrated rugby clubs preaching the advantages of league. Rugby league clubs were formed and some established union clubs switched to league.

The new code was also being established in New South Wales and Queensland and the union administrators there faced the same problem of loss of players to league. The rivalry was intense as teams of union and league representatives crossed the Tasman on exchange tours promoting their codes. New Zealand also sent a Māori league team to Sydney and, to combat the player drain to league, annual NZ Māori rugby fixtures were organised with regular trips to Sydney and tours of the New Zealand provincial unions. The birth of NZ Māori teams in 1910 was largely prompted by the threat from league.

The All Blacks toured Australia in 1907, 1910 and 1914 while Australia visited here in 1913. The NZRFU was keen for Australians to retain the union code because without Australia there would be few opportunities for international fixtures. The All Blacks also visited California and Canada in 1913. When war was declared in August 1914 the All Blacks were in Sydney but played the remaining three scheduled fixtures before sailing home. Many provincial players enlisted immediately but this did not greatly affect the fixtures arranged for August and September.

Within a week of war being declared, 14,000 New Zealanders volunteered for service. Compulsory military training had been introduced in 1909 so most volunteers had had basic army training. On 15 August a 1400-strong force, known as the Samoa Advance Party, sailed to seize the German colony of Western Samoa. The force arrived at Apia on 29 August and, with no resistance, New Zealand took control of the all-important radio transmitter which was capable of sending signals around the world and communicating with the many German warships in the Pacific Ocean.

Before the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) sailed for Egypt in October, games were played at the various training camps. The Canterbury Regiment played Canterbury at Christchurch while the Wellington Infantry Battalion, in camp at Palmerston North, played Manawatu. In mid-October the Main Body, comprising 8,454 men and 3,000 horses, departed on 10 troopships and arrived in Egypt on 3 December.

The effect of World War I on all aspects of New Zealand life, including its rugby, was profound. New Zealand had a population of a little over one million of whom some 250,000 were eligible for military service. A total of 124,211 (91,941 volunteers, 32,270 conscripts) served in the NZEF, most of them of rugby-playing age and 103,000 of these served overseas. The death toll was 18,500 with 41,000 wounded. A further 3,300 served with Australian or British forces. ³

The cream of New Zealand rugby talent became involved in the war. In 1915 Trentham’s rugby team was stronger than provincial teams, with several All Blacks, and defeated both Auckland and Wellington unions. From 1916, Featherston Camp was the largest training camp before soldiers sailed away to the war.

From 1915 to 1918 club and provincial rugby was greatly restricted. Unions encouraged players to volunteer for war service and in many regions single men of military age and eligible for service were prohibited from club rugby unless they had enlisted. There was some ill-feeling among servicemen against eligible men playing rugby when it was felt they should be serving their country. When conscription was introduced in 1916, rugby activities were further restricted. In many districts competitions were conducted only for those under the age of 20.

The impact on club rugby was huge. For example:

In Wellington the Berhampore club disbanded, having lost 42 of their 43 playing members.

College Rifles, a militia club, were second in the Auckland club championship in 1915 but went into recess the following year, unable to field any sides. Cyril Bassett, elected a life member of College Rifles in 1919, was awarded the Victoria Cross for ‘most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the Chunuk Bair ridge’ on Gallipoli in August 1915, the only member of a New Zealand unit to win the award at Gallipoli. ⁴

All but one of the Stratford senior team volunteered for the Mounted Rifles but found it difficult to get horses and gear. A local heard of their problem and supplied a truck-load of horses. The club did not function actively during the war years.

The North Canterbury Sub Union and the clubs affiliated to it went into recess for the duration of the war.

‘The Waipuna Rugby Football Club [in Northland] will not be able to put a team into the field this year, as 13 players out of the 15 are at the front or on the way. Of the other two, one is undergoing a minor operation in order to pass the doctor, and the other is the sole support of a household, and has a brother at the front.’ ⁵

The Dunedin club had 44 players overseas in September 1915; six months later the number was 72.

The Oamaru Old Boys RFC Annual Report for 1914 stated that out of an active membership of 35, 18 had volunteered and been farewelled. The club believed that of those 18, only nine survived the war.

Petone club had lost 83 active players before the start of the 1915 season.

Pirates club in Dunedin had 38 members enlist before Christmas 1914. By the beginning of the 1915 season 60 had gone and this had doubled to 124 by 1917 and 170 by 1918. Thirty two club members died.

