99 years ago: JSD Walker

CAPTAIN JOHN STUART DIGHT WALKER, MC

 Killed 21 July 1918 at Merris Nord, France.  　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Buried at Borre Cemetery.

Major Leonard May writes about Captain Walker’s death at Merris Nord, France, on 21 July 1918: 　　　　　　　　　　　 ‘…he went out to reconnoitre and was coming back when a machine gun opened fire…as he turned, he was hit in the head and killed immediately.’

Two weeks later, among the sporting results and news of sportsmen’s activities at the Front, the Sydney paper ‘The Referee’ carries an account of Walker’s death. He was a sportsman, ‘who had plenty of ability, abundant enthusiasm and an ample reserve of pluck.’

Two years earlier, Walker wrote to one of his aunts, Mrs Robertson:

 ‘I have got a crack at last and a rather nasty one but one is lucky to come out alive…’

He writes with prosaic understatement about his Military Cross, his promotion to Captain, the compound fracture of his femur. And concludes with a heartfelt,

 ‘…hope they got compulsion (conscription) in Australia…it would do them good.’

John Stuart Dight Walker carried the Dight name, a surname that resonates through the ages with the Sydney University Cricket Club. Five of his relations have played for SUCC. His cousins, between 1893 and 1902, FJR (Frank) Dight, WB (William) Dight and CC (Clarence) Dight, and in more recent times, brothers Stephen and Jeffrey Dight who played during the 1970s and 1980s.

JSD Walker could claim, through his mother’s family, relationship with the renowned Australian explorer, Hamilton Hume (1797-1873) who married Elizabeth Dight, Walker’s great aunt.

The Dight and Walker families served Australia with unrivalled fidelity during The Great War.

The Reverend John Walker (1855-1941), patriarch of the Walker family, one time Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Australia, was a chaplain who visited Australian soldiers in hospitals in France and England during 1917.

His daughter, Marjorie, served as a nurse with the Australian forces, especially at Salonica.

His wife’s brother, Lance Corporal Hilton Dight, a graduate in Engineering from the University of Sydney, was noted for his bravery under fire at Gallipoli and in France. He returned to Australia in 1917, suffering from illness, shell shock and awful hallucinations. He took his own life at Narrandera in June 1918.

Five of the sons of Reverend Walker and his wife, Jessie (nee Dight), Arthur, John, Noel, Alison and Maxwell, also served. Arthur, Noel and John were killed in France.

John and Jessie carried these crosses throughout their long lives. Jessie died at 69 in 1932 but John survived until 1941 aged 86.

John Stuart Dight Walker was born in England, at Birkenhead, in September 1885, but his family moved back to Australia as his father took up various parish postings.

At Sydney Grammar School, he was a carefree natural sportsman. In his final two seasons (1902-03 and 1903-04) in the school 1st XI, he took 203 wickets in all games with his left arm ‘swervers’　 and scored over 2000 hard hitting runs. ‘He kept the good ones out and swung his extensive arms on the loose ones’ commented the 1904 ‘Sydneian’ with some insight. 　He and Marcus Blaxland put on 264 in 1903 when Sydney Grammar defeated Melbourne Grammar in the annual match by an innings and 270 runs, but there was a stark contrast in styles. Blaxland’s 247 was cultured and orthodox. Walker’s 108 was belligerent and risky as he was dropped three times.

Walker’s final school game in March 1904 was an indication of his destructive talent as he left abiding memories of his prodigious ability. His 8 for 67 routed an inexperienced St Joseph’s side.

He represented the Grammar 1st XV, was appointed a 　College Prefect and matriculated to the Department of Engineering at Sydney University in 1905. His career with the Cricket Club (1st Grade cap no 86), however, stuttered and faltered, in stark contrast with his glittering schoolboy feats. In three interrupted seasons in 1st Grade, he scored 63 runs at 5.7 and took 19 wickets at 29.7. He even spent more time in 2nd Grade in 1905-06 than he did in 1st Grade but he still found no form (108 runs. 5 wickets).

He graduated B Eng in 1907 and then his profession took him away from Sydney for some time. He managed a gold mine near Meekatharra in the mid-west of Western Australia before enlisting at Blackboy Hill in 11 Battalion as a Private in April 1915, although he qualified for a commission, before proceeding to the Front. He stood an impressive 183 centimetres tall and weighed 84 kilos. The light brown hair that had peeked out from under his cricket caps now showed under his Lieutenant’s cap.

