Another Cherry on the Willow: Holloway Hauls in the prestigious Uni Blue

By Stirling Taylor

We’re teeing off at Eastlakes Golf Course on a 400m par 4. 

I hit driver, Dugald hits a casual 5 iron that carries just as far. He taps in on the 18th for par and finishes with a round of about 80. Bowls fast, hits hard.  

He’s no slouch on the cricket field either, having recently been awarded a Sydney University Cricket Blue.

Dugald Holloway, a first grade quick and consistent performer for the Blue and Golds for the past seven years, has recently been recognised for his outstanding achievements on the pitch. 

Throughout the 2020 season Holloway played all 29 games, taking 46 scalps and scoring 350 runs. 

It’s an achievement that follows the accolades of many other notable awards. Holloway was selected in the 2019/20 NSW first grade team of the year and has been the main enforcer for the Uni side in previous years.

“I grew up and played my first cricket in England; Surrey Under 10s,” Dugald says. “I remember bowling three beamers in that game, I was taken out of the attack. I’ve always been a bit wild.” 

Over the years, Dugald has been invaluable for Uni. Aggressive with ball in hand and at times, a force with the stick. 

“I was tall and had some natural pace,” he said.

He’s very tall and an imposing figure. Not quite Billy Stanlake-esque, but nonetheless not a nice sight steaming in from the top of his mark. 

Holloway says he loved watching the likes of Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath growing up.

When asked about his recent accolade, a Sydney University Blue, humble Holloway said it was special to be on a list alongside many club greats and Sheffield Shield players, like teammate Nick Larkin. 

“I’ve given myself a good chance (of receiving it), being here for seven years,” he laughs. 

Holloway is currently completing a Masters of Commerce, a path not easy to succeed in when juggling an internship and first grade cricket. 

“It’s a special accolade,” Dugald said. “My grandad always used to ask about it. It’s obviously a traditional thing, beginning from Oxford and Cambridge.” 

Finishing up his seventh year at the club, Holloway isn’t short of memories on and off the pitch. 

“Winning the one-day cup last year was pretty good,” he said. “All of the Sams [brothers] were playing. I’m pretty sure you watched that game.” 

I did. His first over was a doozy. Two wides, lucky not to be deemed no balls. 

“That’s ridiculous, they weren’t given wides. Well anyway, I took four fa,”  he says defensively. “I would liken myself to a rubbish county bowler. All of the Australian guys are too good. Who was it ...” 

“Pavel Florin?” I say jokingly. (A Romanian all-rounder who bowls right arm lollipops). 

Regardless of the player comparison, Holloway has always made a name for himself and been on the radar for representative cricket. 

He has a high score of 104 and taken figures of 5/30, along with many other five and four wicket hauls. At 16, he was part of a winning NSW under 17’s side in Tasmania at the National Championships.

Holloway then made an appearance on the short-lived ‘Top Gun’ Wide World of Sports segment, infamously stumbling on a hard wicket when trying to pelt down a rocket.

Even with the stumble, he clocked 122 km/h, to Mark Nicholas’ disappointment. Eight years later, 264 career games, 328 wickets and 2772 runs to the tally, Holloway has only improved, taking wickets and making valuable runs in his no.8 spot. 

While succeeding on his own merit, Holloway thanks the great people and club at Sydney Uni, who he relishes playing for. 

“Clubs are all about the people,” he said. “We have a great winning culture and drive to win, along with like-minded individuals who care about our community and facilities. That’s what differentiates Uni from everyone else.” 

Shortly after the 10th hole, a par 5, I found out why he doesn’t take driver off the tee. He can’t hit the fairway. 

Nonetheless, he's a youngster who certainly has a lot going for him.  

