Evan Atkins - Wicket keeper, Selector and Administrator
From all the players, supporters and board of Sydney University Cricket Club, we congratulate Greg on his appointment as the CNSW Head of Cricket and wish him all the very best in his new role. CNSW is in great hands.
https://www.cricketnsw.com.au/news/greg-mail-appointed-cricket-nsw-head-of-cricket/2020-05-02
James Rodgers remembers the unfortunate end of one of the Club’s early First Graders….
HEBER HUGH MACMAHON….Fell to his death
Late on Saturday evening 15 September 1900, a young 1st Grade cricketer fell to his death from a railway bridge onto the road below just near Chatswood Oval.
He had missed the last tram from Milsons Point Arcade and had boarded the north-bound train, intending to alight at Chatswood Station. He was on his way to his family’s home in Penshurst St Willoughby. But, falling asleep on the train, he missed his stop and was carried on to Roseville, when, by now awake but with clouded judgement, he decided to walk back south along the railway track. He had reached the bridge just south of Chatswood Station, over Albert Avenue, when he slipped and fell 22 feet onto the road, fracturing his skull and breaking his left leg. By the time he was found, he was dead. The coroner, sitting at Willoughby on the Monday after the death, handed down a finding of ‘accidental death’.
Heber Hugh MacMahon had played two seasons in 1st Grade with Sydney University (1895-96 and 1896-97) and then another two seasons (1898-99, 1899-00) for North Sydney.
Tragedy had already visited his large family. The youngest of his three sisters, Mary, had died aged 4 in 1876, just after Heber was born. The third of his five brothers, John Stephen, aged 24, had drowned in 1887 at Braidwood, 85 kilometres south of Goulburn.
Their father, Patrick MacMahon (1831-1910) had arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1854 and was employed by W Dean & Co Auctioneers, before branching out with an associated company, Macquarie Bond. He married Dora Macdonagh (1835-1908) in 1857 and within eighteen years they were to have nine children. The youngest, Heber, was named after the Irish Bishop, Heber MacMahon (1600-1650) who was martyred and executed by hanging at Enniskillen in Derry.
Patrick made a considerable success of his life in Sydney. He established a large family home in Hurstville where Dora St and MacMahon St still exist as memories of the family influence. He was an Alderman on the Sydney Council and a pillar of the Catholic Church.
St ignatius’ College, Riverview, opened in 1880. From January 1885 until December 1886, Heber was a student there. For some reason lost in the mists of time, he transferred to Sydney Grammar School and completed his schooling there early in 1895. In the co-curricular life there, he prospered. He held his position as wicket keeper in the 1st XI for five seasons (“easily the best in the position that the school has ever had”, commented The Sydneian of October 1900); played in the 1st XV of 1893 and 1894; won a Gold Medal for Athletics in 1894; was an expert rifle shot; and performed with distinction in the College musical concerts (viola, cornet, singing).
But, did he neglect his studies?
Nevertheless, he joined the Sydney University Cricket Club for the 1895-96 season (1st Grade cap no42). He does not, however, appear to have ever been a student at the University. Four of his Sydney Grammar contemporaries were playing there, HC Delohery, PS Jones, William Harris, NF Stephen. They may have persuaded him to join them and to strengthen the side with his wicket keeping? Eligibility rules for the Cricket Club were rather loose and liable to be interpreted liberally. Veterans played with other graduates of long standing. Graduates of other universities played. Some callow undergraduates were there as were others with only vague connections with the University. Team success was elusive (1st Grade won only four games in Heber’s two seasons) although Heber’s runs down the order were valuable (160 @12.3 in his two seasons) and he kept wickets competently. The Club’s continued existence, under circumstances where it won only the occasional game, was precarious. Under intense pressure, the Club decided to withdraw from the Electorate Competition for 1897-98 and was only allowed back in 1898-99 on humbling terms, restricted to undergraduates only and permitted to play the 1st XI in the 2nd Grade competition only. The Club did exist in a sort of ‘twilight season’ in 1897-98 when University played non-electorate clubs and Heber continued to play against such disparate sides as IZingari, Maitland Albion, Illawarra. Sydney University (bolstered by some Melbourne University players) did play in January 1898 against Stoddart’s touring English XI. Heber was named in the ‘Universities’ thirteen for the game but didn’t bat or bowl or take any catches.