For bravery at Pozieres in 1916, Walker was awarded the Military Cross. ‘For conspicuous gallantry and skill during operations. He assisted wounded men and sent up ammunition and water to forward dumps under incessant shell fire…’. His care for his men came at a cost. At Mouquet Farm, he was hit in the left thigh and knee by sniper fire which fractured his femur. It was eventually decided, after hospitalisation in London, 　that he should be invalided back to Australia in February 1917 to recover. But he was not to be denied. He convinced the medical authorities that he was fit for duty and returned in November 1917, rejoining 11 Battalion in　 May 1918.

Captain Walker is remembered at Sydney University in the War Memorial carillon.

At St Andrew’s in Ballarat, where Reverend Walker was posted during the war years, a stained glass window was dedicated in 1942 honouring the three brothers who were killed in France. The inscription reads:

 ‘Their father conceived the idea of this tablet as an inspiration to those who follow on so that the torch of liberty, which they gave their comrades true from their falling hands, might be held high in each succeeding generation.’　　 　　　

James Rodgers

101 years ago: Bob Holliday

At first there was nothing.

Then he emerged from the yellowing, crumbling pages of old newspapers.

Until the late 1970s, the records of SUCC which had a rich history, stretching back to 1864, were scanty and scattered. Damon Ridley and I then set about finding the old Annual Reports and putting the Club’s story  together. There were still gaps. No Annual Reports survived from the World War I seasons. Scorebooks had long gone. Anyone who played in these seasons seemed to be lost to record and memory. We did have access to newspapers and microfilm, especially the sports pages, in Fisher Library. And we gathered former players, now elderly but most with sharp, lucid memories, and we interviewed them.

In the 1914-15 Report, we found C D Holliday who played 2nd and 3rd Grades that season and who also played one game in 1st Grade, scored 19, and disappeared. But there he was again in January 1916 in the scores of the Grade games played on 10th and 17th January. C D Holliday batted at number 3 against Petersham at University Oval, scoring 6 and 20. Much of the space in those papers was taken up with news from The Front, lists of dead, wounded and missing, accounts of battles. But this Grade game at University took the eye.

Petersham rattled up 3 declared for 585 on the first day. Future Test players, Tommy Andrews (232 not out) and Johnny Taylor (174) put on an astounding 240 in two hours of clinical demolition of the weak University attack. On the second day, in reply, University was bowled out for 83 and 111 and lost by an innings and 391 runs, still the heaviest defeat in the Club’s history.

So there he was. C D Holliday. 1st Grade career: 1914-16. 2 matches, 3 innings, 45 runs.

And there he stayed for many years. When we interviewed those still alive from that time in the late 1970s, the name C D Holliday drew a blank. Sharp minds like Eric McElhone, Mick Bardsley, Dr H O Rock (“Never heard of him” was the expected gruff answer. Rock was on his way to France in early 1916), Dr Jim Garner, Sir Ronald Grieve, Jimmy Sullivan (still at school in 1916). Even Dr S G Whitfeld, grandfather of Phil Beale (who played 1st Grade for the Club in the 1970s and 80s), who actually played in that game in January 1916, opening the bowling (0-87), recalled that he had no idea where to pitch the ball during the onslaught and little idea which part of the fence the ball would be hit to. But when it came to C D Holliday…nothing.

And so Holliday remained a minor footnote to a swelling history of a Club that approached its sesqui centenary in 2014.

Then, a glimpse of him again. On a plaque as you enter the Main Quadrangle is the list of those University men who fell in the Great War. And there’s his name. C D Holliday.

A quick trip to the Australian War Memorial website now throws up so much information on those who enlisted, including their full military history.

So, C D Holliday becomes more than just a passing shadow. He’s Clifford Dawson Holliday, known to his family as ‘Bob’. Born in Kogarah in January 1895, he lives with his parents in William St Hornsby. His father, Reverend Andrew Holliday, is Rector of the Hornsby Methodist Church. Bob is 5 feet 9 inches tall, 170 pounds in weight, blue eyes, light brown hair. He was educated at Dubbo Public school (when his father was posted to Dubbo), Hornsby Public and Newington College Stanmore.

Another detour brings him to life.

David Roberts, Newington’s Archivist, is readily helpful.