On a different note, in Canterbury, Lancaster Park, home of Canterbury rugby since 1882, was planted in potatoes to aid the war effort and matches were played at the Showgrounds in 1917 and 1918.

There was some opposition to the playing of sport in war time and rugby as the major sport attracted a large share of the criticism, ‘it must be obvious that there are hundreds of men evading their duty to their country. Football officials, and those aiding and abetting them, cannot be termed true patriots if they encourage able-bodied young men to kick an inflated bladder about the turf while our Empire is engaged in such a life and death struggle…’ ⁶

Counter arguments could be and were advanced. The qualities needed in sport – discipline, restraint, courage, fair play, teamwork and physical fitness – were, it was claimed, attributes that helped make both a good citizen and a good soldier. In the event, rugby administrators, partly because of the criticism but no doubt also because they were patriotic, encouraged enlistment and support of the war effort generally. One Canterbury club president: ‘stated that he hoped the club would not have a player left in it to play but that all would be fighting for the liberty of the world.’ ⁷

Women took over the role of men refereeing and coaching schoolboys. On occasions women even formed a team to play in charity events to help raise funds for the war effort. One of the earlier women’s games was in Greymouth: ‘... In all the reports of functions of a similar nature that have taken place in other parts of the Dominion, no mention is made of a ladies’ Rugby football match. Such a novel means of supplementing the fund was adopted on the 28th at Greymouth, when a match played on Victoria Park was pronounced a thorough success. The manner in which the ladies handled the leather, kicked, ran, scrummed, and screamed would make an All Black green with jealousy, and no one who witnessed the exhibition would be bold enough to deny the claim of the ladies to be included in the next international fifteen.’ ⁸

During the Queen carnival in Wellington, ladies provided halftime entertainment during a club game at Athletic Park. The ladies had been circulating among the spectators with their collection boxes and badges.

‘Ladies at Rugby

So keen were some of these ladies on behalf of Nurse Everitt, the sports candidate, that they trooped on to the field at half-time, and for ten minutes entertained and amused the crowd by their efforts at kicking the Rugby ball about. I am not going to criticise their attempts, as that would hardly be fair, but, I heard one lady say at the finish, Oh, my heart! By this time, however, she and the others will have felt many strange pains in their understandings, and will agree with me that Rugby football is no game for ladies to play. But they achieved their object, and drew pointed attention to the fact that they were willing to do anything to help along the fund for the wounded soldiers and sailors and their dependents.’ ⁹

The NZRFU suspended the inter-island match and Ranfurly Shield challenges during the war years but other matches were conducted where possible. In 1916 matches were confined to players under military age and reinforcement drafts but by using younger players some representative matches were possible in 1917. Representative programmes though were curtailed or abandoned. The South Canterbury Union played no representative matches 1915-19 and Bush RFU played none 1915-18.

Schools were encouraged to keep the game going with tournaments held in several centres. The NZRFU history describes Wellington as being ‘very active’ in this regard while in Canterbury in 1918, ‘the public schools competition had been a great success.’

Right up to the outbreak of the war, rugby union administrators continued to wage a verbal and literary war with promoters of rugby league. Some players, administrators and supporters of rugby, became promoters and participants of rugby league. Longstanding friendships were lost as neighbours took sides and divided sporting society in a similar way to the 1981 Springbok tour. Rugby union officials could not trust players and the NZRFU asked players to sign loyalty forms. Those who refused to sign were suspended from playing union until signatures were obtained.

Much of the debate was over compensation for players’ time off work. The All Blacks were being paid 3 shillings per day when on tour while league was offering about 10 shillings per day. A meeting in Christchurch in July 1912 was reported in the local Press under the heading ‘The Football Crisis’. On 15 November a special general meeting of NZRFU delegates considered a motion, put forward by the Canterbury RFU, ‘That the NZRFU be requested to instruct the secretary to make an immediate application to the English Rugby Union for authority to make such alterations and amendments to the laws of the game as may, from time to time, be found necessary to, or advisable in the interests of the game in this Dominion.’ ¹⁰

The motion was narrowly defeated 34 to 28.

Having established a solid foundation in Auckland, league spread to other centres and by 1914 teams were established in Taranaki, Wanganui, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury. But war between union and league took a back seat from late 1914 when the world war riveted attention. The only gain by league was in 1915 when Canterbury sent a team over the Southern Alps to play games and establish rugby league on the West Coast.

