Fred Thompson (rugby union)

Frederick Herbert Thompson (1890–1915) was an Australian national representative rugby union player and soldier who fell in the Great War.

Fred Thompson

Birth name	Frederick Herbert Thompson[1]
Date of birth	circa 1890[1]
Place of birth	Maroubra, New South Wales[1]
Date of death	29 May 1915 (aged 24–25)[1]
Place of death	Gallipoli, Ottoman Turkey
Rugby union career
Position(s) number eight[1] Amateur team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) Eastern Suburbs () National team(s) Years Team Apps (Points) 1913–14[1] Wallabies[1] 6[1] (3[1])

Born in Maroubra, New South Wales to Henry and Dorothy Thompson, Fred Thompson played at number eight with the Eastern Suburbs RUFC.[2] His international debut was made during the Wallabies 1913 tour of New Zealand captained by Larry Dwyer. Thompson played in all three Tests of the tour. In 1914 the All Blacks came to Australia and again Thompson played in all three Tests, twice as number 8 and once at flanker. His rugby career ended with the start of World War I with a tally of six international rugby caps for Australia.

He enlisted in Sydney in the AIF in January 1915 six months after war was declared, citing his occupation as carpenter. He embarked as a Private with the 13th Battalion (3rd reinforcement) from Sydney on 11 February 1915 on board the HMAT A49 Seang Choon. He saw active service at Gallipoli and was there killed in action on 29 May 1915. He is buried in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery at Gallipoli.[3]

Memorial in Shrapnel Valley where lies Fred Thompson and 526 other Australian fallen

Sources

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney (J.C Davis article "Patriots of the Battlefield" 1st published in The Referee Sept 1915)
• Fred Thompson's record at the AIF Project

Footnotes

1. "Scrum.com player profile of Fred Thompson". Scrum.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
2. The Spirit of Rugby p50
3. AIF Project