His name is preserved at Newington. He was there from Easter 1905 until Easter 1914. 1st XI batsman. 1st XV. Senior Prefect. Twice Dux of the College. President of the Christian Union. Winner of a multitude of prizes including a University Exhibition. He contemplated studies in Law but settled for Arts at Sydney University and gained a High Distinction in Maths in Arts I. A Newington classmate was Alexander ‘Roxy’ Muir who also played for SUCC, enlisted, was awarded the Military Cross, and never came home. When Bob made his 1st Grade debut in April 1915, Roxy was unavailable and Bob took his place. When Bob played his other 1st Grade game, Roxy had enlisted and, on the Thursday before the second day of that match, sailed with 1 Battalion. Both were stylish, reliable batsmen but at Newington, everyone batted in the shadow of Johnny Taylor, born in the same year as Muir and Holliday, 1895. Taylor played for NSW 2nd XI aged 16 on the strength of his form in school matches and he hit 226 against Victoria’s 2nd XI. He then made his 1st class debut while still at Newington, scoring 83 in 1913. After distinguished service in the 1st AIF, Taylor then played 20 Tests for Australia. In four seasons after the War, he averaged over 60 for SUCC. Taylor’s 174 against University in that game in January 1916 brought two Newington schoolmates together again. It was Holliday’s last game of cricket. Less than two months later, Corporal C D Holliday 4801 sailed for Egypt and was assigned to 54 Battalion. Three months after that, he embarked from Alexandria to Marseilles. This was his last time at sea.

On that dreadful night of 19-20 July 1916, Australia lost 2000 men and suffered more than 5000 casualties in the futile attack on the Germans’ position at Fromelles.

Corporal Holliday was initially recorded as “wounded 19 or 20 July. No further report”. In the confusion and tumult, such vague reports were understandable. But the military authorities were to experience the insistent pleas of Holliday’s distraught parents.

“He is our only son and only child…will easily understand our anxiety,” wrote Reverend Holliday on 14 August.

“Our anxiety is very great,”  Mrs Margaret Holliday wrote on 28 August.

In the meantime, Joseph Cook, the former prime Minister wrote, describing Bob as “one of our most brilliant University boys” and a specially coded cable was sent to London to ascertain his condition and his whereabouts.

And so the correspondence went, back and forth for over 170 pages and over the years.

“…our anxiety is daily increasing.”

“we have been kept all these awful months in such agony…the confusion and contradiction are simply astounding,” wrote Reverend Holliday.

On 7 December, Reverend Holliday received a cable.

“Regret report 4801 Holliday prev. reported wounded now killed in action 30 July.” The date was amended to 20 July by another cable the next day.

The most likely account of events was that Bob was shot in the mouth and was then carried to the entrance of the communication trench which was captured by the Germans before he died. His death was then announced by the Prussian War Office. It was not until 1923 that a letter from Base Records finally put the pieces together. It appears that he had been buried in a mass grave at Fromelles or Flerbeaux.

Reverend Holliday poured out his frustration from his broken heart:

“It almost seems to me now that no one knows and no one even cares what has become of my son.”

At Newington, there was widespread grief at the loss of one of their most brilliant.

“…we mourn not only for the loss of a fine man, but the ruin of what we hoped for him.”

The next edition of ‘The Newingtonian’ contained another obituary. Lieutenant A R Muir MC had been killed in action at Zonnebeke on 13 October 1917 aged 22.

The Holidays were sustained by the comforts of their faith and at the memorial service held at Hornsby Methodist Church on 28 January 1917, Reverend C J Prescott, Headmaster of Newington and father of Clarence Prescott who had also played for SUCC in 1914-15, preached the sermon:

“He was intended for a soldier. He looked forward to the avocations of peace, the halls and cloisters of academic calm or the courts where justice is done…’He rushed into the field/And foremost fighting fell.’…He was the pride of his school.”

The Hollidays wished that their son’s name be preserved at Newington. To the present day, a prize is awarded in Bob’s memory . A tablet to his memory also forms part of the Chapel Walkway. And, at the University where he prospered, the ‘Clifford Dawson Holliday’ prize is awarded to the most proficient candidate in third year examinations in Agriculture and Environment. Third year…a year at University that Bob Holliday never started. Now, the splendid website ‘Beyond 1914. The University of Sydney and the Great War’ commemorates all those from the University who served in World War I. It reveals a little more about Clifford Dawson Holliday. A serious, studious, principled young man of great promise. There is also an extract from something that he wrote just before he was killed:

“I am where I think I ought to be and where I believe God means me to be, and I have no fear for the future for I am in His care.”

Finally, 92 years after Bob’s death, in 2008, the existence of unmarked mass graves at Pheasant Wood was confirmed. Gradually, the remains of 250 of the Australians buried there were identified.