Alan David Mitchell SUCC 1911-12

                                                                          ALAN DAVID MITCHELL

                                                                          Died 5 May 1915, aged 23

                                                                           SUCC 1911-12

“Among the first to heed the clarion call…”

On the evening of 3 December 1914, Aubrey Oxlade, long-serving Honorary Secretary of the Middle Harbour District Cricket Club (later known as Manly) read out a letter of resignation from the General Committee’s youngest member. To fill the vacancy, A.Cooper, a 1st Grade batsman who was to play for the Club until 1920, was elected  and the Committee proceeded with its business of the night.

Five months later, news of Private Alan David Mitchell’s death reached Australia, reported in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ of 11 May 1915 and in the ‘Sydney Mail’ of 19 May 1915 and noted in the Middle Harbour DCC’s 1914-15 Annual Report (“…died fighting for his country…he took a very active part in the management of the Club’s affairs.”) He had been wounded on the morning of the first landing at Anzac Cove, and was transferred on 30 April to hospital at Heliopolis where on 5 May he died of wounds suffered when he was shot in the foot by a Turkish sniper. He was one of 75 members of the Middle Harbour DCC to enlist (Private, 1 Battalion, number 1323); the first from the Manly district to be killed in World War I; one of 18 Sydney University Cricket Club players to lose their  lives in the Great War; one of 647 old boys of The King’s School to enlist of whom 101 never returned.

“Among the first to heed the clarion call to patriotism and to count it a worthy thing to do to lay down their life for their country were the men of The King’s School,” writes one of the School’s historians.

So Mitchell was a cricketer with two Clubs; a cricket administrator; Secretary of the King’s Old Boys’ Union; a Law I student at Sydney University; a clerk in his father’s legal practice at Manly; persistent, energetic, active and loyal to his duties.

But his burial site gives a further clue to his identity. He was laid to rest in the Old Cairo Jewish Cemetery. One version of his military enlistment form states that his religion was ‘Hebrew’; another that he was ‘Jew’. Mitchell does not seem to be a Jewish name? Another clue: His mother’s maiden name was Elizabeth Myers (1861-1920). Perhaps his Jewish identity was derived from his mother as Judaism is irrevocably matrilineal? His paternal grandfather, Michael David (known as David) Mitchell (1825-1892) ran a successful wine, spirits and grocery store eventually known as ‘D Mitchell and Co’ in Sydney and he lived in Pyrmont Bridge Rd Glebe in a house named ‘Jarocin’ after his birthplace in Prussia (now part of Poland). Mitchell, however, was not his original name. He was one of many Jews who emigrated in the late 1840s, firstly to Hamburg, then to London, then in 1851 to Australia. His surname had been Minchel and in London he had ‘anglicised’ it to ‘Mitchell’. In Australia, he kept his new surname and he kept his faith, marrying Julia Davis (1835-1906) in the Macquarie St Synagogue. His son, Mark (1861-1922), then married Elizabeth Myers at the Great Synagogue in 1887. David Mitchell was well established in Sydney society, even serving for a time as an alderman on the Glebe Council from 1884 to 1887.

Alan David Mitchell with his brothers, Clive Harry (1895-1985) and Karl Arthur (1897-1951), were three of a small number of Jewish boys at The King’s School from the time  when Alan entered in 1903  until 1915 when Karl finished. At King’s, Alan was called ‘Ikey’ a Jewish boy’s name which means ‘laughter’ and which is a version of Isaac. He fitted in well when he arrived from Manly Grammar into Broughton House, student no. 2564. He was a school Monitor, served eight years in the cadets, played in the 1st XI from 1909 to 1911, captained the 2nd XV from half back (he was about average height for the time at  5’ 5” tall). The King’s School Magazine of June 1915, reporting his death, comments: ”Few of our younger old boys were better known or better liked than Mitchell.” He went up to Sydney University to study Arts and he was resident at the Presbyterian St Andrew’s College. The College at the time has been described in gloomy terms. “…a neo-Gothic construction complete with spires…stained-glass windows, dark wood panelling.” (John Murphy, ‘Evatt, A Life’). It was while he was a student there, one of only 1500 students at the University, that he played his only season, 1911-12, without distinction,  with Sydney University CC. In four innings in 2nd Grade he totalled 45 runs and his seven 3rd Grade appearances realised only another 99 runs.  His return to Middle Harbour DCC for 1912-13 gives another clue to his life.

