Ballymore Beat: the Queensland Reds wartime history

On June 11, 1910, Queensland five eighth Billy Dixon (QRU #250) lined up for his State against the touring NZ Māori side at Brisbane’s Exhibition Ground. Facing him was Auckland hooker George Sellars, a noted hard man from Ponsonby who would go on to play for the All Blacks.

Seven years later, almost to the day, both men lay dead on the fields of Flanders, cut down within two days of each other at the Battle of Messines. Private Sellars, serving with the 1st Battalion of the Auckland Infantry Regiment was hit by machine gun fire on June 7, 1917 as he tried to carry a wounded comrade to safety – the first of three All Blacks to die in a fortnight at Messines. Two days later Private Dixon was killed as his 52nd Battalion tried to reinforce panicked English troops.

Neither man’s body was recovered, their graves “known only to God”.

The 2024 Anzac Weekend Round match between the Queensland Reds and Blues will be played in memory of both men, as well as the 59 other Queensland Reds who served in wartime.

It is a rich, tragic, and thankfully sometimes comic, history of service and sacrifice.

Of the 60 men who served, 11 of them would be killed in service. Over five wars, these 60 men received almost every gallantry award short of the Victoria Cross.

Three landed at Gallipoli on ANZAC Day - Llewellyn Evans (QRU #184, Wallaby #35), Tom Richards MC (QRU #255, Wallaby #99) and Alex Dingwall MM MID (QRU #299).

Five served in the Boer War (three of them re-enlisting for WW1); one in the Boxer Rebellion; 35 in World War One; 25 in World War 2 (two of them doctors who re-enlisted and one the notorious Tom “Rat” Flanagan, who lied about his age); and one in the Vietnam War.

The veterans included the only Australian to win three Distinguished Service Orders (second only to the Victoria Cross), three Rhodes Scholars, 20 Wallabies – with Tom Richards MC also representing the British and Irish Lions, and one England Captain. Two were Oxford Blues in rugby. Three are in the Queensland Rugby Hall of Fame and two in the Wallabies Hall of Fame.

Of the 11 who died in service, three of them were in World War One and eight in World War Two. However this belies the ferocity of combat on Western Front – almost all of the surviving WW1 veterans who served in combat arms were wounded, many of them multiple times. David Williams (QRU #317, Wallaby #137) lost his right hand; William Kenyon (QRU #328) lost a leg in the fight for the Hindenberg Line for which he was awarded a Military Cross.

Fourteen Reds were decorated with a total of 25 gallantry awards. Captain Viv Cooper DSO, MC, MID (QRU#342) and Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Corfe DSO and 2 Bars, CdG, the most highly decorated Reds.

Cooper won the DSO at as a young Lieutenant at Pozieres in a furious action where he repelled an enemy attack, killing multiple Germans and capturing 20 singlehandedly. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1917 for “gallant service”. In 1918, in the headlong advance on Mont St Quentin in the final months of the war, now Captain Cooper’s company was pinned down by almost 30 German machine guns. Cooper personally led small parties of men against a series of brutal rushes against 30 German machineguns – silencing them all. He won a Military Cross for that action.

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Corfe DSO and 2 Bars, CdG. (QRU #163, Wallaby #17), is the only Australian in history to receive three Distinguished Service Orders, albeit while serving in the British Army as Commanding Officer of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kents. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre. DSOs are awarded for bravery or service, with Corfe’s first DSO for service in the 1917 King’s Birthday Honours. The next two he won for gallantry, with the last for personally leading his battalion into action when overwhelming fire from the Germans had stopped their advance in the Battle of Ypres. Wounded in the shoulder, he refused to be evacuated before the fight was won, finally collapsing from lack of blood. Corfe’s brother Duncan – who represented the Waratahs in 1901 against Queensland – won the Military Cross in the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company. Duncan had joked in a letter home “that if you see a Major Corfe has won the VC it won’t be me, it will be Arthur”.

Many of the Reds who served were among the most impressive young men in the State. Rhodes scholars Lieutenant Colonel Dr Leonard Brown MC MID (QRU #248, England #509), Dr Allan Row (QRU #349) and Hall of Famer Tom Lawton Snr (QRU #366, Wallaby #154) all joined up in World War One. Both Brown and Row were Oxford Blues, who – already studying in England – enlisted in English units. “Bruno” Brown would play 18 matches for England, captaining the side in his last Test and eventually being elected President of the Rugby Football Union.

The list of units served in includes some of Australia’s most storied. Tom McNeill (QRU#529) was killed flying in the famous 460 Squadron RAAF in Bomber Command, where men had just a one in six chance of surviving their 30 night-time missions in the brutal air war over Europe. His Lancaster riddled with cannon fire from a German night fighter, McNeill was too badly wounded to bale out and asked to be left in the aircraft as it went down. He was not even meant to be on the plane as he was facing a disciplinary hearing, but volunteered for the mission.