One was Bob Holliday.

On 19 July 2010, he was finally buried in a separate, marked grave. A distant cousin, Katie Jones, was there at the commemoration ceremony to see Bob finally laid to rest. After all those years, one who had been lost is now found.

James Rodgers

Keith Sheffield, 1930-2017

Keith Hubert Sheffield, captain of Sydney University's First Grade semi-final team of 1956-57,  died in Brisbane on 3 June 2017, aged 87. 

Born on 13 February 1930, Keith was a popular boy at Canterbury Boys High School, with a pleasant manner and was a very keen sportsman from a young age.  At school, he played both cricket and rugby league, competing against Richie Benaud, who was at Parramatta High.

Cricket was his first love but he also excelled in football and golf. Although he never mentioned it to his children, his wife, Barbara, always said he was an excellent tennis player in his youth as well.  A prefect and vice-captain at his high school he excelled academically as well as on the sports field. He was interested in the classical languages of Greek and Latin and taught himself Greek while still at high school. After school he attended Sydney University where he met Barbara. He studied Law, Latin, French, Philosophy and History and graduated in Arts/Law in 1952. He became a solicitor working in Sydney CBD, where according to someone who knew him at the time he was popular and highly regarded for his work.

At Sydney University he began cricket in the lower grades, but was too talented not to rise to the top. He was a higher order batsman and complete all round fieldsman. He had a good knowledge of the game and of players in the various clubs. 

His cricketing strengths were in batting and fielding. He was awarded a ‘Blue’ by the University in 1951. 

Following graduation he was not eligible to continue with the University Club and during this time SUCC had disappointing results even though there was a nucleus of first graders with much potential. The feeling grew that he would be an appropriate leader to foster that potential as well as being an asset to the team as a player. As a graduate he would become eligible again if he was appointed a captain.

Under his leadership the team developed a new hopefulness and began to have success. Saxon White recalls: 'The only thing that made 56-57 different however, was that the University side grew up together over a few years.....so in that season when Keith Sheffield took the captaincy, the District Clubs were faced with a more confident and growly University.. Keith.. managed one of the best cricket years of our lives.'

An example of his initiative was his willingness to risk Donald Scott-Orr as the team's slow bowler, for lack of another. Donald was predominantly an opening batsman and had not bowled his slow stuff during earlier years with the club, except in the nets. To universal surprise this began to bear fruit, being backed by a talented fielding side. In addition he had two good really quick opening bowlers, Frank Stening and David Walker, yet he understood the wisdom of using his slow bowler unexpectedly early in the innings for reasons of surprise and because the main weapon of this bowler was what he did in the air, rather than off the pitch - this strategy worked even better when the ball was relatively new.

Such ability to engender confidence drew a response which resulted in the team engaging in the semi-finals for the first time in many years. It proved to signal a renaissance.

Keith played First Grade between 1949 and 1961, scoring 2919 runs at an average of 23.54, with a highest score of 121 not out.  That was, at the time, the fifth-highest tally of First Grade runs for Sydney University.  In all grades, he scored 3982 runs at 23.98, which was then the highest number of runs anyone had scored for the club.

He also continued playing rugby league for club teams.  With so much time devoted to sport he was not able to keep up fully with his work as a solicitor and with the financial demands of a growing family (by now four children) he eventually made the decision to leave legal practice, and Sydney, and took the family to Cooma in 1964 when he took on a job with the Snowy Mountains Authority. He wasted no time in joining Cooma Golf Club and Cooma Cricket Club

He then took a job at the University of New England in Armidale, northern NSW, where he worked under Zelman Cowen (later Sir Zelman Cowen, Governor-General of Australia) and of course joined the local golf club.

In the early 1970s the family relocated to Brisbane when Zelman Cowen, who had become Vice- Chancellor at the University of Queensland, offered him a job as Assistant Registrar. He worked there until his retirement in 1990.   While there he won awards for two study tours to the United States and Europe.

He had joined the local golf club and a steady stream of club prizes came into the house as he won weekend rounds and competition.

After the loss of his wife, Barbara, his memory began to fail. However, his daughter Jan and son Bruce flew him from Brisbane to attend the dinner at the Sydney Cricket Ground to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Sydney University Cricket Club, when he sat with his 1956-57 team.

The Club's condolences are extended to the Sheffield family.

Don Scott-Orr and James Rodgers

101 years ago today...

