“Harry who?” At last, an answer

By Tony De Bolfo

For every 100-game Carlton player there’s probably a hundred more who disappear into the ether just as quickly as they appear.

William Harry, a one-game back pocket who donned the boots for the Blues almost 106 years ago, could be considered amongst the club’s great forgotten.

Until now.

That Harry’s tale can finally be told is due to the dedication of his grandson Lynn Harry. A long-time member and supporter, Lynn was inspired by a recent article featuring another Carlton one-gamer, Bill Carmody, who later laid his life on the line at Pozieres during The Great War.

“I read that story and realized that the club was still interested in documenting the lives of those players who managed only one game,” Lynn said, “and with my father being the last living link with our one-game player I thought it important to pursue William’s story.”

Turn back the hands to July 21, 1906, to the day Harry turned out for his team in what would prove a landmark season for the Carlton Football Club.

This was the season in which the legendary coach Jack Worrall led his players to Grand Final glory for the first of three premierships in succession and the first since Carlton’s admission to the Victorian football League some nine years previous.

Harry’s maiden appearance came in the 11th round, against Collingwood at Princes Park no less. Named in a back pocket, he worked in tandem with Norman “Hackenschmidt” Clark and Doug Gillespie to safeguard the goals on the last line.

Though the home team comfortably accounted for its much-despised inner-city neighbor to the tune of 37 points, Harry never took to the paddock in a Carlton lace-up again.

But who was he? And what became of him?

William Richard Harry was born in the old gold mining town of Eldorado, 254 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, in 1878 - the first of 12 children reared by Elizabeth Ann (nee Wellington) and John Hammer Harry - a Cornish tin miner named who’d set sail from his native St Austell in search of gold in the mid-1860s.

When gold and tin mining operations ceased in Eldorado around the turn of last century, the Harry family relocated to Chiltern-Rutherglen, to where mines had been active since the 1890s. There, young Harry toiled for Great Southern Mines, during which time (1903) he also married a 23 year-old local Chiltern girl named Margaret Henderson.

By then, Harry had chased the leather for the local Great Southern, Miners and Rutherglen teams. An early Rutherglen team photo depicts William standing with his arms by his side in a sleeveless guernsey and cap and sporting a dark moustache. A younger brother George can also be seen lying on his side in the bottom left hand corner of the image.

The Rutherglen team, with William standing at the back, 5th from right.

The circumstances which led to Harry’s recruitment to Carlton may never be known, although his grandson, Lynn Harry can appreciate the trepidation his forefather surely experienced.

As he said: “I can now understand how he felt about coming down to Carlton at the age of 27 to play footy, with a wife and two young children under three years-old living back home in Rutherglen”.

“But Jack Worrall must have seen something in my grandfather,” Lynn said. “I’ve only read in the history books these past couple of days that Jack had a real eye for talent, so much so that he could spot it on the other side of the spectators’ fence . . . it would have been really nice to know what he actually thought about William.”

Following his all-too-brief Carlton foray, Harry returned to Rutherglen and kept playing. On hanging up the boots, Harry armed himself with a whistle and umpired for a number of seasons, earning the curious nickname “Tidylum” from the locals. Origins of the nickname are sketchy, but Tidylum is thought to be Cornish.

William Harry with his family, Rutherglen, 1922.

Harry continued to work the Rutherglen mines until the gold ran out in about 1920. Three years later he relocated with his family to Footscray in search of labor.

He ultimately found work with Port Melbourne Woollen Mills and carried through his duties with the company for a number of years until his untimely passing in 1943.

Though he lived in Melbourne’s western suburbs, Harry regularly returned to his beloved Rutherglen to indulge his favourite pastimes of fishing and duck shooting.

As Lynn said, “Harry really had this like for the bush and to be out on the river and Dad told me he was crack shot.”

Tragically, those very indulgences contributed to Harry’s untimely demise.

Harry was a man of 64 years when he drowned in the Murray River, apparently as he attempted to retrieve a duck he had just shot down.

The following obituary appeared in the local Rutherglen newspaper.

On Sunday afternoon, February 21, 1943, a drowning fatality occurred in a lagoon of the Murray River opposite Gooramadda.
The victim was Mr. William Harry of Footscray.
Deceased was well-known throughout the district, having lived at Great southern for many years prior to coming to Rutherglen to live. He went to reside in Melbourne about 20 years ago, paying many visits to Rutherglen in the meantime.
In his young days he was a prominent footballer for the district, playing with Great Southern, Miners and Rutherglen. Known familiarly as “Tidylum”, Harry played many sterling games for the above team. When he completed his football career he took up umpiring.
The late Mr Harry came to Rutherglen for a holiday on Monday of last week and, desiring to spend some time on the river, went out to board with Mr and Mrs H. Connell on Tuesday.
He was in good health on Sunday and after lunch said he was going for a shot, taking a gun and cartridges with him. Mr McConnell rowed him across the river and waited for him on the river bank while deceased searched for game.
Mr McConnell heard a shot and when Mr Harry did not return in reasonable time he got anxious and went looking for him.
On the bank of the lagoon Mr McConnell found his cloths and looking into the lagoon saw Mr Harry’s head under the water about five feet in from the edge.
He immediately went into the water but it was too deep; Mr McConnell then got a long stick and drew the body to the bank.
Efforts to revive him failed and Mr McConnell motored into town and notified the police.
It is thought that he went into the lagoon after the game he had shot and became entangled in the weeds.
The body was brought to the river bank where it was examined by Doctor Davis, and evidence of identification taken, after which an order for burial was granted.
Deceased was a native of Eldorado, and was 64 years of age. The remains were taken to Melbourne for interment.

William Harry and his wife raised nine children during their lifetimes, the first eight of them born in Rutherglen. Of the nine, only the youngest child - Lynn’s father Keith - is still living.

Lynn Harry, William's grandson, at Visy Park earlier this week.

A grandson, Ian Harry, was later recruited to Carlton on the sayso of Ron Barassi and whilst not managing to break through with the Blues did complete a long and successful tenure as captain of VFA outfit Mordialloc.

Another grandson through marriage, Golden Square’s Ross Ousley, also represented Carlton in 23 senior matches from 1956-58.

As for Lynn, two cherished Carlton sites serve to perpetuate the memory of his grandfather . . . the very ground upon which William Harry once played and the trophy cabinet flanking the reception area at Visy Park.

“I never knew until now that my grandfather’s one and only game came in a premiership year,” Lynn said, “so I can now view the 1906 cup with a real interest and passion and can feel, in the slightest, tiniest way, that Harry has helped contribute to that Grand Final victory."