University’s continued exclusion from the top grade forced him to North Sydney Cricket Club (1st grade cap no48), for whom he was residentially qualified as his residence at Willoughby was within Norths’ boundaries. He played in 1898-99 and four games in 1899-1900.
What did he do outside the cricket fields?
He continued to live at home.
He continued his musical interests. Indeed, that talent passed through the generations. A nephew, Patrick Moore MacMahon, who also went to Riverview (1911-13), became a noted musician in Sydney.
And, he joined the military volunteer force, the NSW Irish Rifles, formed in 1895, and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1898.
Heber was easy to like: “Comely in appearance, bright-eyed, companionable, able to sing a good song.”
His Requiem Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, was celebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, Patrick Francis Cardinal Moran, and his body was carried on a gun carriage to Rookwood Cemetery where he was buried with full military honours. Representatives from most parts of his short life paid their respects. St Ignatius’ College was represented as was Sydney Grammar School. The Irish Rifles, North Sydney Cricket Club were in attendance. Wreaths were placed from Balmain and Leichardt Cricket Clubs.
But, apparently, no one from the University Cricket Club.
The Club was experiencing its own difficulties, banished to 2nd Grade. Its administration had suffered from a passing parade of officials. There were five Honorary Secretaries from 1894 until 1900. Monty Faithfull stayed on as President from 1891 until 1909 but he was the only one of the venerable graduates who stayed to guide the Club through stormy seas.
And, within a twelve month period, the Club was to suffer deeper sorrows brought about by young deaths.
Seven months before Heber’s death, Dr Erskine Hugh Robison, a medical student when he scored the Club’s first century in Electorate Cricket, 113 not out vs East Sydney in 1893, died in a tuberculosis sanitorium in Nordrach, Black Forest, Germany where he was working aged 28, leaving a widow, Ethel, who was to survive him by 58 years.
And less than four months after Heber’s death, in February 1900, Robert Martin Gibson, an Arts I student in 1900, resident at St Andrew’s College, aged just 21, was drowned in a river in Queensland. He had played twice in the Club’s 1st XI in 1899-00 and once in 1900-01.
This still doesn’t explain adequately why the Club did not apparently acknowledge one of its own. Tragically, accidentally, dead at 25.
James Rodgers
James Rodgers continues his exploration of the Club’s history with this piece on one of the two Sydney University cricketers to serve in the Boer War.
LIEUTENANT HENRY CHARLES MORRISET DELOHERY 1875-1928
Henry Delohery, born in Maitland, attended Sydney Grammar School, as did his four brothers. All of them played cricket with some skill.
Five sons and three daughters were children of Cornelius Delohery (1838-1924), one-time Deputy Stipendiary Magistrate, and Harriett – nee Roberts – (1838-1923) who were married in 1861. Henry was the only one of the family to pursue medical studies and he enrolled in Medicine I at Sydney University in 1893. His entry into the University coincided with the Cricket Club’s emergence as one of the clubs in the initial season of ‘Electorate Cricket’. Indeed, Henry played in the first game of the new competition (SUCC 1st Grade cap no7), University v Glebe at Wentworth Park in October 1893. His intermittent appearances I 1st Grade, however, were not productive. Consistency eluded him. 26 innings spread over four seasons produced only 347 runs and he barely held his place.
These were not happy seasons for the Club. A series of faltering performances led to University’s withdrawal from the competition for the 1897-98 season and its readmission on humbling terms in 1898-99. The 1st XI, restricted to undergraduates only, played in the 2nd Grade competition but Delohery, nearing the end of his studies, had his best season: 462 runs at 46.2. Joined by a younger brother, Ernest who scored 393 runs and took 33 wickets, Henry seems to have found his level at last and the side won the 2nd Grade premiership.