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 MAJOR JOHN NICHOLAS FRASER ARMSTRONG (1878-1916)

Major Armstrong of the Royal Engineers 　was supervising the draining of a trench on the morning of Wednesday 　5 July 1916. The weather, which had been fine, closed in on 4 July and the trenches filled easily. Amidst the noise and chaos of battle, Armstrong 　was hit by a shell. He died later that day and was buried in the Fricourt British Cemetery.

This was the fifth day of the relentless Battle of the Somme which eventually lasted for 141 days and which resulted in 　over one million casualties. This joint attack by the British and French forces on German positions at Picardy, astride the Somme River, had a net gain of six miles of ground.

Armstrong was born in 1878 　in England into a well-connected family. His father was a law graduate of Oriel College Oxford. His maternal great grandmother was Mary Reibey (1777-1855), transported to NSW as a convict but who became a successful business woman and property owner and whose image is now on our $20 notes. 　John Armstrong was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (‘Shore’) after his family returned to Australia. Incidentally, ‘Wisden Cricketers’ Almanac’ makes a rare mistake when it gives his school as ‘Sydney Grammar’. At Shore, he was a successful and talented sportsman, winning ‘Blues’ for Rowing (bow seat in the 1st crew), Rugby Football (a powerful scrummager and light-footed 　lineout jumper) and Cricket (opening bowler, leading wicket taker, who also batted at number 3).

Leaving Shore in June 1897 with a swag of sporting prizes, he enrolled in Arts at Sydney University but discontinued after First Year 1898.

Returning in 1901, this time he enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering,　 sitting and passing a demanding series of first year exams in Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Geometry, Geography and Design and Drawing. He seemed to have found his feet and resumed his sporting career with relish. He rowed in the Sydney University Eight which had an emphatic win over Melbourne and Adelaide on the Parramatta River in 1903 and opened the bowling for the University 1st XI when the Club was readmitted to the 1st Grade Competition in 1902, having been restricted to the 2nd Grade Competition for four seasons.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining and Metallurgy)in 1904, Armstrong made his way to South Africa where he was Manager of one of the De Beer’s mines in the Kimberley.

When war was declared, Armstrong was already 36 years old but the patriotic call 　was insistent and he enlisted in England and was immediately appointed to the rank of Captain on 23 October 1914. He had some military experience, having served in a volunteer force, the Irish Rifles, in Sydney while he was an undergraduate, rising to the rank of Captain. During 1915, Armstrong 　raised and trained a new company, the 128th Field Company of the Royal Engineers and was sent to France where he was plunged into active service from August 1915.

Amidst the slaughter on the Somme and the thousands of deaths, there was no formal obituary for John Armstrong.

He had written a short account of his time in France which was published in Shore’s magazine, ‘The Torchbearer’ in April 1916 and his former schoolmates were advised of his death by the next edition of the magazine. His name is listed in the school’s substantial Roll of Honour and in that of the University of Sydney. He has a marked grave at Fricourt.

But, John Nicholas Fraser Armstrong has been all but forgotten by the Club which he once proudly represented.

When you next take out a $20 note from your wallet, pause for a moment on Mary Reibey’s image, and today, remember her great grandson, killed in France 101 years ago.

James Rodgers

AD Mitchell: "Among the first to heed the clarion call..."

                                   ALAN DAVID MITCHELL (1891-1915)
 
                                   ‘Among the first to heed the clarion call…’
 
 
On the evening of 3 December 1914, Aubrey Oxlade, long-serving Honorary Secretary of the Middle Harbour District Cricket Club (later known as Manly) read out a letter of resignation from the General Committee’s youngest member. A.Cooper, a 1st Grade batsman who was to play for the Club until 1920, was elected to fill the vacancy and the Committee proceeded with its business.
 
Five months later, news of Private Alan David Mitchell’s death reached Australia, reported in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ of 11 May 1915 and in the ‘Sydney Mail’ of 19 May 1915 and noted in the Middle Harbour DCC’s 1914-15 Annual Report (“…died fighting for his country…he took a very active part in the management of the Club’s affairs.”) He had been wounded on the morning of the first landing at Anzac Cove, and was transferred on 30 April to hospital at Heliopolis where on 5 May he died of wounds suffered when he was shot in the foot by a Turkish sniper. He was one of 75 members of the Middle Harbour DCC to enlist (1 Battalion, number 1323); the first from the Manly district to be killed in World War I; one of 15 Sydney University Cricket Club players to lose his life in World War I; one of 647 old boys of The King’s School to enlist; one of the 101 who never returned. “Among the first to heed the clarion call to patriotism and to count it a worthy thing to do to lay down their life for their country were the men of The Kings School,” writes one of the School’s historians.
 
