For all those rugby fans out there, we have taken a dive into the Museum’s collection to find the All Black cap of Sapper Charles ‘Charlie’ Brown, one of only a handful of players who represented NZ as an All Black both before and after WWI.
An outstanding rugby player from Taranaki, Charlie served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front with the NZ Field Engineers during WWI. He was primarily a halfback but also played fullback and even a game at hooker while touring Australia with the All Blacks. What you might not know was that Charlie also played for the NZ Army Rugby Team for the King’s Cup competition.
As we know rugby is a religion for many New Zealanders and our soldiers found time to play the national game when they weren’t fighting in the trenches.
Sapper Charles Brown shakes hands with King George V
Before the troops came home, our New Zealand Army Team played a world tour of sorts ending with a world cup competition between the British forces, South Africa, Australia and Canada in 1919. The coveted trophy was the prized King’s Cup. His Majesty King George V presented the King’s Cup for this competition following the Armistice. Some great rugby matches were played involving many of the game’s best players, at a time when Army rugby was world rugby!
Eighteen of this NZ Army Rugby Team would go on to become All Blacks in the years following the war.
Charlie retired as a player in 1922 but continued to be heavily involved in the game as both an administrator and coach with his club Tukapa, and at provincial level with Taranaki. He coached All Blacks centre of the late 1930s, Jack Sullivan, one of his protégés of the Tukapa team, and was also a selector for both Taranaki, and later a NZ selector in 1944.
NZ Army Rugby Team vs Mother Country England, Inverleith 1919. (Accession # 1997.478)
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