After graduation, Henry played 1st Grade for Sydney in 1900-01 but the Boer War had been declared in South Africa and wounded and sick troops desperately needed doctors. Just after the season ended, Lieutenant Delohery, now a Medical Officer in the NSW Contingent of the Army Medical Corps, sailed on the SS Custodian and spent twelve months attached to Colonel Williams’ and Colonel Rimmington’s columns in West and East Transvaal.
Just after the peace treaty was signed, Delohery arrived back in Sydney in June 1902.
His life from there seems to defy much analysis. He seems to have played no more Electorate Cricket; he was married and had three children (the youngest of whom was only 12 months old when Dr Delohery died); he practised at Wallsend and Forbes and finally at Hunters Hill.
On Thursday 16 February 1928, just after completing surgery, he collapsed suddenly at his home in Lane Cove. He was only 53 years old and any links with his first cricket club seemed to have been forgotten.
James Rodgers
CAPTAIN JOHN HARRIS 1874-1910
“…falling into water from a great height.”
When the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed at Melrose House in Pretoria on 31 May 1902, it signalled the end of hostilities in what was known as the South African (Boer) War.
But for Captain John Harris of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, the apparent effects of serving in the war were to last for another eight years.
On the evening of Saturday 17 December 1910, Harris, aged 36, fell about 280 feet to his death from a cliff on South Head overlooking Sydney Harbour. Dr Stratford Sheldon (1874-1965), lecturer in medical jurisprudence and toxicology at Sydney University, conducted the autopsy. Harris’ death, the Coroner concluded, “was due to shock through falling into water from a great height.” The Coroner further concluded that death was accidental. Harris had been sitting on the edge of a cliff near the Macquarie Lighthouse and had been seen to stand and then to climb down to a rock before falling. The pilot steamer ‘Captain Cook’ recovered his fully-clothed body. Evidence was given that Harris had been suffering from wounds to the head while he was in South Africa, from malaria and from attacks of dizziness. He had been invalided home in 1903 but most of the rest of his life is a mystery.
But was this really an ‘accidental’ death?
What demons was he suffering from that drove him to The Gap?
Was he suffering from wounds that cannot be seen? At the time, diagnoses of neurasthenia (nervous exhaustion) were beginning to be understood by the medical profession. Its effects included insomnia, fatigue, headaches, depression…all recognised effects after trauma.
Caroline Alexander has written about the all-too common sights after the Great War in England:
“At War’s end, the legions of shellshock veterans dispersed into the mists of history. One catches glimpses of them, however, through a variety of oblique lenses. They crop up…hallucinating in the streets of London or selling stockings door to door in provincial towns.” (Smithsonian Magazine, September 2010)
Captain Harris had enjoyed a privileged upbringing and education and a distinguished career in the army. He was born into the Harris family that inherited vast property in Ultimo, originally granted by Governor King in 1803 to Dr John Harris (1754-1838). He was the fourth of eight sons, one of eleven children, of Matthew Harris (1841-1917) and Frances Snowden Lane (1847?-1915). Matthew Harris had come from Londonderry to Sydney as a young child and he was educated under Reverend Thomas Aitken at the ‘Normal Institution’ in King St, Sydney. Then he was one of the earliest students at Sydney Grammar School and an early graduate (one of 16 BAs awarded in 1863) from the University of Sydney. His life was one of significant public service. He was representative of Denison Ward in the Sydney Municipal Council from 1883 until 1900; Member for the seat of Sydney Denison in the NSW Parliament from 1894 until 1901. As Mayor of Sydney in 1898, he opened the Queen Victoria Building and he was then knighted in 1899. His library housed a splendid collection of Australian and oriental works. Seven of his sons were educated at Sydney Grammar School: George, Matthew James and William Henry all entered the school in 1883, John in 1885, Robert and Arthur Leslie in 1892 and Albert Octavius in 1901.
John Harris captained the Grammar 1st XI for two years, 1891 and 1892. The Grammar cricket Masters must have seen significant leadership ability in the 17 year old who captained his older brother, William, in the 1891 side. Any cricket ability, however, is difficult to discern by examining figures and reading reports. The cricket writer in the October 1892 edition of ‘The Sydneian’ commented on Harris’ batting style with some asperity: “Has a rather laboured style with some effective forward strokes…in which he uses his reach well but has a propensity to chop across at straight balls.”