Rugby union was losing ground in the popularity stakes, particularly in Auckland, where the union in 1917 introduced amended playing rules in an effort to retain player and spectator support. The NZRFU relaxed its life-ban on former union players who had defected to league. This allowed many league players and ex-union players to return to union. One of the motivations for this decision was that league was not played in the services and there were many league players in New Zealand and in the forces overseas keen to play union.

The NZ Rugby League Annual summarised the rapid expansion of league in the pre-war period.

‘Thanks to the first New Zealand Council’s [league] diligence following the pioneer tours, the game spread rapidly in the North Island, and the official Auckland League, in 1910, carried the torch into the South Island. By 1912-13 the code was well established in New Zealand, whose international sides were noted for their clever and enterprising play, as the contests with the 1914 English team well demonstrated.

But the outbreak of the Great War was a more severe blow to the growing power of Rugby League, because the code had not the financial resources to meet essential calls of the young leagues to tide them over difficult times. Furthermore, the ranks both of players and officials were thinned by the numbers of active adherents who volunteered for service in the Empire’s crisis. And so it was that provinces rich in player and administrative talent – Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, and Wanganui – in addition to other mid-North Island leagues, lapsed. However, Auckland, Waikato, Canterbury and West Coast were able to continue – and the game creditably survived a struggle not lessened by some of the petty and almost unpardonable activities of the old Rugger regime, which, but for the Great War, might have met the oblivion which so often it has threatened to visit upon those who have seen fit to prefer the modern code.’ ¹¹

Attempts were made early in 1915 to continue club rugby league as usual but the increasing demands for men to enlist resulted in teams withdrawing from competition. The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) and New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) agreed to exchange tours during the season with New Zealand’s share of the profits given to the Belgian Relief Fund. But in May, shortly after the Gallipoli landings, both leagues agreed to abandon the tours, mainly due to the diminishing player numbers. The NZRL had lost 297 players to the NZEF while the NSWRL had lost over 800 to the Australian Imperial Force.

As the casualties mounted at Gallipoli and the wounded began arriving home, the seriousness of the war attracted increasing public opposition towards the continuation of both codes. To deflect the negative public attention, administrators of both codes became active recruiters of eligible men for the war effort.

Rugby union placed age restrictions on club rugby. Players who had enlisted for service could play but eligible men (single and over the age of 20) who had not enlisted could not play. This encouraged many eligible players to change to league.

The public’s negative attitude towards club rugby changed in August 1916 when conscription was introduced to maintain the supply of reinforcements for the Western Front. No longer was it considered that those fit for rugby were fit for service and must enlist. Conscription meant that sportsmen had to enter service when called upon and the public saw sports as a means of keeping eligible men in good shape for if and when they were called up in the ballot. Initially Māori were exempt from conscription but were included from June 1917.

The winter of 1915 was the first in which rugby was affected by war. In October ‘Touchline’ gave his thoughts of the past season:

‘… at the little function held [in Wellington] by the Rugby Union and the Referees’ Association conjointly last week, Mr Len McKenzie stated that fully 10,000 Rugby players in New Zealand had enlisted. The figures seem to me to be stupendous, but our Old Boy City Councillor is generally sure of his ground when he makes a statement of this description. Who dares to say that the Rugby footballer is not enlisting, when he reads this paragraph? To me it is one of the marvellous things in connection with New Zealand’s contribution to the fighting forces of the Empire, and proves without the shadow of a doubt that Rugby football is the national game among the young men of the Dominion.

Sport and the War.

In allowing my thoughts to wander back over the doings of the year, one hardly knows where to let them rest, especially for the purposes of this article. The season was entered upon with some misgivings, mainly because the seriousness of the war in Europe was overshadowing everything else. Some pessimists in the community said that sport in every form should be postponed during the currency of the war, and, although I never had that feeling myself, I was inclined to listen to the arguments to that end. But when the news came through of those famous charges up the Gaba Tepe [later renamed Anzac Cove] hills, with the undeniable fact that there were Rugby footballers at the head of those rushes, the conviction was borne home on me that the game should be played as long as there were players to take part in it, simply and solely because the Rugby field is a fine training ground for the future soldier.

