This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who died during The Great War. If anyone has further information on the men concerned, I’d be most grateful if it could be added to the thread. Gareth This man was really a clourful character! Swannell, Blair Inskip played for Great Britain and Australia Great Britain Internationals: 6 : 1899 A+ A+; 1904 A+ A+ A+ NZ- Australia Internationals: 1: 1905 NZ- Blair Swannell was born on 20 August 1875, in Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire, the son of Mr William and Mrs Charlotte Swannell. Played as a Forward for: Northampton, Sydney, North Sydney, NSW. Profession: Independent means Remarks: Educated on the Thames Nautical Training College, HMS Worcester at Greenhithe, (winner of Sir George Chamber’s prize for steam and naval architecture in August 1890) where he obtained a Certificate of Competence as a Second Mate (Eng) in the Mercantile Marine. He played 116 times for Northampton RFC, scoring 16 tries and 6 conversions, and was selected for the Great Britain tour of Australia in 1899 [Captained by the Rev M M Mullineux] when he played in the 3rd International, won 11-10, and the 4th, won 13-0. During the 1899-1902 South African War he served as a Lieutenant in the Buckinghamshire Imperial Yeomanry; he returned to the United Kingdom as a Captain in the 35th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry in the SS Orotava in December 1902. He also served in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was also selected for the 1904 Great Britain tour of Australia and New Zealand [Captained by D R Bedell-Sivright, who died at Gallipoli on 5 September 1915]. He played in the 3 Internationals v Australia, all victorious: 17-0, 17-3 and 16-0, scoring a try in the 3rd. He also played v New Zealand (lost 3-9) and the tour matches v Canterbury-South Canterbury-West Coast (won 5-3), v Otago-Southland (won 14-8) and v Auckland (lost 0-13). After the tour, he settled in Australia in 1905 and played for Sydney, then North Sydney, as well as NSW and Australia. He played for NSW 7 times. It seems Swannell was not popular with his NSW team-mates, as they had memories of his rough play when touring with the Great Britain team, where he was noted for kicking players when they were down. He replied in verse to complaints. “He also bored many with his past tales of bravery, which included sealing off the coast of Labrador, enlisting as a trooper in the Boer War, and fighting amongst the insurrectionists in the Republic of Uruguay.” Swannell also coached at St Joseph’s College and refereed schoolboy matches (and he was known for wearing his Great Britain blazer when doing so). On 15 June 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald noted “Swannell was also renowned for his unsavoury play and unusual hygiene, always turning up to club matches in a filthy, once white, sweater, with badges and dates of all counties he represented on it. His prized possession was an also once-white pair of football breeches, which he refused to wash, and which he wore in every match.” Dr H M Moran, the 1908 Wallaby captain, did not like Swannell, and accused him of encouraging violence on the field. Moran wrote: “Swannell was for a number of years a bad influence in Sydney football. He had no enlightened ideas about sport, and used to teach schoolboys all sorts of tricks and tactics that were highly objectionable. He kept himself in perfect condition and this alone enabled him to conceal his slowness on the field. In appearance he was extremely ugly but, like Wilkes in the eighteenth century, he could talk his face off in half an hour. He was popular with the fair sex; men, generally, disliked him.” In 1905 at Dunedin, Swannell was kicked in the left eye by an opposing forward, annoyed by his rough play during the NSW tour of New Zealand. No NSW player retaliated. He was sent off in error during one of the 1906 NSW v Queensland matches, but none of the NSW players testified on his behalf when he was given a month’s suspension. In 1914 he lived at No 10 Raglan Street, Darlington, NSW, in an area since absorbed into the campus of the University of Sydney War service: Major, “D” Company, 1st (New South Wales) Battalion, 1st Brigade, Australian Imperial Force Swannell was commissioned in the Australian Militia as a Lieutenant in 1912, and promoted to Captain in 1914. He applied for a commission in the AIF on 1 September 1914, and was appointed as a Captain in Q Company, 1st Bn, 1st Bde on 3 September. On 1 January 1915, after travelling to Egypt on the transport A19 The Afric, he was promoted to Major. While travelling to Gallipoli on the troopship SS Minnewaska, he said that he felt sure that he would be killed, but that he would play this game as he had played Rugby – with his whole heart. He was killed in action on 25 April 1915, at Gallipoli, during the assault on Turkish positions at the hill named Baby 700. Major Swannell’s “D” Company of the 1st Battalion was led forward into Rest Gully and up Russell’s Top by the Battalion’s second in Command, Major Kindon, in support of the 3rd Brigade. His platoon commanders were Lt A J Shout [later Captain Shout VC MC; who died of wounds on 11 August 1915], Lt G A Street [later Brigadier General Street MC; Australian Minister for the Army and Minister for Repatriation 1938-1940, killed when RAAF Lockheed Hudson A16-97 crashed between Canberra and Queanbeyan on 13 August 1940] and Captain H Jacobs [later Major]. The company reached the remnants of the 3rd Brigade at the base of Baby 700 just before 11.00; there were only about seventy men of the 3rd Brigade at the position. Swannell’s company deployed and, with the 3rd Brigade men, charged the Turks, sweeping over the top of Baby 700. When on the inland slope of the Hill, the Australians came under heavy fire and found it very difficult to reply. Major Swannell was shot dead while kneeling to show his men how to return fire. Capt Bigwither of the NZ Forces found Major Swannell’s identity disk at Baby 700. When he was killed during the landing, there was a report that he was shot by his own men. However, Dr Moran dismissed this, saying: “It was always expected that a Roman Emperor should die on his feet; Swannell clearly thought a footballer should die following on. In the end he wore an Australian uniform as stubbornly as he wore an Australian jersey. He found his end storming the goal at Gallipoli. I can imagine him rushing forward with a frown on that ugly face with a scar from a New Zealand boot. Hard-visaged comrades said he died with his ruling passion still in him. For me that is his epitaph – he never hung out of a ruck.” The Australian International player T J ‘Rusty’ Richards, who also landed at Gallipoli that day, wrote: “I am really grieved as ‘Swanny’ with all his faults, was quite all right, though he was a character seldom met.” He is commemorated at the Baby 700 Cemetery, Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, Turkey [Sp Mem 10]. He is probably buried in the Baby 700 Cemetery, but an alternative site is No 2 Outpost Cemetery, Koja Dere.