So, he played across the line a little too regularly?
In 1892, he batted in the middle order and bowled occasionally. In eight innings in the more important games, he totalled only 86 runs. He captained five others who appeared in Sydney University’s 1st Grade sides of the 1890s: PS Jones, HH MacMahon, TP Strickland, NF Stephen and his brother, WH Harris.
He rowed in the School’s 2nd IV crew and his academic results were sound. So, he went up to Sydney University in 1893 (when WH Harris was doing Medicine II) and enrolled in Arts I, residing at St Paul’s College.
But he did not thrive in academic life, unsuccessfully attempting Arts I in both 1893 and 1894.
His first appearance in the Cricket Club’s 1st Grade side is puzzling, given his cricketing record. On 1 December 1894 at University No1 Oval, Harris, batting at number 9, made four before he was caught from the bowling of former Test player Alick Bannerman. Then on 12 January 1895, both he and his brother, William played in 1st Grade on the same day against Redfern at the SCG. Batting at number 10, William made a confident 39 and shared a last wicket partnership with John (who remained 6 not out) as they took University to an imposing 287. Earlier, Sammy Jones, the former Test player, hit his highest score, 138, in Electoral cricket. Rain on the second day rendered the ground unfit for play and this appears to be the end of John’s brief 1st Grade career: two games, 10 runs, average 10. But, six weeks’ later, ‘Harris’ opens for University against Glebe at the University and is bowled for 23. The ‘Daily Telegraph’s’ scores give this as ‘W Harris’. In all other newspapers, he is simply ‘Harris’. Two games later, ‘Harris’ is run out for 2 against Canterbury. In all likelihood, John Harris had, by this time, taken up his scholarship, granted by the Senate of the University in 1894, to go to the Royal Military College Sandhurst. His brother, William, had just passed Med III and it’s he who played some games for 1st Grade in 1895-96, including the first game of that season when Easts bowled University out for 30. He then appeared in 2nd Grade in 1895-96 and 1896-97 as a bowler. He graduated MB ChM in 1897 and then served in the British Army as a Medical Officer. Invalided to Australia, suffering from shell shock, he then served another two years with the 18th Field Ambulance and survived until 1935 when he died at Chatswood.
Meanwhile, Matthew Harris was now the member for Sydney Denison in the third last NSW Colonial Parliament. On 17 July 1894, he took the seat for the Free Traders whose leader, George Reid, became Premier replacing Protectionist George Dibbs. One of the candidates for the Sydney Denison seat was Arthur Kelly, a foundation member of the ALP who eventually won the seat on Harris’ retirement in 1901.
John Harris was initially commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the King’s Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment) but in 1896 he was transferred to the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, stationed at The Curragh, County Kildare. From there, he left for South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War.
Numbers of his colleagues at Sydney Grammar were to volunteer. Thirteen were not to return, including Keith Kinnaird Mackellar, brother of the poet Dorothea, who died of wounds in July 1900. Marcus William Logan, born in Fiji, a classmate of William Harris at Grammar in 1891 and a career soldier, boasted many years later that he was the first from Grammar to fight in the Boer War. He was a Lieutenant in the 1st NSW Mounted until invalided to England in October 1900. He then served as a Lieutenant Colonel in 36 Battalion in the Great War. He may have been the cricketer referred to as ‘M Logan’ in University’s 2nd Grade in 1896-97. The evidence is not conclusive.
In the Melbourne Grammar 1st XI side of 1892 that played against John Harris’ Sydney Grammar side was JWH McKinery who also served in the Boer War and who was much decorated (DSO, CBE) in the Great War when he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Canadian forces. And among John Harris’ first year colleagues at St Paul’s in 1893, John Mair was killed on 6 June 1901, shot by Boers after surrendering.
