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 Giblin, Lyndhurst Falkiner DSO MC played for England Internationals: 3: 1896 W+ I- ; 1897 S+ Lyndhurst Giblin was born on 29 November 1872, in Hobart, Tasmania, the son of Justice William R Giblin, the first native-born Premier of his home state. Played as a Forward for: Hutchins School Hobart, London University, Cambridge University (Blue 1894-1896), Blackheath, Barbarians, Middlesex Profession: Gold miner/lumberjack/seaman/fruit grower/professor War service: Major, 40th (Tasmanian) Battalion, 10th Brigade, 3rd Division, Australian Imperial Force. On 7 June 1917, during the Battle of Messines, Capt Giblin’s company of the 40th was attached to the 37th Battalion. During the Second assault on Passchendaele on 12 October 1917), after the 40th Battalion had taken Waterfields, Major Giblin took charge of scattered attacking units and organised them into a definite line in the Ravebeek Valley but found that he didn’t have enough men to continue the advance. After unsuccessfully asking for reinforcements, he arranged for an orderly withdrawal. Major Giblin was wounded by shellfire during the attack on Bray on 24 August 1918. He was Mentioned in Despatches on 28 May 1918, MC Gazetted 25 August 1917: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led his men with great dash and determination to the assault, reaching his objective through intense artillery and machine gun fire. Although wounded early in the day he remained with his men, rallying them and supervising the consolidation of the captured position. His example of personal courage and devotion greatly inspired his men.” DSO [3 June] 1918. Returned to Australia on 4 July 1919. Remarks: Described as ‘an eccentric of hulking build, who scored dozens of tries with elephant-like charges for the line.’ Played for Barbarians: v Southshields (27-5) v Percy Park (3-5) in 1895. He scored one try while carrying an opposing back under his arm! In 1898 he worked in the Klondyke and Canada’s North West Territories as a miner, teamster, lumberman, sailor and schoolteacher. Ran a plantation in the Solomon Islands before 1905. He returned to Tasmania in 1906 and took up fruit growing. He became a Tasmanian Member of Parliament from 1912 to 1915, before joining the AIF in 1916. He married in 1918 and on 1 December 1919 he was appointed Government Statistician of Tasmania. Professor of Economics at Melbourne University 1929-1940. In 1931 he was appointed as a financial adviser to the Commonwealth. Member of the Commonwealth Grants Commission 1922-1936. Helped mastermind Australia’s finances in the 1939-1945 War when he lived and worked in Canberra as Chairman of the Commonwealth Finical and Economic Committee. He also served as Director of the Commonwealth Bank from 1935 to 1942. Author of Growth of a Central Bank. He never wore socks with his hobnailed boots and was renowned for dressing shabbily – something that once had him refused entry to the Commonwealth Bank Boardroom. He died on 2 March 1951 in Tasmania. King’s College, Cambridge, of which he had been made a Supernumerary Fellow in 1937, established in hid memory a Giblin studentship, open to an Australian graduate.
Giblin ......... 3.00 pm 2 March 1951, Hobart. The cremation of Lyndhurst Falkiner Giblin. This is a ceremony without Christian rites. Instead of a priest – Giblin could not abide a ‘parson’ at his funeral – a Norwegian economist friend gives the homily. The god-fearing relatives of the Giblin clan glower from the benches. From the gramophone sounds a Bach Fugue treasured by Giblin. His brother reads from Tennyson’s Ulysses, I cannot rest from travel … Beyond the utmost bound of human thought Thus passes the mortal frame of L. F. Giblin, one of Australia’s great originals. Warrior, sage, and peacemaker; explorer, politician and poetaster; rationalist, stoic and mystery – the strange hero of an unexpected tale. http://epress.anu.edu.au/gp/pdf/gp_part1.pdf Lyndhurst Falkiner Giblin was an extraordinary person - son of a Premier of Tasmania, graduate of Kings College, Cambridge, rugby internationalist (representing England), gold prospector in the Klondike, a voyageur with the Hudson Bay Company, ocean yachtsman, member of the Federal Parliament, a soldier on the Western Front he volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at the age of forty-three. (thrice wounded and twice decorated for bravery), and, according to one source, the first European to climb Mt Anne, to name a few of the parts he played. He also had a pivotal role in developing the discipline of economics at the University and making Tasmania the centre of economic studies in Australia prior to the Second World War. He was for a time Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne, an associate of John Maynard Keynes, and an analyst of the Great Depression who anticipated some of the important developments of economic theory that have contributed significantly to the management of modern economies. Giblin’s professional life was marked by meticulous attention to the measurement of economic variables, establishing their relationships and testing these against the predictions of economic theory. He was preoccupied with statistics, and the methods that he used to interpret them were what we now describe as applied econometrics. One of the many roles he assumed during his life was that of Statistician to the Government of Tasmania http://en.scientificcommons.org/36741430