At St Andrew’s College, he was almost an exact contemporary of H V Evatt, a brilliant student who was later the youngest ever appointed as a Justice of the High Court of Australia, President of the United Nations, leader of the Federal Labor Party and then Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court. Mitchell and Evatt had certain characteristics in common. Both were indefatigable organisers, enthusiastic participants, actively involved but moderate sportsmen. As cricketers, both were persistent but their scores lend themselves to little interpretation other than that they were the product of limited ability. They turned up consistently; they were turned out neatly; they practised diligently. They are both minor footnotes in the long history of the SUCC, remembered for what they did away from the cricket fields. In his two 1st Grade innings, Evatt made 19 runs. Mitchell batted four times in 1st Grade for Middle Harbour for 43 runs. In March 1910, the cricket correspondent in the King’s School Magazine  had commented with some asperity:

“A mixture of very good off-side strokes and very bad leg glances. Would do very well if he would give up the latter. Fair field but weak catch and poor thrower”.

Mick Bardsley,  a participant in Evatt’s only 1st Grade game, was succinct in his memory of Evatt 60 years later: “He was a good organiser.”

The marked difference between Evatt and Mitchell was their academic records at University. Evatt had a series of outstanding results culminating in his University Medal in Arts and then a second Medal when he finished first in his Bachelor of Laws class. On the other hand, in Arts I in 1912, Mitchell passed only Maths I and he appears to have discontinued his studies in 1913, thus losing his eligibility to play for SUCC. That’s why he re-joined the Middle Harbour Club in 1912-13 while working  as a clerk in his father’s law firm. Had he put too much time into his other activities? Did he lose interest in his studies? Was he just not cut out for academic life?

His 2nd Grade performances with Middle Harbour in 1912-13 (158 runs from 12 innings) hardly justified a call-up to 1st Grade but in October, he made 9 and an impressive 34 on debut against Waverley, but  in November was bowled for 0 against Cumberland  at the SCG before returning to the 2nd Grade side that enjoyed only one solitary victory that season.

War clouds were gathering when Mitchell made his third and final appearance in 1st Grade in October 1914. By this stage, “cricket had become no more than a frivolous diversion” since Great Britain’s declaration of war on 4 August. But this game against Glebe at Manly Oval was redolent with incidents that would appear significant only later. In Middle Harbour’s innings on the second day, 31 October, Mitchell was bowled first ball by A B (Tibby) Cotter, the fearsome former Australian fast bowler. Mitchell enlisted in the AIF on 20 November. Cotter enlisted on 4 April the following year. A month after that, Mitchell was dead. Three years to the day that Cotter ended Mitchell’s 1st Grade career, 31 October 1917, Cotter himself was killed at Beersheba, the only Australian Test cricketer killed in World War I.

Alan Mitchell returned to studies at Sydney University, this time in Law I. In 1914, he’s listed among the undergraduates in Law (along with J B Lane, SUCC’s 1st Grade Premiership captain, and E A McTiernan, later the longest-serving  Judge on the High Court of Australia as he lasted an extraordinary 46 years). But Mitchell is also listed as ‘unmatriculated’ and without any other academic qualifications. Did he apply for a place on the basis of his clerkship in his father’s firm and his family’s undoubted wealth?

Whatever the answer is, all that was put aside when he enlisted and sailed for Egypt.