So Mitchell was a cricketer with two Clubs; a cricket administrator; Secretary of the King’s Old Boys’ Union; a Law I student at Sydney University; a clerk in his father’s legal practice at Manly; persistent, energetic, active and loyal to his duties.
 
But his burial site gives a further clue to his identity. He was laid to rest in the Old Cairo Jewish Cemetery. One version of his military enlistment form states that his religion was ‘Hebrew’; another that he was ‘Jew’. Mitchell does not seem to be a Jewish name? Another clue: His mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Myers (1861-1920). Perhaps his Jewish identity was derived from his mother as Judaism is irrevocably matrilineal? His paternal grandfather, Michael David (known as David) Mitchell (1825-1892) ran a successful wine, spirits and grocery store eventually known as ‘D Mitchell and Co’ in Sydney and he lived in Pyrmont Bridge Rd Glebe in a house named ‘Jarocin’ after his birthplace in Prussia (now part of Poland). Mitchell, however, was not his original name. He was one of many Jews who emigrated in the late 1840s, firstly to Hamburg, then to London, then in 1851 to Australia. His surname had been Minchel and in London he had ‘anglicised’ it to ‘Mitchell’. In Australia, he kept his new surname and he kept his faith, marrying Julia Davis (1835-1906) in the Macquarie St Synagogue. His son, Mark (1861-1922), then married Elizabeth Myers at the Great Synagogue in 1887. David Mitchell was well established in Sydney society, even serving for a time as an alderman on the Glebe Council from 1884 to 1887.
 
Alan David Mitchell with his brothers, Clive Harry (1895-1985) and Karl Arthur (1897-1951), were three of a small number of Jewish boys at The King’s School from the time  when Alan entered in 1903  until 1915 when Karl finished. At King’s, Alan was called ‘Ikey’ a Jewish boy’s name which means ‘laughter’ and which is a version of Isaac. He fitted in well when he arrived from Manly Grammar into Broughton House, student no. 2564. He was a school Monitor, served eight years in the cadets, played in the 1st XI from 1909 to 1911, captained the 2nd XV from half back (he was about average height for the time at  5’ 5” tall). The King’s School Magazine of June 1915, reporting his death, comments: ”Few of our younger old boys were better known or better liked than Mitchell.” He went up to Sydney University to study Arts and he was resident at the Presbyterian St Andrew’s College. The College at the time has been described in gloomy terms. ‘…a neo-Gothic construction complete with spires…stained-glass windows, dark wood panelling.’ (John Murphy, ‘Evatt, A Life’). It was while he was a student there, one of only 1500 students at the University, that he played his only season, 1911-12, without distinction,  with Sydney University CC. In four innings in 2nd Grade he totalled 45 runs and his seven 3rd Grade appearances realised only another 99 runs.  His return to Middle Harbour DCC for 1912-13 gives another clue to his life.
 
At St Andrew’s College, he was almost an exact contemporary of H V Evatt, a brilliant student who was later the youngest ever appointed as a Justice of the High Court of Australia, President of the United Nations, leader of the Federal Labor Party and then Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court. Mitchell and Evatt had certain characteristics in common. Both were indefatigable organisers, enthusiastic participants, actively involved but moderate sportsmen. As cricketers, both were persistent but their scores lend themselves to little interpretation other than that they were the product of limited ability. They turned up consistently; they were turned out neatly; they practised diligently. They are both minor footnotes in the long history of the SUCC, remembered for what they did away from the cricket fields. In his two 1st Grade innings, Evatt made 19 runs. Mitchell batted four times in 1st Grade for Middle Harbour for 43 runs. In March 1910, the cricket correspondent in the King’s School Magazine  had commented with some asperity:
“A mixture of very good off-side strokes and very bad leg glances. Would do very well if he would give up the latter. Fair field but weak catch and poor thrower”.
Mick Bardsley,  a participant in Evatt’s only 1st Grade game, was succinct in his memory of Evatt 60 years later: “He was a good organiser.”
 
The marked difference between Evatt and Mitchell was their academic record at University. Evatt had a series of outstanding results culminating in his University Medal in Arts and then a second Medal when he finished first in his Bachelor of Laws class. On the other hand, in Arts I in 1912, Mitchell passed only Maths I and he appears to have discontinued his studies in 1913, thus losing his eligibility to play for SUCC. That’s why he re-joined the Middle Harbour Club in 1912-13 while working  as a clerk in his father’s law firm. Had he put too much time into his other activities? Did he lose interest in his studies? Was he just not cut out for academic life?
 
