This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who served in, and survived, 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 Carroll, Daniel Brendan played for Australia and the United States of America Internationals: 2: 1908 W- ; 1912 US+ (1t) USA Internationals: 1: 1913 NZ- Daniel Carroll was born on 17 November 1889, in Melbourne Played as a Wing/scrum half for: St Aloysius’ College, Stanford University, New South Wales. He played for NSW 15 times. The fastest player in the 1908-1909 Wallabies, he scored 15 tries on the tour, including 2 v Swansea. He toured the US with Australia 1912 and stayed on to study geology at Stanford University. He played for Stanford v New Zealand (0-54) in 1913, and was then capped for the USA v New Zealand (3-51) at Berkeley. Profession: Oil company executive War service: Served in the US Army. After the Armistice he was seconded to the Australian Imperial Force to play in the King’s Cup side in 1919. Remarks: He won 2 Olympic Gold medals for Rugby: one for Australia v Great Britain, in London, 1908 (32-3) and the second for USA v France, in Antwerp, 1920 (8-0). He returned to California in 1919 and coached Stanford University RFC as well as coaching the USA team to victory v France (17-3) at the 1924 Paris Olympics. He died in 1955 in San Francisco, USA.
Daniel Carroll was a member of the Australian gold medal team in 1908, and won another gold for the USA in 1920. Daniel Brendan Carroll DSC 17 November 1887 – 5 August 1956 was an Australian national representative rugby union player. He was a dual Olympic gold medallist winning in rugby at the 1908 Summer Olympics for Australia and also winning gold for the United States at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He later coached the gold-medal winning USA Rugby team at the 1924 Summer Olympics. He is erroneously referred to in some records as the youngest ever Austrlian representative rugby player due to a birthdate error in the Olympic records database. He served in the American Army as a Lieutenant in World War I and lived out his life in the USA working in the mining/petroleum industries. Carroll was born at Flemington, Victoria. His family relocated to Sydney during his early childhood and he was educated at St Aloysius' College (Sydney) playing rugby in the school's first XV and then at Sydney University where he studied dentistry. His club rugby was played with St George in southern Sydney. He was a winger at that time and in that postion made his Australian representatives appearances. Later in his career he played at fly-half. Carroll stayed on in America after the 1912 tour. He played for All-America against the All Blacks in 1913, a Test won by NZ 51-3. He served in the American Army as a Lieutenant in World War I and won a Distinguished Service Cross. He completed a degree in geology at Stanford University in 1920 and was coaching rugby at the university when he was selected as the playing coach of the USA side selected for the 1920 Summer Olympics. He won a gold medal at Antwerp in that team playing at fly-half. He made three rugby union Test career appearances for the United States between 1913 and 1920. Zavos quotes an article from a local Stanford paper of 1935 which reports that Carroll played four years of rugby at Stanford and one year of American football. He won his letter in rugby in 1913, 1914 and 1915. He played his last game of rugby in 1921 when a pick-up team visited British Columbia. After Stanford, Carroll furthered his education at Oxford and the Royal School of Mines in England. In 1921 he took up an appointment with Standard Oil and remained with the company until his retirement. Carroll married Helen Warden from Great Falls, Montana in 1927 and had one son Daniel - who is deceased. Helen died in 1941 and Carroll died in New Orleans in 1956 http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ca/dan-carroll-1.html 1889 - 1956 Australia’s only gold medal at the 1908 Olympic Games in London came in the sport of rugby union. Rugby was played in the Olympics only four times - in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924. The Australian team, which became known as the Wallabies, did not play in the now-traditional green-and-gold colours, but wore light-blue jerseys with a waratah on the left breast. At 20, Dan Carroll was the “baby” of the Wallabies, and he went on to have a record unparalleled in Olympic rugby becoming a gold medallist for two countries. Carroll - an elusive ball-carrier, blessed with great acceleration - was born in Melbourne and educated in Sydney. He played for St George while he studied dentistry, and his performances for NSW against Queensland and an Anglo-Welsh team in his first representative year won him selection in the first Wallaby team. He scored 15 tries in the British Isles, two of them for the Australian team which beat Cornwall (representing England) in the Olympic tournament. He later toured British Colombia and the US with the 1912 Australian team, and settled in America at the end of the tour. He served as a lieutenant with the US Army during the first World War. In 1920 he was coaching Stanford University when selected as playing coach of the US team that won the Olympic championship in Antwerp. He thus became the recipient of two gold medals for different countries - the only Australian athlete to have done so. He was non-playing coach of the US team which won again at the Paris Olympics in 1924. http://corporate.olympics.com.au/athlete/1021/Daniel Carroll http://www.rugby-memorabilia.co.uk/1908 Australia.htm (BACK, L-R) Wallace, Patrick, O’Neil, Fish, J Muldoon, Fitzpatrick, Slater, Righter. (MIDDLE): Meehan, Hazeltine, Maloney (trainer), Tilden (c), Carroll (pl/coach), W Muldoon, von Schmidt, Scholz. (FRONT): Wrenn, Doe, Hunter, Davis, Winston. Missing: Templeton, Kirksey http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/olympics.htm
Annie Thanks for the extra data. The DSC wasn't mentioned in my sources - I wonder what it was for? Cheers Gareth
Found it ! .... eventually .... Daniel Carroll Place of birth: Home of record: Santa Cruz, Calif. AWARDS AND CITATIONS Distinguished Service Cross Awarded for actions during the World War I The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant (Infantry) Daniel B. Carroll, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 364th Infantry Regiment, 91st Division, A.E.F., near Bois-de-Cheppy, France, 28 September 1918. Although wounded in the arm in the attack of 26 September Lieutenant Carroll gallantly led his platoon forward, under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire, through the Bois-de-Cheppy. Later, while leading his platoon in an attack near Neuve Grange Farm, he continued on until severely wounded a second time. Service: Army Rank: First Lieutenant War Department, General Orders No. 39 (1920)
Some photos .... and a bit more ... http://www.theroar.com.au/2008/08/08/dan-carroll-rugbys-greatest-olympian/ http://rugby-pioneers.blogs.com/
