Trailing Clouds of Glory Did They Come
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TRAILING CLOUDS OF GLORY DID THEY COME... Bert Penwill, Griff Hunt and Rugby in Victoria Ron Grainger 2015 TRAILING CLOUDS OF GLORY DID THEY COME... 'There is a history in all men's lives' William Shakespeare Although a generation apart, two men who were to make a major contribution to Victorian Rugby shared much in common, not least that both came anointed with the mystical oil of Welsh Rugby, specifically of the Newport variety, though not of a 1st XV vintage. Nevertheless, both made their mark early in the city of that name, not only in rugby but in other sports, notably aquatic. Both were born in England, but were living in Newport by the age of ten, both commenced employment before joining the Territorials and then seeing active service in the British Army before coming to Australia where they later became deeply involved in the organisation and management of Rugby Union in Victoria. The big difference between them lay in their ages, Griffyth George (Griff) Hunt being born in 1911, the same year in which Herbert Garfield (Bert) Penwill, then aged thirty-one, left England for Australia. But as a closer look soon reveals, there were other differences, not least those associated with the social, economic and technological developments of the times. Their service to the State Union covered the beginning and end of its first fifty years and the following accounts inevitably include comment on those times and on the development of the Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) over that period. Before then, successive Unions in the Colony of Victoria had arranged rugby matches against British, New Zealand and New South Wales teams, but organised club competition had been spasmodic. There was none when Victoria became a State, in 1901, and it was to be another seven years before a Union was re- established and yet another before some of the newly formed rugby clubs began competing for the Dewar Shield in 1909, as First Grade teams still do today. Unfortunately, only six seasons of that competition were to be completed before World War 1 brought about the dissolution of that Union. PENWILL, HUNT AND RUGBY IN VICTORIA 2 Herbert Garfield (Bert) Penwill Bert Penwill was born in Wood Green, London on 16 September 18811 and lived there until 1891 when the family moved to Newport. It was there he attended Clytha College.2 Then, from 1894, he boarded at Studley College in Portishead, Somerset. He later recalled that while living in Newport he represented his school in rugby and swimming and won numerous Newport and Welsh Boys swimming championships; and that at Studley College 3 he played in both soccer and rugby teams and, after leaving school, played rugby with the Newport Nondescripts.4 To put all this in some sort of context, the young Bert would have been well aware of Wales winning the Triple Crown for the first time in 1893, over half its teams in that year being comprised of Newport players. And that within two years came the Great Schism which not only divided English rugby but impacted heavily on the Welsh. In addition, after beating England (in Newport) early in 1897 Wales got involved in a dispute with the other home Unions, withdrew from the IRB and did not play against Scotland or Ireland in that year. It was also in 1897 that Bert was apprenticed to a tailor and about then enlisted with the 4th.(Militia) Battalion of the South Wales Borderers.5 This was only two years before the outbreak of the (Second) Boer War which, by 1900 was proving far more costly, in terms of men and money to Britain and her Empire, than had ever been anticipated. This meant raising significant reinforcements, amongst which were the Imperial Yeomanry, a volunteer force consisting of numerous Battalions sent out in several contingents in 1900 and 1901. 1 The year of birth is not Confirmed in offiCial reCords and is sometimes noted as having been 1882. 2 Clytha College, then at Brodawel, York PlaCe had been founded in 1875. In 1894 it was advertised as a first- class school for boys preparing for Commerce, the universities, or any of the professions; with the PrinCipal – Rev. W.E. Winter, M.A and an 'effiCient staff of resident and non-resident masters'. There is no mention of sporting aCtivities. 3 A private sChool established in 1889 by Headmaster John Ware and whiCh in 1891 had been moved to new premises in South Road with a 'good play field adjoining.' At the 1891 Census there were less than 20 boarders. It closed in 1897. 4 This referenCe was made by Bert Penwill in an interview he gave in 1927. Presumably it was to an unaffiliated 'social' Club or team and perhaps he offhandedly gave it that desCriptive title in the knowledge that it consisted of players of different ethnicity and backgrounds, as did the Kenyan rugby Club of similar name whiCh had been founded a few years earlier, in 1923. 