John Harris served bravely. In a letter to his father, published in the Sydney Morning Herald of 17 February 1900, he reports that a group of Boers had abused the white flag by shooting at Harris and his men when they went forward to investigate. Harris writes:
“I have been under fire many times so that I do not mind the bullets so much now. It is the shells I dislike.”
On 15 March 1900, he endeavoured to save the life of Lieutenant Francis Noel Dent who was being swept away in the Orange River. Dent had got into difficulties trying to swim across the river. Harris waded in but just failed to reach Dent at Norval’s Point. Harris and a fellow officer were awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Silver Medal for Bravery.
He shared a tent with Viscount Fincastle (Andrew Murray, the 8th Earl of Dunmore, who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in India in 1897, two years older than Harris but who was to live another 52 years after Harris’ death).
The course of his life, however, was to change. In the battle near Lake Chrissie on 6 February 1901, Harris was badly wounded, invalided out, promoted to Captain. His list of medals had grown – the Queen’s Medal, the King Edward Medal.
Then what did he do?
In 1903, he is President of the Innniskilling Cricket Club at Curragh and some time later he returns to Sydney. There’s no sign of him until the tragic events of December 1910. Did his parents, aged 63 and 69 in 1910, take care of him? How serious were his head wounds? Was the ‘dizziness’ associated with his wounds suffered at Lake Chrissie?
John Harris is interred in the Matthew Harris family vault at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, in the old Presbyterian section.
He is one of only two members of the Sydney University Cricket Club to have served in the Boer War.
James Rodgers
Who faced the first ball?
127 years after he played his only game in the First Grade competition for Sydney University, a player whose name has been confused for so many years has now been found.
In the early days of the Grade competition, University’s players were often identified so haphazardly that many have been lost to posterity - including the man who opened the club’s first innings in First Grade. (The club itself, of course, had existed for forty years or more by October 1893: but the competition was new, and remains the one we play in today.)
Walter Charles Fitzmaurice Burfitt was the name of the player who, it has been thought, opened the batting in University’s initial First Grade game in Electorate Cricket (later called ‘Grade Cricket’ and now ‘Premier Cricket’) in October 1893. Burfitt, who was eventually a distinguished surgeon , resided as an undergraduate at St John’s College during the 1890s. He had been a cricketer at school (Riverview) and it would have been reasonable to conclude that it was he who played this game.
But, in various places, the name was given as either ‘BURFITT’ or ‘BURKITT’.
It wasn’t much to go on and Walter Burfitt was listed in the stories of the Sydney University Cricket Club as the more likely player.
Why would this be important? At best, it sounds trivial, obscure, irrelevant.
Except that, whoever this was, appears to have been the University batsman who faced the first ball bowled in University’s initial innings of the first game of Electorate Cricket on the first day (of a three-day game) between University and Glebe at Wentworth Park on 7 October 1893.
Historically, it’s reasonably important to know just who this was.
His partner, who walked out with him to the polite applause of the 2000 spectators after University had dismissed Glebe for 128, was ‘H Moses’. At one time, he was thought to have been the Test cricketer, Harry, who played six Tests between 1886 and 1892. But no, this was Henry C Moses, Harry’s nephew - who has also been difficult to track down. After this, he played one more match for University (3 innings, 36 runs); he didn’t appear to have been an undergraduate; he disappeared from the Club. ‘Burfitt’ or ‘Burkitt’ was caught from the bowling of Andy Newell for 10, didn’t bat in the second innings and played no more.
So, Burfitt or Burkitt?
More research reveals…
EH Burkitt was also a Medical student at Sydney University about this time although Burkitt was eight years older than Burfitt.
In 1892, EH Burkitt had been awarded one of the first twelve University Blues for Rugby. A little more research uncovers these facts:
Edmond Henry Burkitt was born on 14 November 1867 in the village of Charlton in Wiltshire, England, son of Reverend William Esdaile Burkitt (1831-1910), and he was educated at Saugreen preparatory school at Bournemouth and then at Hurstpierpoint, the Anglo-Catholic College in West Sussex. His name appeared three times in the Hurstpierpoint 1st XI in 1882. He and his three brothers emigrated to Australia in 1886. From 1887 until 1890, he was employed to teach at The Kings School, Parramatta.
