Bobby Black (rugby union)

Robert Stanley Black (24 August 1893 – 21 September 1916) was a New Zealand rugby union player. A first five-eighth, Black represented Otago and Buller at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, selected for the All Blacks, on their 1914 tour of Australia whilst representing the Otago province.

Bobby Black
Birth nameRobert Stanley Black
Date of birth(1893-08-24)24 August 1893[1]
Place of birthArrowtown, New Zealand
Date of death21 September 1916(1916-09-21) (aged 23)
Place of deathSomme, France
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)[1]
Weight73 kg (161 lb)[1]
SchoolOtago Boys' High School
Occupation(s)Bank clerk
Rugby union career
Position(s) First five-eighth
All Black No. 211
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
1911–14, 1915
1914
Otago
Buller
12
2
(0)
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1914 New Zealand 1 0
Military career
Memorialised at
Service/branch New Zealand Army
Years of service1915–16
RankPrivate
Service number9/2048
UnitOtago Mounted Rifles
Canterbury Regiment
Battles/warsBattle of the Somme

He played in six of the matches on tour including the first test and scored three tries. Working as a clerk in the Bank of New South Wales, Bobby was posted, on his return from Sydney, to Westport where he played two games for Buller in September. He was back in Dunedin in 1915 but Pirates did not field a team in the senior championship so he transferred to the University of Otago club and played twice for Otago. [2]

Black enlisted in the Otago Mounted Rifles in November 1915 and, after transferring to the Canterbury Regiment, saw active service in the Battle of the Somme.[2] He was killed in action on 21 September 1916,[1] and he was memorialised on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial,[3] which commemorates over 1200 New Zealand soldiers who died in the Battles of the Somme in 1916 for whom there is no known grave,[4] although his body was subsequently identified and buried.[5]

References

  1. "Black, Robert Stanley - WWi 9/2048 - Army". Archives New Zealand. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  2. Knight, Lindsay. "Bobby Black". New Zealand Rugby Union. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  3. "Casualty details: Black, Robert Stanley". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  4. "Cemetery details: Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  5. McGibbon, Ian (2001). New Zealand Battlefields and Memorials of the Western Front. Auckland: Oxford University Press. p. 58.


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