Sports in the AIF

9th Infantry Brigade Sports during the Great War

3rd Division AIF Rugby Football Team 

Battalion Rugby, 3/11/1918 Transport Section beat D Company 18-Nil. 4/11/1918 H.Q Coy beat D Coy 1-Nil. 12/11/1918 A Coy beat D Coy 6-3. 21/11/1918 C Coy drew 3 all with D Coy. Transport Section beat H.Q. Coy 11-3 to win the Battalion Championship at MERELESSART Nov 1918.

Driver: 1389 Percy Jack GOLDRICK. Transport Section 35th Battalion Rugby Premiers.

D Company 35th Battalion AIF Rugby Team November 1918
D Company 35th Battalion AIF Rugby Team  November 1918

Lance Sergeant: 2405 Neil Robert SUTHERLAND.  35th Battalion AIF.

25.11.18. Kindest regards from your “Little” Brother Neil. ‘D’ Company 35th Bn Rugby Football team France. Just Players. Rough but honest.

34th Battalion AIF Rugby Team November 1918

Rear Row: Left: Colonel: WILCOX. - Right: Major: Arnold Leroy FRY.

Second Row: left: Lieutenant: STALLEY (Sports Officer) - MALKBURRING - RIFF - Private: 20670 Arthur POWER - Private: 7475 William Henry "Joe Lee" FLOWERS -

Sergeant: 114 Robert "Bob" LINDSAY - TOMKIN - Regimental Sergeant Major: 43 John James CROSS. 

Second Row: Left: Unknown - Private: 7483 George Allen "Mick" HARRIS - Major: Harry Dixon WHEELER - Tommy JOHNSON - Captain: Telford Graham GILDER -

Lieutenant: 1973 Reuben PARKES - KERR 

Front Row: Left: Scotchy TURNER - Budge WHITE - Private: 7491 Alexander Robert JOHNSTON

No: 1 Waratahs Rugby Football Club Campbelltown, N.S.W. 1913

Private: 466 Walter HAGAN. MM. 36th Battalion AIF, front row: second from the left.

Carrington Football Club Roll of Honour 1914 -1919


Private: 7491 Alexander Robert JOHNSTON. South Sydney Halfback (1921-1926) . 34th Battalion AIF

2nd Lieutenant: 799 James JACKSON. "Pluggy" BELGIAN CROIX-de-GUERRE 34th Battalion. was the original half back for the "Cessnock Goannas" Ruby League Team in 1911.

Photograph of the Eastern Suburbs Football Club Team - 1911 Premiers. Thomas BRUCE indicated.
Printed in the Evening News (Sydney, NSW 1869 - 1931) Sat 10 Nov 1917

Temporary Sergeant: 2133 Henry RANDALL. 35th Battalion. AIF. C Company Soccer Premiers.

Company Sergeant Major: 467 Jeremiah Arthur "Bull" JENNINGS. 34th Battalion AIF. Merewether Advanced Football Club.

Corporal: 90 Herbert "Herb" GRAY. 35th Battalion AIF. Merewether Advanced Football Club.

Private: 899 William Robert SPARKES. 34th Battalion AIF. Merewether Advanced Football Club.

34th Battalion AIF Soccer Team November 1918

Rear Row: Left: Colonel: WILCOX. - Right: Major: Arnold Leroy FRY.

Company Sergeant Major: 467 Jeremiah Arthur "Bull" JENNINGS. 34th Battalion AIF. Merewether Advanced Football Club.

Lance Corporal: 2291 Peter George COPPOCK. M.M & Bar. 34th Battalion. Weston. 

Private: 899 William Robert SPARKES. 34th Battalion AIF. Merewether Advanced Football Club.

Local players from from Minmi Ranger - Weston - Cessnock - West Maitland - Merewether. 

Temporary Sergeant: 2133 Henry RANDALL. 35th Battalion. AIF. C Company Soccer Premiers November 1918.

 


2nd Lieutenant: 1069 Thomas Fraser BRUCE. 36th Battalion AIF.

Sports Medal

Sports Medal

9th Infantry Brigade Sports Medal presented to Lance Corporal: 1500 Daniel George SMITH. 33rd Battalion AIF.

No:3 Class-Physical and Bayonet Training. Aldershot, October 1917

England 1917. Physical Fitness Training Class. Sergeant: 432 Frederick GALLEGHAN, back row, centre.

Captain: Gilbert Gordon COGHILL. M.C. 35th Battalion AIF 

Inter-Allied games, Paris 1919. Representing Australia in the Heavy Weight Division.

 

Private: 414 Hugh DEVON. 35th Battalion AIF. Hugh Devon fought world boxing champion Les Darcy in Newcastle on the 21st September 1914 and lost in the 6th round on a TKO.

Gold Fob Watch presented to L.H.ROBINSON the Winner of the Light Weight Boxing Champion on board the S.S. ANCHISES 1916 during their voyage from Australia. 

(Fob Watch: Ian Robinson: Grandson)

Private: 2121 Leonard Harold ROBINSON. 36th Battalion AIF. Boxer who fought against world boxing champion Les Darcy in 1915. Rutherford Army Camp.

NSW Rugby Union Program. AIF Team v Australia (Harrower Collection)

The Sydney Morning Herald report of the match said: "Bringing from overseas a set of forwards with a reputation for unusual strength and brilliance, the A.I.F. Rugby Union team quite realised expectations at the Sydney Sports Ground on Saturday. The attendance numbered 10,000, which is surely an indication that rugger has not lost its 'kick'. Great enthusiasm prevailed throughout the game, and the soldier team had a hearty welcome.”

The SMH also reported '…the Diggers thoroughly deserved the high reputation that had preceded them’ and that ‘the fifteen stands out as one of the greatest seen on Sydney grounds’.

To great acclaim and good crowds around the country, the AIF won all eight games on their exhibition tour - sweeping a young Australian side - and scoring 268 points and with only 78 scored against them. It was regarded as the perfect “morale booster for for rugby union in Australia in the immediate post-war period.”

Colonel Marcus Fielding, a military historian and Australian Army Rugby Union vice-president, wrote a book about the 1919 AIF team: "Comrades in Arms and Rugby". 

AIF Rugby Team 1919

AIF No:1 Rowing Crew

Under Construction: 16/12/2020-08/05/2024.