Why Kings?
It’s not clear but, by coincidence, William Robert Burkitt was Senior Master at Kings from 1868 until 1886. He was an Irishman who came out to Ballarat during the goldrush of the 1850s, and somehow made his way to Kings. A player with the Wallaroo Rugby Club in Sydney, he introduced Rugby Football to Kings in 1870 and is well remembered at the school. One of its Houses is named Burkitt and the Burkitt Shield has been awarded as a senior prize since 1910. WR Burkitt and EH Burkitt appear not to have been related.
Edmond Burkitt entered St Paul’s College at Sydney University and enrolled in Medicine in 1891.
‘Burkitt’ played cricket for University’s Second Eleven (5 innings for 29 runs) and then, in December 1892, playing in the First Eleven and identified clearly as ‘EH Burkitt’, he scored 11 in University’s mammoth score of 496 against the old Warwick Club. In late December 1892, EH Burkitt was named in the practice squad for the intervarsity match in Melbourne, although he did not play in the match the following month.
Then in October 1893, is it Burkitt, not Burfitt, who opens the batting in that historically significant game?
EH Burkitt was Senior Student at St Paul’s in 1894; graduated MB ChM in 1896; married Amy Theodora Hungerford in 1898; practiced medicine for a few years at Coonamble before spending the rest of his life at Dubbo where he and his wife raise three daughters (Dora, Muriel and Marion) and a son, Ted. They named the family home ‘Westbury’, the name of the town near Charlton where Edmond was born and where the famous chalk figure of a horse is cut into the hillside. Muriel was to marry John Howell Halliday, a brother of Sydney University First Grader Sir George Halliday.
At the age of 48, Dr Burkitt enlisted in the 1st AIF in 1916 and sailed to France with the 4th Australian Field Ambulance and was eventually promoted to the rank of Major. During the horrific slaughter in France, his care for the wounded was much appreciated by the soldiers.
When he returned home in late 1917, he resumed medical practice, was President of the Dubbo Branch of the RSL, an Alderman on the Dubbo Council and an enthusiast for a number of sports, including cricket (as a Vice President of the Dubbo Cricket Club). When he died of inoperable cancer in 1925, grief was widespread.
One of his obituarists mentioned that Dr Burkitt had played his last games of cricket the previous season, when he would have been 56.
At the Sydney University Cricket Club, there was no obituary. He was forgotten, not even known by his correct name.
Until now…Edmond Henry Burkitt faced the first ball on the first day of the first match in Electorate Cricket that Sydney University ever played.
THE FIRST GAME IN ELECTORATE CRICKET
On Saturday 7 October 1893, University players followed their venerable captain, Tom Garrett, on to the field at Wentworth Park before 2000 spectators. This was the first day of the first round of the 1893-94 season and University was playing Glebe in a game to be spread over three successive Saturdays.
The significance is that this was the first day of what was then known as ‘Electorate’ cricket, the forerunner of Sydney Grade Cricket, now known as NSW Premier Cricket. And, University is one of only two easily recognisable Clubs surviving from that first season. East Sydney, South Sydney, Redfern, Glebe, ‘Parramatta and Central Cumberland Combined’, Paddington, Balmain and Canterbury have all disappeared under those names.
North Sydney survives, as does University although we are more commonly known as Sydney University these days.
All the other clubs had to draw their players from the Electorates that gave the clubs their names. University was admitted to the inaugural competition as an exception to this rule. Previously, players had represented clubs such as Albert, Carlton, Belvidere, Warwick as well as University and qualifications were loose as some players played for more than one club in the same season. Now the rules were definite and strictly enforced. Players represented the places where they lived…except the University players.
That first game at Wentworth Park resulted in a 30 run win to Glebe on the first innings even though University made a bold effort to chase 200 on the third day and were 5 for 146 when time beat them.
Who were University’s first 1st Graders (ie caps 1 to 11), the pioneers in whose footsteps we tread now?
