100 years ago this week - on February 4 1914, the Lang Lang Guardian published this article about forming a league for British Association Football or 'soccer'. Mr Frank Garwood of Modella wanted to start the League which would cover the area between the two Railway lines - Koo Wee Rup to Lang Lang and Garfield to Longwarry and he urged anyone interested in playing the English "soccer" game (NOT rugby) to contact him.
British Association Football. Local Support.
An attempt will be made to form a league for British Association football if enough teams can be formed in the districts between the two railway lines from Kooweerup to Lang Lang and Garfield to Longwarry, to include Longwarry South and Yannathan on the east, and Yallock and Iona on the western side. There is at least one team already practically formed at Modella, and if a League is out of the question owing to an insufficient number of players, a few exhibition scratch matches might be arranged in the various townships in the district to awake enthusiasm in the most scientific football game yet played. With all sporting men interested in B.A. football, who play, have played, or want to play the English "soccer" game (NOT Rugby) please communicate with Mr Frank Garwood, Modella P.O., via Longwarry, who is attempting to organise the games. Roll up 'old boys' and 'has beens,' for the game will need referees, and the teams will need coaches, trainers and supporters in their endeavor to attract colonial enthusiasm for the real boot-the-ball game. (1)
British Association Football
Lang Lang Guardian, February 4, 1914 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119510195
I have no information as to how it went, but I suspect that it could not compete against Australian Rules football.
Who was Frank Garwood? In February 1914 Frank Garwood was appointed the Secretary of the Modella Cricket Club and at the Presentation night on April 15, 1914 he came second in the batting averages. (2)
A Frank Garwood (SN 694) enlisted to serve in the AIF on August 17, 1914. He served overseas, was injured on at least two occasions - gun shot wound right led and a bullet wound to the right foot. He Returned to Australia October 23, 1918 and was discharged on medical grounds on May 31, 1919. From his two files at the National Archives of Australia we also learn that he was born on March 5, 1893 in Harrow, Middlesex in England his next of kin was originally his father Francis and later changed to his wife Maude Muriel, whom he married whilst he was in England. (3)
Was this Frank Garwood, the Frank Garwood from Modella? I believe he was. I base this on the following report of his injury from The Age (4). It said that he worked at Buckley & Nunn prior to enlistment, which doesn't see likely if he lived in Modella, however the fact that he is described as a keen soccer football player convinces me that he was indeed the same Frank Garwood, who wanted to establish a soccer league in the Modella district.
Report on Private Frank Garwood
The Age, June 14, 1915 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/154941608
After the War we find Frank and Maude in the 1921 and 1924 Electoral Rolls at Stancourt, Tooradin, where he was a farmer, this was a farm of 100 acres. (5) They then moved to a farm in Epping. It appears that Frank then joined the Department of Agriculture and between 1927 and 1934 he was a dairy supervisor and they were living in Rushworth. In 1936 we can place them in Trafalgar and in 1937 in Flemington, where Frank was a stock inspector, presumably at the Newmarket Sale Yards; by 1943 they were in Donald, where again Frank was a stock inspector and in 1949 in Wodonga. In 1954, they had moved back to Melbourne to Beaumaris. (6)
Frank Garwood appointed to Rushworth
Weekly Times, March 5, 1927 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223339937
Frank Garwood, visits Mildura, when he was based at Donald
Sunraysia Daily, September 5 1944 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article280958798
Frank died of stomach cancer on May 2, 1958 at the Mordialloc Cheltenham Hospital. He was predeceased by Maude who died on February 18, 1956; they were both cremated at Springvale Cemetery. (7) Frank and Maude were survived by their daughter Muriel, her husband Ken Anderton and their three grandchildren - Kenneth, Kathleen and Neil. (8)
Footnotes
(1) Lang Lang Guardian, February 4, 1914, see here.
(3) National Archives of Australia - Service record https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4104082
Personal file
(4) The Age, June 14, 1915, see here.
(5) Electoral rolls on Ancestry.com; the Tooradin farm is also mentioned when he applied for a Soldier Settlement file in the Parish of Morang in 1923; this would be the farm at Epping, the permit for which was cancelled in 1925 -
https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/DD63D7BE-F8CE-11E9-AE98-9D4C8A013CB5?image=29(6) Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com and newspaper reports which list his place of residence or work such as -
Rushworth - Weekly Times, March 5, 1927, see here
Kardella - Great Southern Advocate, October 24, 1935, see here.
Coalville - The Age, April 7, 1936, see here
Trafalgar - The Age, November 21, 1936, see here
Donald - Weekly Times, June 2, 1943, see here
Mildura - Sunraysia Daily, December 3, 1943, see here
Mildura - Sunraysia Daily, September 5, 1944, see here.
Mildura - Sunraysia Daily, September 6, 1944, see here
Mildura - Sunraysia Daily, September 8, 1944, see here
Wodonga - Corryong Courier, April 4, 1946, see here.
(7) National Archives of Australia - Personal file - see footnote 3; Death notice- Frank - The Age, May 5, 1958, p.10 on Newspapers.com; Maude death notice - The Argus, February 20, 1956, see here; Springvale Cemetery database https://www.smct.org.au/deceased-search;
(8) Muriel married Joseph Frederick Kenneth Anderton in 1943; the children are listed in her parent's death notices (see footnote 7). This is the birth notice of their first child, Kenneth born in February 1945 in Donald - The Argus, February 6, 1945, see here.
