1914-18 Those Who Served
	“Preston with 28 men in the Expeditionary Force is another club with an extended Honour Roll ... in Mr. J. R. Mills, president, and Mr. E. J. Hannah, hon. secretary, the club possesses two enthusiastic workers who are not likely to let the district be unworthily represented in the playing field”.   (The Herald,  May 13 1916)

Four or five years ago,  a book "Fallen. The Ultimate Heroes", by Jim Main and David Allen was released commemorating the lives of League footballers who paid the ultimate price in service of their country during armed conflict.   

But what of some of the lesser known players from Preston who also did their duty?

The roll is woefully incomplete and inaccurate, but the War Memorial Cenotaph outside Preston Town Hall lists Preston residents that served their country during the First World War.

There are many names on the memorial linked to the Football Club, either before or after the war, including Les Punch, George Skipper, Harold Paarman, Jack Deacon, William Hills, and officials Bert Howse and Oscar Ayton.   Other family names connected with the Club include Barrow, Dredge, Eaton, Robb, Rule, Watson, Yann, Braithwaite, Hendrie, Henry, Howe, Ralston and Mehegan.

Although details of the Preston players from 1912 to 1915 are sketchy, at least five are known to have died in the conflict.

Herbert Victor "Vic" Punch was 28 years of age when he was killed in action at Polygon Wood in Belgium in September 1917.  Army records show him leaving a widow, Agnes and two young sons living at Reid Street in Northcote, his father William senior in Southernhay Street, Preston, and older brother Bill, captain of Preston for some years, in Stott Street, Northcote.  Vic’s younger brother Les also served in the Army, enlisting in February 1917 and survived the conflict.

"I saw him killed at Ypres on the 20.9.1917 about 7.p.m.  He was caught by a shrapnel bullet which hit him just over the heart.  He only lived a few moments after being hit and was quite conscious until death.  I knew him very well.  He was a married man with a wife and two children and came from Melbourne  He was a boot packer in civil life and worked in Myers Boot Factory in Melbourne.  He came away from Melbourne with me by the S.S "Nestor" which left there on 2.10.16 ..."  (Pte C. R. Sands, 6th Battalion)   "His last words were "I'm done"  (J. W. Sheehan, 6th Battalion).

Hopkins was 33 years old and listed as a plumber and gasfitter when he died, leaving a widow, Alice.  He was a long time resident of Preston, having been educated at South Preston State School and had spent 15 years as a volunteer with the Garrison Artillery before embarking for June, 1918 (remarkably still a private).

Arthur Charles Harrison is included in "Fallen", but had a closer connection to the Preston club than the book reveals.   He played with Preston in 1911 before crossing to Richmond where he managed just one game.  Back at Preston in 1912, he tried League ranks again in 1913 with Fitzroy, this time becoming an established player.  In his first season he played 19 games including their 1913 premiership win over St. Kilda. :rp.p_person_seq_num 

His last game was the 1914 V.F.L. second semi-final before joining the armed services.   Early in 1915 when he was awaiting departure for the Western Front, Harrison again turned out at the junior level with Preston for a few games.   He survived the torpedoing of the troop carrier Southland on which he was sailing, and was wounded in the Dardanelles campaign.

After being repatriated, Harrison returned to France and was killed in action during furious fighting at Bullecourt on May 3, 1917.  Like many Australians who fell on the battles in the Somme. Lance Corporal Arthur Charles Harrison of the 22nd Battalion, 1st AIF, has no known grave.   His death is only commemorated in the Honour Roll at the Villiers-Bretonneux Cemetery and Memorial.

His playing days well over, but at 41 years of age Francis Edward Mehegan was still eligible to enlist.  He had played with the football club intermittently between 1897 and 1905 and although records are far from complete, he appears to have appeared in around 30 matches, mostly on the first two seasons (he had at least two brothers and one of both of these may have been the later players). 

Private Frank Mehegan of the 14th Battalion was killed when shot through the chest during an attack on Turkish trenches on Hill 60, Lone Pine Ridge on August 20 1915.   He had worked for many years at Broadhurst's Tannery, the site of today's Preston Market, and before enlisting lived with his widowed mother in Murray Road, just west of Plenty Road.

Harry Collins played two games with Fitzroy in 1912 before joining Preston in 1914.   He returned to Fitzroy in 1915 and played another four games before enlisting.  

He obviously proved a fine recruit, being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by 1917.   He served in Egypt before sailing to France and was wounded three times.   He was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal for capturing a German block-house.  Collins was s killed in action in France at Villiers, on August 10, 1918, but like his army career, little is known of his death.  His body was buried at Harboneirres.

Harry was one of five children and two of his brothers also played League football.  Goldsmith (or "Goldie" as he was known) Collins played 64 games with Fitzroy in 1922-1924 and 1926-28 as well as representing Victoria four times.    His youngest brother, Norman played a total of 94 League games, (Fitzroy, 4, Carlton 57 and Hawthorn 31).