His 2nd Grade performances with Middle Harbour in 1912-13 (158 runs from 12 innings) hardly justified a call-up to 1st Grade but in October, he made 9 and an impressive 34 on debut against Waverley, but  in November was bowled for 0 against Cumberland  at the SCG before returning to the 2nd Grade side that enjoyed only one solitary victory that season.
 
War clouds were gathering when Mitchell made his third and final appearance in 1st Grade in October 1914. By this stage, ‘cricket had become no more than a frivolous diversion’ since Great Britain’s declaration of war on 4 August. But this game against Glebe at Manly Oval was redolent with incidents that would appear significant only later. In Middle Harbour’s innings on the second day, 31 October, Mitchell was bowled first ball by A B (Tibby) Cotter, the fearsome former Australian fast bowler. Mitchell enlisted in the AIF on 20 November. Cotter enlisted on 4 April the following year. A month after that, Mitchell was dead. Three years to the day that Cotter ended Mitchell’s 1st Grade career, 31 October 1917, Cotter himself was killed at Beersheba, the only Australian Test cricketer killed in World War I.
 
Alan Mitchell returned to studies at Sydney University, this time in Law I. In 1914, he’s listed among the undergraduates in Law (along with J B Lane, SUCC’s 1st Grade Premiership captain, and E A McTiernan, later the longest-serving  Judge on the High Court of Australia as he lasted an extraordinary 46 years). But Mitchell is also listed as ‘unmatriculated’ and without any other academic qualifications. Did he apply for a place on the basis of his clerkship in his father’s firm and his family’s undoubted wealth?
Whatever the answer is, all that was put aside when he enlisted and sailed for Egypt.
 
Mitchell’s death inspired an almost immediate and practical response from his father. Mark Mitchell was intimately involved in life at Many; a local solicitor, trustee of the Manly Literary Institute, Director of the Manly Golf Club, resident since 1900 at the stately mansion ‘Leitelinna” built in 1898 on the corner of James St and Fairlight St. He was a man of considerable means and in 1916 he donated 1000 pounds for the purpose of erecting an Anzac Memorial in Manly. On 14 October 1916, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, unveiled the polished granite column, the first Cenotaph in Australia, that still stands on The Corso. It was dedicated to the ‘memory of those gallant men of Manly who so gloriously gave their lives for the sake of Humanity and Justice. This memorial was erected by the family of Alan David Mitchell the first soldier of Manly to fall’.
At The King’s School, his memory has also been preserved. Mark Mitchell donated one of the bells in the school chapel. The Old Boys’ Union founded a prize in his memory which to this day is given to the ‘best all-round boy in the school’.
Alan Mitchell  is  commemorated on the Great Synagogue’s Roll of Honour. His brother, Clive, is also listed. Clive served as a Sapper in Signals after he was finally accepted, having been twice rejected, possibly because of his height as he stood a tiny 5’2”. Severe bouts of malaria preceded his return to Australia in March 1919. Clive was also a cricketer with Middle Harbour in 1914-15, a solicitor who lived long, dying at 90.
 
Alan David Mitchell, a footnote in any cricket history,872 runs in 68 innings for his two clubs,  but a fine, energetic, generous  young man, dead at 23, 102 years ago, unheralded and unlisted by the club that he represented for only one season, 106 years ago…until now.

Remembering the ANZAC tradition

Lt Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin
Born in Sydney 31 October 1878
Killed at Gallipoli 27 April 1915.
 