Bill McLean (QRU #523, Wallaby #332) fought behind Japanese lines on Timor with 2/3 Commando Squadron, while Edmund Broad (QRU #566) flew 30 missions over Europe as a Squadron Leader in 467 Squadron, one of the two other RAAF units in Bomber Command.

Some of the stories are tragic. Three Wallaby teammates joined up together in the 2/10th Field Regiment - Winston Ide (QRU #510, Wallaby #317), Burnett Schulte (QRU #490, Wallaby #335) and Vaux Nicholson (QRU #519, Uncapped 1939 Wallaby). They were all captured in Singapore and imprisoned in the notorious Changi prison. Ide, the first Japanese-Australian to represent the Wallabies and whose father had been interned as an “enemy alien”, died with almost 1200 other prisoners in the tragic sinking of the unmarked prison ship Rakuyo Maru, which was torpedoed by USS Sealion in 1944. Ide’s last words as he refused to get in an overcrowded liferaft were “No, mate, no. I’m staying here to help my mates. In any case, I’ll swim to Australia if I have to”.

Max Stark (QRU #512), Francis Arnell (QRU #436) and QRU Secretary Keith Horsley (who had played in an uncapped match in 1928) were all killed in the retreat from Malaya in 1942. Arnell’s son Frank Jnr would later become QRU #769.

Alan Eason (QRU #516) was killed just months before the end of the war in the tragic friendly fire bombing of Klagenfurt POW camp - buried alive in the rubble. As fellow POWs tried to dig him out, he asked for cigarettes to be passed down to him - he said he would “be all right if they kept the smokes coming”. He was freed after two hours but died of his injuries the following morning. The Alan Eason Memorial Cup is now awarded to the fourth-grade minor premiers in the Hospital Cup competition.

Some stories are more humorous. Tom “Rat” Flanagan (QRU #372) spent the entire war as a Private in the 25th Battalion where he amassed both a lengthy criminal record and a reputation as a hard-fighting infantryman. He was charged at various times with allowing a prisoner to escape, drunkenness, and being absent without leave. He always seemed to be free from the lock-up in time for a big battle.

Flanagan was part of the 25th’s mutiny in 1918 when it was forced to disband after being reduced to just a handful of men following constant battles. The striking soldiers demanded to lead the next attack saying they would “go on as the 25th until either the war ended or the battalion was wiped out.” He was gassed at Frenchencourt in May 1918 but recovered to play for the AIF in the legendary post-war “Test” against France. An inveterate brawler, he lied about his age to re-enlist for World War 2.

A year before his death, William Dixon did two months in lockup for being drunk and disorderly on leave and punching a London Constable “tearing buttons from his coat”.

Arthur Michael “Budget” Lyons (QRU#375) was another colourful long-term Private, with the 15th Battalion. He was charged with three counts of being absent without leave, contracted at least one case of veneral disease and ended up being wounded in action at Messines Ridge on August 1917, the same battle that claimed the life of his Reds teammate Hugh Flynn, DCM.

None of the Queensland Reds veterans are with us today. The last surviving veterans were Kev Crowe (QRU #613), who joined the navy at the end of World War 2 and Eric Andrews, (QRU no. 844). Crowe never saw action, although he was part of the occupation force in Japan and toured Hiroshima mere months after the atomic bomb was dropped.

Andrews served as a platoon commander for Charlie Company, 6RAR, and reinforced Delta Company the morning after the Battle of Long Tan in 1966. One of the men he helped evacuate was Cpl Buddy Lea, who was wounded in the battle and decorated for bravery. Buddy’s son Barry, born after the war, would go on to become a handy winger – QRU #1084 and an uncapped Wallaby tourist.

No Reds have served in wartime since Vietnam. However special mention should be made of hooker Michael Ware (QRU #1050). Journalist and documentary maker Ware covered the Iraq War for Time and CNN for more than 10 years, experiencing intense combat. Ware was the only person with (and was filming) US Sgt David Bellavia when he won the US Medal of Honor for clearing an insurgent house in vicious hand-to-hand combat in Fallujah in 2004. It was the first time a Medal of Honor action had been personally captured on video.

The Queensland Reds’ Anzac jersey commemorates the strong connection between Queensland Rugby and those who served.

The jersey calls out to the original ANZACS of World War One:

• The colour matches the khaki battledress worn by the Australian Army in World War One.
• The silhouette image of troops advancing at the Battle of Broodseinde Ridge in 1917 is believed to be Toowoomba’s 25th Battalion - in which QRU #372 Tom “Rat” Flanagan served as a private. The picture is reproduced from the famous photograph taken by Frank Hurley.
• The “black-over-blue” piping on the jersey sleeve pays homage to the colour patch worn on the sleeve by most Queensland infantry battalions in World War One. Those same battalions - the 9th, 25th, 49th and 41st – still wear these colour patches on their slouch hat band.
• The collar features both the original Rising Sun insignia worn on the battledress collar, and a poppy emblem remembering the fallen.