University’s first delivery in Electoral cricket was bowled by Tom Garrett (cap no. 1) to Glebe’s LT Cobcroft. Garrett had been playing for University for 20 seasons and he was the first Australian Test player to represent the Club, having played in the very first Test Match, against England in March 1877. At the time of this game in 1893, Garrett was 35 years old, easily the oldest of the University players who went out on that first afternoon and he was easily top score on the second day when his 58 was a lone hand in University’s dismal 98.
26 year old Medicine student, English born, Edmond Burkitt (cap no. 2) faced the first ball when University batted. This was his last game for University although he was to live for another 33 years, serve in the Great War with the rank of Major and practise as a medical doctor, mainly in Dubbo.
Burkitt’s opening partner was Herbert Moses (no. 3), a nephew of the Test player, Harry Moses. Herbert doesn’t appear to have been a student at the University. He played just two 1st Grade games.
Hedley Terrey (no.4), a future medical practitioner, recorded University’s first duck in the 1st innings when he was one of Andrew Newell’s 7 wickets. An off spinner, Newell had represented NSW.
Erskine Robison (no.5) batted productively for 11 and 49. A few weeks later, Robison, a third year Medical student, was to score University’s initial 1st Grade century when he hit a free scoring 113 not out against East Sydney. Seven years later, aged only 28, Dr Robison died in Germany.
Norman White (no.6) took five cheap wickets for the match but scored no runs in his two innings. He was an Engineering student, recipient of three Blues (Cricket, Rugby and Rowing) who lived long, dying in 1957, aged 85.
Henry Charles Delohery (no.7) had a quiet match but eventually scored 809 runs and took 52 wickets in University’s 1st Grade.
Frank Dight (no.8), a 17 year old first year undergraduate, who lived for another 58 years, took 4 for 29 in Glebe’s first innings, including Syd Deane, a former NSW wicket keeper who went on to become the first Australian to act in Hollywood movies!). Dight could bowl effectively and accurately but, despite batting at number 8 in this first game, he could not bat. He was to average just under 6 with the bat in a 1st Grade career that lasted four seasons.
Alfred Hadley (no.9), a leg spinning Arts student, played his one game in 1st Grade in this match, scoring 0 and taking 0-12.
Arthur Garnsey (no.10) was probably the side’s wicket keeper in this match. He was to become an Anglican clergyman and was Warden of St Paul’s College from 1916 until his death in 1944, aged 71.
And John MacPherson (no.11) took University’s first wicket in Electoral cricket when he bowled Cobcroft for 2. MacPherson was to play only one more 1st Grade game as he concentrated on his studies, graduating with First Class honours in Arts in 1893 and with an MA in 1895.
So there they are. The first-born, Garrett, was born 162 years ago this year and the last to die, White, has been dead for 63 years.
But, remember them. 127 years ago they were University’s first eleven and since then, over 750 have played 1st Grade for a Club that has survived during all that time.
James Rodgers with acknowledgments to Alf James for his assistance with research.
Lieutenant Elliott Darcy Slade
Born at Dulwich Hill. 27 July 1894
Killed in action. 30 March 1918
DUTY
A father writes about his eldest son:
“...having seen where his duty lay, he did not hesitate to carry it out to his uttermost.”
Duty.
His son has read, in his studies of English literature, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘Voluntaries’.
“So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man.
When duty whispers low “Thou must”,
The youth replies, “I can”. “
The Commanding Officer of 33 Battalion writes to the father:
“Your son distinguished himself throughout this difficult operation by his excellent leadership, his coolness and courage…such a fine officer…he set us all a splendid example. He won the love and esteem of the whole Battalion and we deeply mourn his death.”
Darcy Slade was killed on the afternoon of Easter Saturday, 30 March 1918, leading his men in the counter-attack on Villers Bretonneux. As he was just about to fire his rifle, near Hangard Wood, a German bullet ricocheted off the rifle and “entered his brain killing him instantly.” He has no known grave.
He was the first son of John Elliott Slade (1866-1940) and Ada, nee Champagney (1869-1945). His father was much respected as Chief Survey Draughtsman for NSW. His family had the small consolation of receiving a package containing Darcy’s personal effects and a suit case which contained a German bayonet.
