Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Sgt. Edward Larkin NSWRL Secretary Larkin was part of the AIF contingent that played rugby league in Egypt in early 1915. He was fatally wounded on April 25, 1915 at Gallipoli.

The impression has always been conveyed that rugby league was not part of the recreational sports permitted by the Australian military in World War One.

Instead, attention is invariably drawn to rugby union teams, with the most notable instance being the formation of an Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) team.

At the end of the war, the AIF side featured in a tournament for the King's Cup, against teams representing England, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the British Royal Air Force.

Australian rules too has been given a high-profile, thanks notably to a scene in Peter Weir's movie Gallipoli, where a match between "Victoria" and "Western Australia" is played in the shadows of
the Great Pyramid at Giza.

The AIF were stationed at Giza (part of Cairo) in early 1915 while they prepared for what would become the Gallipoli landing.

Any mention of rugby league in the AIF has long been glossed-over in historical accounts of life in the Australian military overseas in World War One. Some even go so far as to say that the AIF banned rugby league from being played.

While information on rugby league matches under the AIF is scant, a few references prove the code was played, was not banned, and held wider support amongst the enlisted men than previously thought. The first-hand accounts of some of the men also mention rugby league being played.

Rugby union international Tom Richards (1908 Wallaby and 1910 British team), wrote in The Sydney Mail how both rugby codes were played on that same "sun-baked mud" field in front of the pyramids seen in Gallipoli. Richards said, "Games were fought out with the vim and earnestness of a rival inter-town match - whether the surface was soft or hard, what mattered it, as long as the prestige of the company or battalion was worthily upheld?"

Newcastle's Stan Carpenter, (who played rugby league Tests for Australia against the Maoris in 1909), recalled in a 1959 newspaper interview that he played in the first League game in Egypt "in early 1915". Carpenter captained the "Infrantry Brigade" in an 8-6 victory over the "2nd Battery".

Tom Richards, who only played in the rugby union matches, wrote that the highlight of those football contests in Giza was a rugby league match between "NSW" and "Queensland".

One of the men involved was Sgt. Edward Larkin (1st Battalion), who had been the NSWRL's Secretary. He had moved into state parliament in 1913, and joined the AIF as soon as enlistments opened in August 1914.

Tom Richards did not think particularly highly of Larkin or the professional code. Richards recorded in his diary that "he [Larkin] played football [rugby league] the other day and boomed the miserable game in the Cairo press".

A few weeks later, Larkin, Richards and Carpenter were amongst the Australian forces that landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. In the afternoon, Larkin led an attack at Pine Ridge where he was taken down by a Turkish machine-gun. Harold Cavill, a soldier in Larkin's battalion, recorded in his diary, "Wounded and dying he lay, yet when the stretcher-bearers came to carry him in, he waved them on, saying, 'There's plenty worse than me out there.' Later, they found him - dead."

Having endured Gallipoli, both Carpenter and Richards were among the many AIF members who were then sent to France, where they would fight on the Western Front. Both men survived the war.

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) archives hold photographs and notes that reference the playing of rugby league amongst the soldiers.

One photograph shows a football team referred to as the "8th Australian Field Ambulance RLFC 1915-17". The football held by one of the players is marked "8 F Amb. R L F C. 1915-6-7". [Refer AWM Collection Item C00504.]

The AWM also holds a football jersey worn by Richard Alfred Overy, who was a plumber from Haberfield (Sydney, NSW). Overy enlisted in September 1914, and served at Gallipoli. In March 1916 he was with the "4 Machine Gun Company" in France.

The AWM notes, "During his time in France, rugby league was a favoured recreational activity and a group of soldiers from '4 MGC' formed a team, the 'Mudlarks', with a black and white bird silhouette upon the chest of their jerseys that represented the Australian mudlark, also known as a magpie-lark or pee-wee." The "Mudlarks" name is suggestive of the terrible muddy conditions experienced on the Western Front. [Refer AWM Collection Item REL32907.]

Which AIF sections these teams played against remains a mystery, but their presence, along with Richards' and Carpenter's notes, confirms a much wider support for rugby league amongst the servicemen than we have previously been led to believe.

Copyright © 2005 - Sean Fagan. All rights reserved - the article above may not be reproduced (in full or part) in any form without written permission.