Harold Corbett
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Harold William Corbett | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | 1890 Waterloo, New South Wales | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 3 May 1917 (aged 26-27) Bullecourt, France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Halfback | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Harold William Corbett (1890 – 3 May 1917) was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer and soldier who served in World War I and died on the Western Front.
Rugby League
Brought up in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs Corbett attended
His father William Francis Corbett (1857–1923) and brother Claude Corbett were both well-known Sydney sporting journalists.[1]
War service
Harold also gave his occupation as "Journalist" when he enlisted in the first AIF in 1915. He embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A21 Marere in August 1915 as a Sergeant in the 19th Battalion of the 5th Brigade (New South Wales).[2] The 19th Battalion had been raised in 1915 and was first sent to Gallipoli where it fought against the Turks, before being withdrawn from the peninsula and being sent to France in early 1916, where it served in the trenches along the Western Front as part of the Australian Corps.
In 1917, the 19th Battalion was involved in the attack on
Bibliography
- Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players, Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
Online sources
Footnotes
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
- ^ "H Corbett war record". Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2009.
- ^ Middleton, David (24 April 2010). "Footy stars taken on battlefield". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ^ "Sergeant Harold William Corbett". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 21 December 2023.