Mitchell’s death inspired an almost immediate and practical response from his father. Mark Mitchell was intimately involved in life at Many; a local solicitor, trustee of the Manly Literary Institute, Director of the Manly Golf Club, resident since 1900 at the stately mansion ‘Leitelinna’ built in 1898 on the corner of James St and Fairlight St. He was a man of considerable means and in 1916 he donated 1000 pounds for the purpose of erecting an Anzac Memorial in Manly. On 14 October 1916, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, unveiled the polished granite column, the first Cenotaph in Australia, that still stands on The Corso. It was dedicated to the ‘memory of those gallant men of Manly who so gloriously gave their lives for the sake of Humanity and Justice. This memorial was erected by the family of Alan David Mitchell the first soldier of Manly to fall’.

At The King’s School, his memory has also been preserved. Mark Mitchell donated one of the bells in the school chapel. The Old Boys’ Union founded a prize in his memory which to this day is given to the ‘best all-round boy in the school’.

Alan Mitchell  is  commemorated on the Great Synagogue’s Roll of Honour. His brother, Clive, is also listed. Clive served as a Sapper in Signals after he was finally accepted, having been twice rejected, possibly because of his height as he stood a tiny 5’2”. Severe bouts of malaria preceded his return to Australia in March 1919. Clive was also a cricketer with Middle Harbour in 1914-15, a solicitor who lived long, dying at 90. They were two of 7000 Australians of Jewish heritage who fought in the Great War. Mark Dapin has published a most comprehensive account and analysis, ‘Jewish Anzacs. Jews in the Australian Military’ (NewSouth publishing, 2017). Of course, the best known is Sir John Monash. Peter M Allen has written in the Preface to the book:

‘As Jews, we firmly believe that it is incumbent on every generation to pursue the task of recording and commemorating the lives and memories of our parents, grandparents and previous generations.’

Alan David Mitchell, a footnote in any cricket history,872 runs in 68 innings for his two clubs,  but a fine, energetic, generous  young man, dead at 23, 106 years ago, unheralded and unlisted by the club that he represented for only one season, 108 years ago…until now.

James Rodgers

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Maclaurin

                           Lieutenant Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin

                            Born in Sydney 31 October 1878

                            Killed at Gallipoli 27 April 1915.

                            SUCC 1896-99

                               “...a man of lofty ideals ...”

MacLaurin is remembered at Gallipoli by a landmark called ‘MacLaurin’s Hill’.

He was a highly successful barrister, active in the militia forces when he enlisted on 15 August 1914, almost as soon as war was declared, and just over a week before his father died.

 Tony  Cunneen, who has done invaluable research into lawyers’ service in the Great War, has written about the NSW legal profession:

“While they were certainly members of what the historian Manning Clark called the “comfortable classes” they were also willing to forgo the security and safety of that class and give all their support to the cause of national identity and honour on the battle fields on the other side of the world.”

 MacLaurin played only two seasons for Sydney University CC.  In 1896-97, after scoring only 44 runs at 7.3 in 2nd Grade, he was inexplicably promoted to 1st Grade (1st Grade cap number 53) where he played another two games without distinction (15 runs at 7.5). In the season when the Club was readmitted on humbling terms to the 2nd Grade Competition in 1898-99, MacLaurin was twice selected in  the1st XI  (which won the 2nd Grade competition). An energetic 54 was followed by a non-descript 5 and he played no more.

A cousin was Ambrose Freeman (1873-1930) who played one 1st Grade game for SUCC in 1902 and whose brother, Douglas Freeman was killed at Quinns Post, Gallipoli, a week after MacLaurin was killed.

His mother was Eliza Ann (nee Nathan) (1846-1908) and his father was Sir Henry Normand MacLaurin (1835-1914), a Scotsman, Chancellor of the University of Sydney from 1896 until his death. He was also President of the Legislative Council, the Upper House of the NSW Parliament. A dominant figure in conservative politics, he was nevertheless admirably open to fresh educational ideas, especially those brought forward by the NSW Labor Government of 1910 which related to the reform of the Senate of the University. His second son, named after his father, was educated at Blair Lodge School Polmont in Scotland, a private boarding academy for boys, and then at Sydney Grammar School. Two other sons, Charles and Hugh both served in the War.