Both the 9th and 25/49th battalions will form the honour guard at the Anzac Weekend Round match against the Blues on April 27, 2024, along with Brisbane’s 6RAR.

• The 9th Battalion was the first unit to land on Gallipoli. The first to step ashore was Maryborough rugby representative Lt Duncan Chapman. Four Queensland Reds served with the 9th Battalion, with 2Lt Hugh Flynn DCM (QRU #310) killed in action.
• The 25th Battalion was famous for mutinying in 1918 when it was forced to disband after being reduced to just a handful of men following constant battles. The striking soldiers demanded to lead the next attack saying they would “go on as the 25th until either the war ended or the battalion was wiped out.” Private Tom “Rat” Flanagan (QRU #372) served with the 25th, where he amassed both a lengthy criminal record and a reputation as a hard-fighting infantryman.
• The 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment is most famous for the Battle of Long Tan in 1966 where it defeated a North Vietnamese unit at least 10 times its size. Corporal Buddy Lea, the father of Reds winger Barry Lea (QRU #1048) was decorated for bravery in that battle.

Queensland Reds representatives who have died in wartime.

1. Major William Hodgkinson (QRU #181) 11th Light Horse. A Boer War veteran, he died of illness caused by service in France.
2. Private William Dixon (QRU #250) 52nd Battalion. Killed in action June 9, 1917 by machinegun fire at the Battle of Messines.
3. 2nd Lieutenant Hugh Flynn DCM (QRU #310). 9th Battalion. Killed in action September 20, 1917 by shellfire at the Battle of Menin Road. The Brothers club captain, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1916 “for conspicuous gallantry in action, when he assisted to carry in many wounded from an open area heavily swept by shell fire.”
4. Flying Officer Edwin “Dooney” Hayes (QRU #431, Wallaby #289). 1 (Middle East) Training School RAF. A former Queensland captain, he went missing in action on January 12, 1943, while flying Kittyhawks in Libya. His body has never been found.
5. Private Francis Arnell (QRU #436). Pte, 2/10 Fld Regt. Killed in action in the retreat from Malaya on February 8, 1942, Malaya. His son Frank Jnr represented Queensland as QRU #769.
6. Craftsman Edward Chapman “Skippy” James (QLD #477) Craftsman, 1st Tank Battalion Workshop. Crushed by accident in New Guinea on November 8, 1943.
7. Flight Sergeant John Newman (Qld #495). 101 Squadron RAF. Killed in action on March 31, 1944 over Nuremberg. His aircraft was one of seven Lancasters out of 26 lost by the squadron that night.
8. Bombardier Winston Ide (QRU #510, Wallaby #317) 2/10 Field Artillery Regiment. Centre “Blow” Ide was the first Japanese-Australian to represent Queensland and the Wallabies and his Japanese father was interned during the war. He joined 2/10 Fld Regt with fellow Reds and Wallabies players Burnett Schulte (QRU #490, Wallaby #335) and Vaux Nicholson (QRU #519, Uncapped 1939 Wallaby). All three were captured in Singapore and imprisoned in Changi. Ide was was one of the 1559 Australian and British prisoners of war who died when their transport, the Rakuyo Maru was torpedoed by USS Sealion on September 12, 1944. He ignored calls to get in an overcrowded liferaft, saying “No, mate, no. I’m staying here to help my mates. In any case, I’ll swim to Australia if I have to.”
9. Corporal Max Stark (QRU #512). 2/26th Battalion. Killed in Action February 7, 1942, during the retreat from Malaya.
10. Driver Alan Eason (QRU #516). 1 Corps Headquarters. Killed February 19, 1945 in the tragic friendly fire bombing of Klagenfurt POW camp. Eason was buried alive in the rubble. As fellow POWs tried to dig him out, he asked for cigarettes to be passed down to him - he said he would be all right if they kept the smokes coming. He was freed after two hours but died of his injuries the following morning. The Alan Eason Memorial Cup is awarded to the fourth-grade minor premiers in the Hospital Cup competition.
11. Flying Officer Tom McNeill (QRU#529) 460 Squadron, RAAF. A navigator for the famous Bomber Command squadron, his Lancaster was shot down by a night fighter over the Netherlands on March 30, 1943. McNeill weas not meant to fly as he was facing a disciplinary hearing. He was too badly wounded to bail out, and asked to be left in the aircraft as it went down. Only one of the seven crew survived. McNeill was a second-rower from Brothers. PIC

NOTE: Sgt Keith Horsley, former QRU Secretary, was killed in action by a Japanese sniper on January 28, 1942 during the retreat from Malaya. He represented Queensland in 1928, but it was not a capped game. The Keith Horsley Cup is presented to the Minor Premiers in Brisbane’s Hospital Cup competition.