Other casualties linked to the club include Robert Ramsay Ralston, known to have played with Preston Districts and a V.J.F.A. representative in 1910.   Ralston’s next of kin was listed as his sister Nellie, wife of Sid Hall, Preston's longest serving player who spent around 20 years with the club as well as three seasons with Northcote.

Leslie Hendrie was killed at Harbonnieres, France in August, 1918 and was the brother of George, a long serving player and committeeman as well as a step-brother of Bill Hendrie, who played with Preston in 1909 and 1910 before becoming a star Melbourne player, despite his career being cut short by the War.   Hendrie is buried in the same section of the Harboneirres.cemetery as Harry Collins.

Thornton Gainsborough Clarke.   There is no evidence that "Tom" Clarke played with the Preston club, but he and his wife were living at 81 Cramer Street (probably within 100 metres of the ground) when he enlisted. 

"He was in No. 3 Sector, about 5'4", dark, between 20 and 24, clean-shaven,  played for the South Melbourne Football Club,  He had one leg off above the knee and one off below ..."  (L/Cpl. E J McKinnie, SRN 1954)

William McCarthy Braithwaite, the son of the prominent local politician, tanner and occasional Preston president, William senior rose to the rank of captain before being killed just a month before hostilities ceased.   The incumbent President of the Shire of Preston, Alfred Robertson lost his eldest son Talbot in fighting in France and James G Membrey, the local M.L.A. who was instrumental in gaining several grants from the State Government for improvements to Preston Park lost his youngest son, Claude Membrey in action at Pozieres on the Western Front.

Another player who served with distinction both during the war and subsequently as an Preston official (and Life Member) was Albert Arthur Madden.  Madden was one of three Preston players representing the V.J.F.A in 1914, and later won two Military Medals serving on the Western Front.   One account suggests that he was extremely fortunate to survive, a German bullet ricocheting off a metal cigarette case carried in a pocket over his heart.

Jack Deacon (actually christened John Marculfus), the father of later player and 1947 Brownlow Medallist, Bert Deacon (below) joined Preston in 1915 when the family was living in Bell Street.   He played only the first half of the season before enlising in July 1915.  Deacon was promoted to the ranl of Sergeant and earned a Military Medal for bravery on tye Hindenburg Line in April 1917.  He reappeared along with several others returnig from France and played through to 1925.  He was secretary of the Club in 1937 and performed several other administrative roles around the club.

Another player that enlisted and returned was William Hills, whose father, William senior, was caretaker of Preston Park (the family living in a house in the south-west corner where the practice wickets now stand).   Hills, a plumber by trade, enlisted in September 1915 and survived two years fighting in France, although he was admitted to hospital in September 1917 after suffering accidental burns to the arm when a frying pan he was using to cook a meal overturned and split burning fat over his arm.

From the cricket club side, players perhaps sensibly kept the heads low.  

The only senior player to enlist was Thomas Carey Robinson (known by the second name of Carey) was captain of the Preston Cricket Club for the two seasons before he enlisted.  Robinson,aged 32, was killed in October 1917 in fighting at Passchendaele In France.

He was a superintendent at South Preston Methodist Sunday School and the Leader later noted that a framed photograph of Robinson was presented to the Sunday School by the club in acknowledgement of their dual loss.    His father was listed asnext-of-kin, but this was officially altered in December 1917 to his mother, her husband dying around the same time as her husband.    Robinson's early Army career is not clearly documented, but he spent nearly 18 months in Australia after enlisting, finally embarking as a 2nd Lieutenant in January 1917.   He was promoted to Lieutenant in July 1917.

Fred Michel, a regular player in the 1890s  and father of later Preston and Fitzroy player Ern Michel was invalided out of the services after being hurt in 1900, and George “Dinny” Jewell was also shipped back to Australia after being slightly wounded in June of 1901

There are undoubtedly other players and officials not listed because they lived outside the Preston Shire.

Perhaps it is indicative of the growth of the Preston area that no similar memorial exists for the Second World War when the population had growth from around 9,000 to 40,000.

Again, the list would be woefully incomplete, but Preston’s 1941 Annual Report lists the following as having “answered the call of Empire and are doing their best on the wider fields of battle and in the more important game of exterminating the enemy” :

W. Jones (returned, wounded), D. Stewart, D. Warr, W. Rosenthal, D. Whitechurch, R. Taylor, B. Deacon, A. Sleith, T. Pullen, J. Halton (Committee), G. Timms Jnr (Committee), J. MacPherson, F. Ackland, D. Mulcahy, P. Walmsley, V. Deslandes, G. Skipper, L. Pollard, W. Cooper, A. Catterell, L. Bird, J. Woods, T H .Farran and H. Smith Jnr.