MacLaurin is remembered at Gallipoli by a landmark called ‘MacLaurin’s Hill’.
He was a highly successful barrister, active in the militia forces when he enlisted on 15 August 1914, almost as soon as war was declared.
Tony Cunneen, who has done invaluable research into lawyers’ service in the Great War, has written about the NSW legal profession:
         ‘While they were certainly members of what the historian Manning Clark called the ‘comfortable classes’ they were also willing to forgo the security and safety of that class and give all their support to the cause of national identity and honour on the battle fields on the other side of the world.’
MacLaurin played only two seasons for Sydney University CC.  In 1896-97, after scoring only 44 runs at 7.3 in 2nd Grade, he was inexplicably promoted to 1st Grade (1st Grade cap number 53) where he played another two games without distinction. In the season when the Club was readmitted on humbling terms to the Grade Competition in 1898-99, MacLaurin was selected in 1st Grade  twice more. An energetic 54 was followed by a non-descript 5 and he played no more.
His father, Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin (1835-1914), a Scotsman, was Chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1896 until his death. He was also President of the Legislative Council, the Upper House of the NSW Parliament. A dominant figure in conservative politics, he was nevertheless admirably open to fresh educational ideas, especially those brought forward by the NSW Labor Government of 1910 which related to the reform of the Senate of the University. His second son, named after his father, was educated at Blair Lodge School at Polmont in Scotland and then at Sydney Grammar School. Two other sons, Charles and Hugh both served in the War.
After graduation BA in 1899 and admission to the NSW Bar,  MacLaurin carried on his work as a barrister from 11 Wentworth Chambers in Elizabeth St, specialising in accountancy. He also pursued a military career. Commissioned in the NSW Scottish Rifles in 1899, he eventually rose to command the 26th Infantry Regiment in July 1913. When he enlisted in the AIF, he was immediately appointed Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 1st Infantry Brigade, a force of 4000 men. At 36 years of age, he was young for such responsibility but he wisely chose more experienced men to command battalions under him.
In a letter to  Justice David Ferguson (whose son, Arthur, a Law student who had also been to Sydney Grammar, was killed in France in 1916)  in March 1915, MacLaurin confided that rumours of the soldiers’ bad behaviour in Cairo had been exaggerated.
          ‘With 20,000 men it can be easily seen that some would play up for a bit while their money lasted…’
He stood up for his men, attacking those civilians who were ‘doubtful and dissatisfied and critical’. Their accounts were ‘false and malicious’. Although he was a stern disciplinarian, he had a fine reputation among his men who respected his energy and enthusiasm especially when they trained under him in Egypt.
When orders of the landing at Gallipoli came through, Mac Laurin was said to have ‘happily cancelled his leave and bounded smiling up the stairs to the General’s office to plan the attack.’ (Cunneen).
During the afternoon of 27 April 1915, at about 3.15 pm, MacLaurin ‘was standing on the slopes of the ridge that now bears his name… in the act of warning soldiers to keep under cover when he too was shot dead…MacLaurin was buried by his men where he fell.’ In 1919, he was reinterred at the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery. He was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General.
He was the fifth of the 337 from Sydney Grammar who were  killed or who died in the War. An extraordinary 2172 ‘Old Sydneians’ enlisted. (I am indebted to Dr Philip Creagh who has carried out painstaking and forensic analysis of the Old Sydneians who enlisted). There was widespread grief among the legal profession. A ceremonial service was held at the Banco court and special mention was made in the minutes of the Bar Association.
He was the first of the Club’s former players to be killed.
CEW Bean wrote of him:
           ‘…a man of lofty ideals, direct, determined, with a certain inherited Scottish dourness…but an educated man of action of the finest type that the Australian universities produce.’

Final Milestones

The epic draw in last weekend's First Grade Premier Cricket final gave Sydney University its ninth First Grade premiership since the establishment of the competition in 1893-94.  The previous premierships were in 1909-10, 1911-12, 1913-14, 2002-03, 2004-05, 2010-11, 2012-12 and 2013-14.  University has won the competition four times in the last seven seasons.

Ryan Carters was named as the Benaud Medallist as the player of the final for his extraordinary 110 not out.  He has become only the fourth Sydney University player to win the Banaud Medal, after Danny Waugh (2002-03), Scott Henry (2010-11) and Stuart Clark (2012-13).  Ryan's incredible innings, which occupied 526 minutes and 431 balls was (by either measure) the longest ever played for Sydney University in a First Grade match.  He hit his third century for the Club, and passed 500 runs for University this season.

Ed Cowan's sparkling 95 provided another remarkable highlight of a Final during which he was also named as the NSW Sheffield Shield player of the year, and the Steve Waugh Medallist.  During his innings he became only the fourth player to score 8000 runs for the Club (after Greg Mail, Ian Moran and Adam Theobald).

Tom Rogers picked a moment of crisis to hit his first half-century for the Club, a vital innings of 56.

And then there's Greg Mail, who announced his retirement at the conclusion of the Final.  He retires with 10,247 runs for Sydney University, and 15,242 runs in his overall First Grade career - both of which, you will hardly need reminding, are records, as are his 30 centuries for University and 43 First Grade centuries.  Congratulations on a truly exceptional career.