Seems like everybody played !! ..... does anybody look familiar ? The Australian War Memorial (AWM) archives hold photographs and notes that reference the playing of rugby league amongst the soldiers. One entry in the AWM Collection is of a photograph that shows a football team referred to as the "8th Australian Field Ambulance RLFC 1915-17". The football held by one of the players is marked "8 F Amb. R L F C. 1915-6-7". The AWM also holds a football jersey worn by Richard Alfred Overy, who was a plumber from Haberfield (Sydney, NSW). Overy enlisted in September 1914, and served at Gallipoli. In March 1916 he was with the "4 Machine Gun Company" in France. The AWM notes, "During his time in France, rugby league was a favoured recreational activity and a group of soldiers from '4 MGC' formed a team, the 'Mudlarks', with a black and white bird silhouette upon the chest of their jerseys that represented the Australian mudlark, also known as a magpie-lark or pee-wee." The "Mudlarks" name is suggestive of the terrible muddy conditions experienced on the Western Front. Which AIF sections these teams played against remains a mystery, but their presence, along with Richards' and Carpenter's notes, confirms a much wider support for rugby league amongst the servicemen than we have previously been led to believe. http://www.rl1908.com/articles/war-league.htm "The Mudlarks" AIF 4th Machine Gun Company France 1916-18 The full team photograph and an original "Mudlarks" jersey (still bearing the hand-sewn bird motif and battle-field mud) was on display at The Australian War Memorial in Canberra, part of the "Sport and War" exhibition in 2006.
My Dad was a stamp collector .... he would have loved these !! http://www.stamps.com.au/assets/document/1221524798-bull_291_lo.pdf