The Duke of Wellington is credited with having said that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, and my impression is that when the historian tells of the doings on the Gallipoli peninsula the names of Australian and New Zealand Rugby players will loom large on the pages of his work. In fact, every phase of sport practised in these islands of ours in the Southern Seas has been doing and is doing its share to help Mother England along, and, although we may be given over to sport in times of peace, when the bugle sounds the call to arms I claim that our youths and young men make better soldiers because of the way in which they have played the game, no matter whether as footballers, hockeyists, cyclists, oarsmen, or any other form of sport.’ ¹²

If McKenzie’s estimate of 10,000 rugby players having enlisted in the first year of the war is credible, then it could be assumed that over the next three years that figure would have more than doubled. If between 20,000 and 30,000 rugby players and officials served during the war period, that figure is similar to the total number of registered rugby players, over the age of 20, playing in New Zealand in 2015.

It is difficult for the present generation, 100 years later, to fully grasp the magnitude of the impact of war on the daily lives of New Zealanders. The small South Canterbury settlement of Albury was a typical rural village with one hotel, merchant store, grocery shop, post & telegraph office, blacksmith’s shop, church, school and rugby team. The Albury Football Club was formed in 1897 and 84 players had worn the club’s colours during the 18 seasons up to 1914 when the club went into recess. Sixty nine current and former club players went away to war; 18 died including three sets of brothers (George and William Caswell, Daniel and William McVey, and Edmond and John O’Reilly) and 26 were wounded, including a Caswell brother. Only 25 returned home to resume relatively normal lives.

If we imagine, in 2015, half of the 2014 club players over the age of 20 being removed from our playing fields and sent overseas and one out of every five not returning then the scale of the war may be understood.

When the troopships sailed away to the war theatres there were also rugby balls and rugby jerseys in kitbags. Servicemen took their game with them: ‘Overseas, New Zealanders in Khaki were upholding their good name. In Egypt, Palestine, France and the United Kingdom respite from the hardships of sun and sand, mud and trench was opportunity to indulge in our National Game; most units possessed a team; every depot and base fielded a XV when required.’ ¹³

In between battles rugby games were played and after each battle the team had to recruit new players to fill the gaps of those who had died. At the end of the war, when the survivors returned to England, a representative rugby team (NZ Services) was selected to compete against other Allied teams for the King’s Cup. It was the first international competition involving the southern hemisphere nations and the world had to wait 68 years before the next global tournament was held – the 1987 Rugby World Cup. The New Zealand team won the King’s Cup and during their voyage home made a lengthy tour of South Africa during which they won the hearts of the local rugby public and initiated regular contests between the two countries.

Thousands of club rugby players and administrators did not return home and many have no known grave. Hundreds more came home minus a limb or with a wound or illness which had terminated their playing careers. It was the fortunate few unscarred soldiers who returned from the battlefields to the playing fields who played an influential role in post-war rugby just as 1950s rugby was greatly influenced by ex-servicemen of World War II. Fifty All Blacks went away to war and 13 (1 in 4) did not come home. During the 1920s 47 All Blacks were ex-servicemen, men whose personalities had no doubt been affected by their war experiences; men who took their military discipline and teamwork from the battlefield back to their rugby clubs.

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Rugby in the Military

Unlike the situation after the Second World War when small publications recorded the feats of NZ Services rugby teams in Britain and the ‘Kiwis’ army team’s tour of 1945/46, there was very little recording of the rugby played by New Zealanders overseas during the Great War. One of the better descriptions was published in the Weekly News in July 1952. It was written by regular sports columnist Paddy Sheehan who had represented Otago 1905-12 before going to Fiji where he helped establish rugby and became the first chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union. He arranged for the 1913 All Blacks to play an unofficial game in Suva on their way home from America. Sheehan returned to play for Auckland in 1917 and then was an Auckland selector 1919-20. His knowledge of the game and of the players could not be questioned. His article preceded the 1952 inter-services tournament at Papakura when the army, navy and air force teams competed for the King’s Cup.

‘THE KING’S CUP RESURRECTED

Services Play For Historic Trophy

By P.J. Sheehan

Scientists who have experimented in the higher chemistry levels assure me that whisky and water have an affinity and when mixed form a palatable blending, especially if the addition of the water is done by an experienced and cautious hand.

As I am a layman in that particular sphere I cannot give any endorsement to such scientific views beyond feeling pleased that in these days of low lake levels the water content is, by general consent, kept to a minimum. My latest informant on this matter, knowing my pet weakness, put it this way – Look! he asserted, Whisky and water mix as happily together as do soldiering and Rugby football.

Well, that seemed an excellent simile to give proof to his contention, so next