Bobby Black (rugby union)
Birth name | Robert Stanley Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | [1] | 24 August 1893||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Arrowtown, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 21 September 1916 | (aged 23)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of death | Somme, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 73 kg (161 lb)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Otago Boys' High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Bank clerk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Military career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memorialised at | Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service/ | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years of service | 1915–16 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Private | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service number | 9/2048 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit | Otago Mounted Rifles Canterbury Regiment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Battles/wars | Battle of the Somme |
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.
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, Black 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[]
- ^ a b c d "Black, Robert Stanley - WWi 9/2048 - Army". Archives New Zealand. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ a b Knight, Lindsay. "Bobby Black". New Zealand Rugby Union. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ "Casualty details: Black, Robert Stanley". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ "Cemetery details: Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
- ^ McGibbon, Ian (2001). New Zealand Battlefields and Memorials of the Western Front. Auckland: Oxford University Press. p. 58.
- 1893 births
- 1916 deaths
- People from Arrowtown
- People educated at Otago Boys' High School
- New Zealand rugby union players
- New Zealand international rugby union players
- Otago rugby union players
- Buller rugby union players
- Rugby union fly-halves
- New Zealand military personnel killed in World War I
- New Zealand Army personnel
- Burials at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery
- New Zealand rugby union biography stubs