Charles was the father of Catherine who was in turn the mother of a prodigiously talented family including Alistair Mackerras, Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School from 1969 to 1989. 

After graduation BA in 1899 and admission to the NSW Bar,  MacLaurin carried on his work as a barrister from 11 Wentworth Chambers in Elizabeth St, specialising in accountancy. He also pursued a military career. Commissioned in the NSW Scottish Rifles in 1899, he eventually rose to command the 26th Infantry Regiment in July 1913. When he enlisted in the AIF, he was immediately appointed Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 1st Infantry Brigade, a force of 4000 men. At 36 years of age, he was young for such responsibility but he wisely chose more experienced men to command battalions under him.

In a letter to  Justice David Ferguson (whose son, Arthur, a Law student who had also been to Sydney Grammar, was killed in France in 1916)  in March 1915, MacLaurin confided that rumours of the soldiers’ bad behaviour in Cairo had been exaggerated.

“With 20,000 men it can be easily seen that some would play up for a bit while their money lasted…”

He stood up for his men, attacking those civilians who were “doubtful and dissatisfied and critical”. Their accounts were “false and malicious”. Although he was a stern disciplinarian, he had a fine reputation among his men who respected his energy and enthusiasm especially when they trained under him in Egypt.

When orders of the landing at Gallipoli came through, MacLaurin was said to have “happily cancelled his leave and bounded smiling up the stairs to the General’s office to plan the attack.” (Cunneen).

During the afternoon of 27 April 1915, at about 3.15 pm, MacLaurin “was standing on the slopes of the ridge that now bears his name… in the act of warning soldiers to keep under cover when he too was shot dead…MacLaurin was buried by his men where he fell.” In 1919, he was reinterred at the 4th Battalion Parade Ground Cemetery. He was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General.

He was the fifth of the 337 from Sydney Grammar who were  killed or who died in the War. An extraordinary 2172 ‘Old Sydneians’ enlisted. (I am indebted to Dr Philip Creagh who has carried out painstaking and forensic analysis of the Old Sydneians who enlisted). There was widespread grief among the legal profession. A ceremonial service to honour him was held at the Banco Court on 5 May 1915 and special mention was made in the minutes of the Bar Association.

He was the first of the Club’s former players to be killed.

CEW Bean, the Great War's pre-eminent historian, and the grandfather of Ted Le Couteur, a 1st Grader with the Club in the 1960s, wrote:

“…a man of lofty ideals, direct, determined, with a certain inherited Scottish dourness…but an educated man of action of the finest type that the Australian universities produce.”

 James Rodgers

SUCC Players Killed in World War 1 and 2 - Lest We Forget

MEMBERS OF THE SYDNEY UNIVERSITY CC

KILLED IN SERVICE OF AUSTRALIA

WORLD WAR I

Major John Nicholas Fraser Armstrong,

(SUCC 1902-04)

died 5 July 1916, France, aged 38

Captain William Robert Aspinall MC

                 (SUCC 1912-14)

Killed 20 July 1917 in France, aged 24

_________________________________

Lieutenant Robert Anthony Barton

(SUCC 1914-15)

died 9 June 1917, Messines, France, aged 22

_____________________________________

Lieutenant Alan Russell Blacket

(SUCC 1913-15)

died 16 August 1916, France, aged 22

__________________________________

Captain Norman Walford Broughton DSO

(SUCC 1908-15)

died 10  September 1917, The Somme, France, aged 28

________________________________________________

Major Gother Robert Carlisle Clarke

(SUCC 1894-97),

died 12 October 1917, at Zonnebeke, Belgium, aged 42

_______________________________________________

Sergeant William Hilder Gregson

(SUCC 1895-1901),

died 14 November 1916, Guedecourt, France, aged 39

________________________________________________

Corporal Clifford Dawson Holliday

(SUCC 1914-16),

died 20 July 1916, Fromelles, France, aged 21

_______________________________________

Captain Roger Forrest Hughes

(SUCC 1908-13),

died 11 December 1916, Flers, France, aged 26

_______________________________________

Gunner Eric Neal Clamp Leggo

(SUCC 1916-17),

died 20 October 1918, France, aged 25

__________________________________

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Normand MacLaurin

(SUCC 1896-99)