Darcy played just three times for the Sydney University Cricket Club in the 3rd Grade side of 1911-12, scoring 12 runs and taking 3 wickets. This was the season when the Club won both 1st and 2nd Grade Premierships. He is one of the thousands who have played lower Grades for the Club without ever reaching 1st Grade. He is one of more than 2000 ‘University men’ who enlisted in The Great War. He is one of the 17 Cricket Club players who were killed; one of twelve Law Students killed in The Great War. The hopes of a generation went with him.
He had won a scholarship from Gordon Public School to Sydney High School from 1907 to 1911 and a bursary to study Arts at Sydney University in 1912. And so he played his three games at the end of the 1911-12 season and didn’t appear for the Club again.
Darcy travelled from bucolic Wahroonga where he lived with his parents and their growing family in ‘Ellerker’ Cleveland St, first attending school at Gordon Public School on Lane Cove Rd ( now known as the Pacific Highway). This was the first public school on the North Shore when it opened in 1871. When Darcy was awarded his scholarship to Sydney High School, he travelled each day to the City and from 1912, he caught the North Shore line train to Milsons Point, then a ferry across the harbour and a tram up to the University on Parramatta Rd. There, he studied diligently excelling in Latin and English until he combined Law I subjects with Arts III in 1914. Darcy was awarded one of about 13 bursaries available at the time for those who wished to enjoy the advantage of a university education but who did not have the financial means. His father’s wage as a draughtsman gave him a secure job but his growing family left him unable to otherwise afford the type of challenging education that Darcy’s diligence and ability demanded. He had done particularly well in the matriculation exams for Sydney University in 1911, in some subjects with the future ALP leader, HV Evatt.
By 1914, Darcy was employed as an articled clerk by SM Stephens, solicitor, at the ‘Citizen’s Chambers’ in Moore St in the city. He had earned himself the hope of a distinguished career in the Law.
The declaration of war in August 1914 was a call to duty for young men of the Empire. So, a month before the Anzac landing at Gallipoli, Darcy Slade applied for enlistment. He’d served in the cadets at Sydney High and had been a Sergeant in the Sydney University Scouts. At 5’ 10” he was tall for his generation. His fair hair and fair skin made him look even younger than his 20 years but the faint moustache was a statement. He was going to do his duty. He enlisted in the AAMC without medical qualifications although recruits did serve in a variety of capacities in professional and non-professional roles in the Medical Corps.
He sailed in July 1915 on the hospital ship ‘Karoola’ but by September 1916, he was back in Australia, at Duntroon College, having transferred to the infantry. Then on 24 January 1917, he sailed again, on the ‘Anchises’ this time. Further training in England was preparatory to his promotion to Lieutenant in June 1917 and then onto France where he served at Passchendale and Villers Bretonneux from October 1917 until March 1918.
In Australia, the Slade family also farewelled their second son, Warren Champagney Slade, an old boy of ‘Shore’ School, known as ‘Mick’ or ‘Ginger Mick’ because of his red hair. He was aged only 18 when he enlisted in November 1915 and was to serve as a Lieutenant until 1919. He was then one of the oldest veterans of the Great War when he died in 1994, aged 97.
Darcy was killed in the same action as Lieutenant John Graham Antill Pockley also of 33 Battalion. Pockley enlisted on the same day as his Wahroonga neighbour. He was the brother of Captain Brian Pockley, the first Australian killed in The Great War on 11 September 1914.
Slade and the Pockley brothers are remembered on the Wahroonga War Memorial which now stands in the Sir John Northcott Gardens adjacent to the railway station. Darcy is also honoured at St Andrew’s Church in Cleveland St, the same street in which the Slade family lived. The Slade family can claim connections through marriage with pioneering Australian families including those of Sir Norman Cowper and Philip Gidley King.
Darcy Slade did his duty but Kate Atkinson’s words in A God In Ruins (2015) should also have a place in his story:
“War is man’s greatest fall from grace.”
James Rodgers