Harold Wesley George

Harold Wesley George (c. 1887 – 10 May 1915) was an Australian representative rugby union prop forward who saw active service and was killed in World War I.

Harold George

Birth name	Harold Wesley George[1]
Date of birth	1887 (1887)[1]
Date of death	10 May 1915(1915-05-10) (aged 27–28)[1]
Place of death	Mediterranean Sea
Notable relative(s)	Cpl Roy George
Rugby union career
Position(s) prop[1] Senior career Years Team Apps (Points) 1912–14 Easts () Provincial / State sides Years Team Apps (Points) 19??–14 New South Wales 20 () National team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) 1910–14[1] Wallabies 8[1] (0[1])
Military career
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1915
Unit	13th Battalion, Australian Expeditionary Force
Battles/wars	First World War Gallipoli campaign  (DOW) Landing at Anzac Cove

Rugby career

George's club rugby career was with the Eastern Suburbs RUFC in Sydney where he played as a front-rower. He made twenty state representative appearances for New South Wales and appeared on eight occasions between 1910 and 1914 for Australia. He played in Australia's first win over the All Blacks in Sydney in 1910 and in the inaugural Test against the USA in Berkeley in California in 1912.[2][3]

Military career

On 21 January 1915, George enlisted as a private with the 13th (New South Wales) Infantry Battalion, Australian Imperial Force – the Battalion had been raised in September 1914 only six weeks after the declaration of war. The main strength of the battalion left Australia from Albany in December arriving in Egypt in February 1915. Harold George was enlisted to a force of reinforcements for the 13th and left Sydney on board HMAT A49 Seang Choon on 11 February 1915.

Along with the rest of the 4th Brigade, under the command of then Colonel John Monash, the 13th Battalion took part in the Landing at Anzac Cove, arriving late on 25 April 1915. Between May to August, they were then heavily involved in operations to establish and defend the narrow beachhead against Turkish assaults,

Harold George fought against the entrenched Turkish forces at Gallipoli in these actions where he was mortally wounded by sniper fire in May 1915 at Pope's Post. He died from wounds on 10 May 1915, aboard ship in the Mediterranean after evacuation from Gallipoli. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial (Turkey, Panel 37).[4][5]

His clubmate Clarrie Wallach who also fought at Anzac Cove, wrote a letter home which was published in the sporting paper The Referee. He described hearing of George's death from William Tasker another rugby contemporary who saw Gallipoli action and later died on the Western Front."Twit Tasker told me how Harold George died the death of deaths — a hero's — never beaten till the whistle went".[2]

Honours and awards

Ribbon	Description	Notes
	1914-15 Star
	British War Medal
	Victory Medal

See also

• List of international rugby union players killed in action during the First World War
• 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the U.S.

Footnotes

1. "Scrum.com player profile of Harald George". Scrum.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
2. Bray et al., p.50
3. Australian Rugby Team (Touring America), 1912, The Daily Telegraph, (Wednesday, 18 September 1912), p.15.
4. Harold George war record Archived 27 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine AIF Project
5. Prominent Rugby Player Killed. Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 9153, 29 May 1915, Page 5.

References

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney
• Zavos, Spiro (2000) Golden Wallabies — The Story of Australia's Rugby World Champions, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Victoria

External links

• Harold George at the AIF Project