5 When the South Wales Borderers were formed, in 1881, they gained the militia and volunteer battalions of a number of Welsh Counties, in this Case the Royal Montgomery and Merioneth Rifles Militia. PENWILL, HUNT AND RUGBY IN VICTORIA 3 While the Yeomanry were traditionally drawn from the gentry, or at least from those able to provide their own horse and saddlery, the exigencies of this conflict soon required that significant exceptions to the rules had to be applied by the time Bert Penwill volunteered to join the 2nd Sharpshooters, 80th Company, 21st Battalion. This force arrived in South Africa (in May 1901) as part of the Second Contingent and Trooper Bert Penwill saw active service in the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony although he also spent some time hospitalised with enteric fever. After returning to England he spent several years in Bracknell, Berkshire, presumably continuing to work as a tailor's cutter but not neglecting sport, both as a player and secretary of the local soccer club, then playing cricket in season. That phase of his life ended when in June of 1905 he married Ethel Rhoda Marshall at St John's Church, Regents Park and went to work in Newton Abbot, near the Devonshire south coast. It was there on 16 September that the first all conquering All Black UK tour commenced with a resounding win over Devon; quite possibly Bert attended the match, he would certainly have known all about it. Two years after that, on 25 September 1907 a son, Herbert Maxwell, was born but Ethel was to die less than two years later, in January 1909. Bert later recalled that during the five or six years spent at Newton Abbot he was involved with the Rugby club, as well as with a local swimming and water polo team, although no documented details of his participation have as yet been located. In June 1911 he married Mary Ellen Etchells in Clifton (now a suburb of Bristol) and soon after they prepared to leave for Australia. The family of three left Liverpool in November 1911 on the SS Suevic arriving in Melbourne on 1 January 1912. They lived first at 101 Wellington Street, Kew and later in what was then the more remote Buckley Park, Essendon. In 1914 Bert had set up a new business but, perhaps partly due to the war, this was to fail within a year. By then, with three more children to support, he enlisted in the Australian Army as an instructor with the rank of Sergeant and there is an early 1916 reference to him then living at 59 Burke Road, Camberwell and assisting in a recruiting drive with the rank of Sergeant Major. However, later in that year he obtained a discharge due to domestic problems. In 1917 another son was born - only to die in 1922 - while another daughter, Ina Kathleen, was born in 1918. By 1919 he had taken up a position in Adelaide and the family moved there with him but only two years later he returned alone to Melbourne. In 1924 Bert again set up his own business and four years later (1928) divorced his second wife on grounds of desertion. Then, in June of the following year, 1929, Esme his fourth child, died. That period of family disruptions coincided not only with his continued interest in swimming club activities but with the newly formed Rugby League (VRL) 6, its subsequent disbandment and the formation of the 1926 Victorian Rugby Union, in which he was to play such a significant part. 6 The six Clubs in the first year of League Competition were St. Kilda (red and black hoops), Kiwis (blaCk), Melbourne University (blue and blaCk hoops), RAAF (pale blue),Melbourne (red, white and blue hoops) and East Melbourne, replaced by Navy (maroon) for the last two seasons. It is interesting that some of the Union clubs retained the same colours for many years while others, notably Melbourne, were to make several changes. PENWILL, HUNT AND RUGBY IN VICTORIA 4 Back in 1895, during Bert's childhood in Newport, the Northern Rugby Football Union had been formed in England and that dramatic breakaway move was replicated in Sydney in 1907 with the formation of the New South Wales Rugby League. In Melbourne in 1923, after Bert had returned from Adelaide, a competition in this alternative code was about to be organised in Victoria. Post war, apart from a short lived Union competition in 1921, comprised mainly of RAN personnel, as was the 'Victorian' team soundly beaten by the South Africans, there was little organised rugby in Victoria and the establishment of the VRL resulted from several meetings held in early May 1923, initially to review support for revival of a local competition under Union rules.