In Memory of Major BLAIR INSKIP SWANNELL 1st Bn., Australian Infantry, A.I.F. who died age 39 on 25 April 1915 Son of Mrs. Swannell, of Castilian Terrace, Northampton, England. Remembered with honour BABY 700 CEMETERY, ANZAC Blair Swannell ......... twice a British Lions tourist (1899 & 1904) and capped in all four Tests in 1904, this rugged Northampton forward emigrated to Australia immediately after that tour and was capped by his new country within 12 months on a tour to New Zealand in 1905. He died leading a ferocious charge by Australian forces at Gallipoli in August 1915, he was shot whilst kneeling showing others how to aim better. He was awarded the military cross. Major Blair Inskip Swannell There are times when the game of rugby throws up what can only be described as extraordinary characters. Blair Swannell definitely qualifies in this category. Considered to be a tough and courageous forward with outspoken opinions, he played hard on the field and gave just as much enthusiasm to the celebrations after a game. Blair had a reputation for pushing the boundaries of acceptable play and for dubious personal hygiene, always turning up for training sessions in a filthy, once white, jersey with badges and dates of all the countries he had represented on it. His prized possession was an also once white pair of football breeches, which he refused to wash, and which he wore in every match. Originally a player with England’s Northampton Saints, Blair had played in two British Lions tours to Australia in 1899 and 1904, after which he settled in Sydney where he became a coach and referee. It was during this phase that he won his only cap for Australia, on a tour to New Zealand in 1905. At the outbreak of World War One, Blair enlisted with the Australian Infantry. He was commissioned as an officer and posted to Egypt. In April 1915 the Allied commanders sought an alternative method of securing victory after the stalemate of the Western Front. They launched the Gallipoli campaign in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, secure supply routes to Russia and open another front against Germany and Austria. British, French, Indian and Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) troops began landings on the peninsula on 25 April. Blair and his men were immediately involved in heavy fighting for a small hill known as Baby 700. Despite initial successes, albeit at very heavy cost, the landings began to stall. Blair’s unit were pinned down by heavy fire. The official Australian historian Charles Bean recounts that Blair had a premonition of his death before landing; “he realised that he would play this game as he had played Rugby Football - with his whole heart.” While kneeling up to show his men how to take better aim, he was shot and killed. He was awarded the Military Cross and is commemorated by a special memorial in Baby 700 cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. The 1908 Wallabies captain, "Paddy" Moran, wrote of Swannell's demise: "The hard porcelain of his spirit had richer glaze than we had previously perceived; it was love of country."
"He was awarded the Military Cross" I don't know about the MC - there's no mention of it in his Service Record at the National Archives. Gareth
Maybe this is another myth that has been perpetuated !! 28 October 1914 - Capt B I Swannell Major Blair Inskip Swannell born in Britain on th 20th August 1875. He was an engineer who was a veteran of the South African Campaign (the Boer War) and thus one of the more experienced officers in the 1st AIF at that time. The exact fate of Major Swannell is not known. He was at the forefront of the 1st Battalion when it landed on the morning of 25th April. It appears that, with Sgt Larkin and others he reached the feature known as Baby 700. He is listed as KIA on April 25 1914, but his body was never identified (this was a common fate of many at Gallipoli). His identity disc was located on the 2nd of May by a Captain Bigwithen of the NZ Expeditionary Force. Not on memorial - but on plaques in the church SWANNELL Blair Inskip Major, 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, Australian Imperial Forces (AIF). Killed in action in the Dardenelles Sunday 25th April 1915. Son of Mrs. Swannell, of Castilian Terrace, Northampton. Commemorated in BABY 700 CEMETERY, ANZAC, Turkey. Special memorial 10. Plaque reads: IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF MAJOR BLAIR INSKIP SWANNELL 1ST BATTALION. 1ST BRIGADE AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCES KILLED IN ACTION AT THE DARDANELLES APRIL 25TH 1915 SECOND SON OF WILLIAM AND C.A. SWANNELL BORN AT WESTON- UNDERWOOD AUGUST 20TH 1875. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Buckinghamshire/WestonUnderwood.html
It's a shame that the deeds of this interesting person have just about faded into obscurity, though it seems a touch difficult to completely separate fact from fiction. Gareth
Blair swannel appears on the Australian "Gallipoli 2010" calendar - March. A good calendar - try to get a copy gareth