Although not on that list (he enlisted at the end of the season), the only known fatality was Jack Lynch, who licked 133 goals in his only year with Preston after crossing from Geelong.

A driver with the 2/19th Transport Platoon, Lynch was killed on September 8, 1944, when he and some of his mates were returning from a night out in North Queensland and their Jeep ran into a herd of cattle.   Lynch was catapulted onto the bonnet of the Jeep, fracturing his spine and dying some hours later.

Bert Deacon served most of the war in Darwin, playing with Carlton while on leave, and he managed to find time to captain-coach on Army Store team that played during the wet season.  In 1945 they dominated a local services competition, winning all ten games they played, perhaps not surprising seeing they boasted several League and Association players still on service duties, including emerging Footscray star and later sole premiership winning captain-coach, Charlie Sutton.

Perhaps the most poignant tale of the men that went to war was that of George Skipper, a relative of a long-serving volunteer at the club.   George was never a star with Preston, just an honest workman-like player known for his loyalty over the five or six years he served Preston.   George’s loyalty extended to his country, and he managed to put his age up late during the First World War so he could enlist in the armed services, and when World War 2 started, he went the other way, knocking a few years off so he could enlist again!

George continued to follow Preston’s fortunes for the next 50 odd years and the family remained close.   In 1983, George, then in his eighties, was watching the telecast of the Preston v. Geelong West Grand Final in his lounge room.   With a few minutes to play, Preston established a break over Geelong West and the commentators declared the flag was Preston’s.   Uncle George was content with that, and knowing his beloved Preston had the premiership won, he quietly passed away before the final siren.  

Perhaps never before has "final siren" been more appropriate! 

Many memorials were erected to those who fell in both wars, but the ongoing suffering of some of those who returned is less remembered.

Frank Dowling senior, father of Frank junior, the club’s record holder for V.F.A. games played with both Preston and Northcote enlisted for reasons unknown as Francis James Kirkland in March 1915 when the family was at 83 Plenty Road, Preston.   He served just on two months at Gallipoli but was repatriated back to Australia with lumbago and quinsy, an inflammation of the tonsils.   Undaunted, he re-enlisted in April 1916 and embarked for France in 1916.   He suffered severe wounds in October 1917, and in hospital in England had his left forearm and lower part of his right leg amputated.   Dowling senior spent much of his remaining life in and out of hospital, one article in 1934 after another son, Jim, who was playing with Brunswick at the time won the V.F.A. Medal suggesting he had more than 30 operations in the intervening years. Frank Dowling (senior).   From a photograph of a 1903 Preston Juniors Football Team, taken when he would have been about 16 years of age

But the prize for general acceptance of fate must go to Hedley Whiteway Tomkins.

Tomkins was born in Northcote and started his senior career at Fitzroy in 1904, one of a small group of players that debuted in League football at just fifteen years of age, but Fitzroy thought him too small and advised him to return to junior football.   He played in 1905 with Leopold, a Metropolitan Junior Football Association club that acted as South Melbourne's seconds and then had one game with Melbourne in 1906.

Tomkins joined Preston in 1907, and represented the V.F.A. in each of his three seasons before transferring back to Melbourne at the end of 1909. 

Over the next three years, he had a successful career covering 67 games, but early in 1913 transferred to Western Australia where he played with East Perth while working as a commercial traveller.   Tomkins made the W.A. representative side and in the days before official "best player" awards came into being, he was voted the leading player of the season by readers of the local "Football Follower". 

His career came to an end when he lost a leg during an artillery barrage while on active service in France in 1916.  Tompkins maintained a close interest in the Preston area and in January, 1917, a remarkable letter appeared in the Preston Leader under the heading “To My Friends in Preston”.

“I got five wounds in the right leg beginning from the ankle to the knee, five in the abdomen, two to the right arm and a piece of shrapnel in the left wrist.  The leg was much the worst.  Septic poisoning set in and although they had the leg in hot baths and syringed twice a day, and also made incision which meant five operations and put in a tube to drain out the pus, it was no good”.

“The pain was terrible and the swelling was getting worse so I told the doctor to go with the business, with the result that I am now minus a leg.  It is amputated about a foot below the knee.  Since having it done my temperature has gone down and I feel much better and am going to England.  They say they can fix me up with a leg which will do away with the crutch”.

Tomkins was repatriated to Australia just before Christmas, 1917, and early the following year was one of several returned servicemen who were honoured at a function given by the Melbourne Football Club.   One of the speakers at the function noted Tomkin's former team mate at Preston, Bill Hendrie was still at the front.

After returning to Perth, Tompkins maintained an interest in Preston's fortunes and the Preston Leader noted a telegram of good wishes arriving from him on the eve of a Preston final appearance in 1931.

Given the number of years since the two conflicts, it is impossible to trace the fates of all who served and inevitably there were others that died or were seriously wounded