died 27 April 1915, Gallipoli, aged 36

_______________________________

Private Alan David Mitchell

(SUCC 1911-12)

died 5 May 1915, Cairo, Egypt, aged 23

__________________________________

Lieutenant Alexander Roxburgh Muir MC

(SUCC 1914-15),

died 13 October 1917, Ypres, Belgium, aged 22

_________________________________________

Lance Corporal Clarence Garfield Page, MM

              (SUCC 1911-13)

Died 22 July 1916, Pozieres, France, aged 27.

______________________________________

Lieutenant Elliot D’Arcy Slade

(SUCC 1911-12)

died 30 March 1918, Villers Bretonneaux, France, aged 23

_________________________________________________

Captain Arthur (johnnie)  Verge

(SUCC 1899-1904)

died 8 September 1915, at Alexandria, Egypt, aged 35

_____________________________________________

Captain John Stuart Dight Walker, MC.

(SUCC 1904-07)

died 21 July 1918, at Merris Nord, France, aged 32

____________________________________________

WORLD WAR II

Captain Stephen Denis Foley

(SUCC 1934-37)

died 14 May 1943, at sea off the Qld coast, aged 27

_____________________________________________

Lance Sergeant Jack Thomas Garvin

(SUCC 1922-24)

died 4 June 1945, Labuan, Borneo, aged 43

_______________________________________

Major Llondha Holland

(SUCC 1920-21)

died 14 May 1943, at sea off the Qld coast, aged 41

______________________________________________

Flying Officer Jack Ledgerwood

(SUCC 1939-41),

died 21 September 1943, Steeple, UK, aged 21

_________________________________________

Brigadier Geoffrey Austin Street

(SUCC 1913-14)

died 13 August 1940, Canberra, aged 46

______________________________________

Captain Laurence Edward Tansey

(SUCC 1936-37),

died 17 August 1943, at sea near Bowen, Qld, aged 24

________________________________________________

Pilot Officer John Alan Traill

(SUCC 1941-42),

died 18 June 1944, at Gannes, France, aged 21

__________________________________________

Major Ian Firth Vickery

(SUCC 1931-39),

died 27 November 1942, Soputa, New Guinea, aged 28

MICHAEL FORBES - RIP (1952 -2021)

                                                                   MICHAEL FORBES (1952-2021

The Club is saddened to hear of the death, on 8 March, of Mick Forbes. He was 68. )

Mick spent 3 seasons with the Club, 1975-78, playing mainly 2nd and 3rd Grades as a right arm medium pacer and effective lower order batsman whose statistics are most impressive. He had previously played in the Sutherland Shire. He was popular with his team mates who appreciated his wholehearted attitude and his pleasant personality. 

The Club extends its sincere sympathy to Mick’s wife, Kerry, and to their two children.

MICHAEL FORBES  SUCC 1975-1978

 Inns    NO  HS  Runs   Ave      Wickets  Runs    Ave

   47     7    54   483  12.4       135    1932   14.3

James Rodgers

Lieutenant Elliott Darcy Slade

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

Nivethan Radhakrishnan Representative Selection

Congratulations Nivethan Radhakrishan on your selection into the NSW Metropolitan U/19 Selection!

Niv has 41 wickets @ 18.00 for the season and has played a key role in the success of both the 1st Grade and Poidevin-Gray Squad this season.

Niv was exceptional as captain of the PG’s Squad during our FDC T20 Day Fixture against Penrith, in which the Students won by a comprehensive 7 wickets.