Sydney Middleton

1908 Olympic Final Wallabies v Cornwall.

Middleton commenced his rugby career with the Glebe Rugby Club—the Sydney suburb of his birth. His first representative appearance was for New South Wales in the interstate series against Queensland in 1908 which performance saw him selected for New South Wales against the touring Anglo-Welsh side of 1908. He was in the right place at the right time and was selected in Australia's inaugural national rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere – Dr Paddy Moran's First Wallabies. The tour was a long one—36 matches and Middleton would prove to be a reliable member of the party appearing in 31 of the Wallabies matches. He was the second tallest player in the squad which meant he featured in the Australian line-out. But he was also a robust defender at his physical peak and he was selected in every one of the tour's first eighteen games.[2]

Detail from 1908 Wallaby squad photo, Middleton (3rd row, three from left) standing behind his captain Moran and coach McMahon.

Middleton retired from rugby in 1911 and concentrated on rowing. He had been a member of the Sydney Rowing Club for some time and regularly appeared in the New South Wales state selection eight between 1906 and 1911. He competed the New South Wales men's eights which contested the annual Australian Interstate Regatta in 1906, 1907 and 1910, 1911. Those New South Wales crews were victorious in 1910 and 1911.[4]

Middleton (backrow 3rd from right) with the 1912 Aust Olympic VIII, incl reserves & selectors.

In 1912 he was a member of the Australian men's eight which racing as a Sydney Rowing Club entrant, won the Grand Challenge Cup on the River Thames at the Henley Royal Regatta. The eight then moved to Stockholm for the 1912 Summer Olympics, where after beating a Swedish eight in the first round[5] they were beaten by a Great British crew in the second round - the same Leander eight they'd beaten at Henley a few weeks earlier.[6][7]

He enlisted in the AIF in 1915 as a 2nd-Lieutenant with B Company, 19th Battalion and embarked from Sydney on board HMAT Ceramic on 25 June 1915. He served at Gallipoli and in France.[8] He was promoted to Major, 17th Battalion in May 1917. He was mentioned in despatches in 1918, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1919 for bravery in action and in 1920 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

His recommendation for the DSO recorded: "The battalion owes much of its success to the splendid example set by this very fine type of officer. He was in command of the 17th Bttn. on 14 May 1918 east of Heilly, near Amiens when the enemy made a very determined attack on the front held by the 17th Bttn and the manner in which he handled the situation and quickly restored the line showed great initiative and leadership."

Middleton wrote from Gallipoli to the sporting journal The Referee:

There are dozens of footballers of lesser fame and lower grades knocking about. I meet them every day. A man is always taking a bit of a risk here, and there’s plenty of sickness about: but I’m still going strong, and hope to be for some little time yet. I haven’t killed a Turk yet, but they have gone pretty close to me far too often. The damage we do one another in the style of warfare is mainly from shells and bombs, and we never see the results in these cases, but there’s plenty evidence of former willing hand-to-hand goes lying about all round us, far too close to be pleasant if one’s at all delicate"..

— The Referee, 15 December 1915

The AIF #1 VIII 1919 Henley Peace Regatta : (rear) Disher, Mettam, Hauenstein, Lt. Gen Hobbs, Middleton, Scott, McGill, (front) Robb, Smedley, House.

After the armistice Middleton was integrally involved, as organising secretary of the AIF Sports Control Board in arranging sporting events for the allied troops prior to their demobilisation.[9]

Middleton had met Marion Streatfield, a nurse when at the war's end having commenced his work with the Sports Control Board, he was admitted to the 10th British Red Cross Hospital in Le Treport, France suffering from catarrhal jaundice.[9] They were married in September 1921 in London and lived in Iverna-Gardens, South Kensington. They had one son John Peter who served as a second lieutenant with the 12th Royal Lancers in WWII in Italy from 1944. Syd Middleton died suddenly on 2 September 1945.[9]

• Distinguished Service Order
• Order of the British Empire
• 1914–15 Star
• British War Medal
• Victory Medal

• Rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney
• Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

• Middleton's OlympicDatabsse Profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 March 2007)
• Sydney Middleton at ESPNscrum
• Syd Middleton at the AIF Project at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 May 2011)