Clive Raymond Farquhar

Clive Farquhar had an illustrious school career at The King's School and we are indebted to Peter Raffin and Jenny Pearce for much of the following information. He was a member of the First XV in 1911-12 and 1914-15, a member of the GPS First XV in 1911, 1914 and 1915; he won the tennis cup in 1914 and he won the Honour Cup for both rugby and cricket in each of 1914 and 1915. To cap all that he had an even more memorable year in 1915, as he achieved the following distinctions in addition to those already listed: the captaincy of the school, the Divinity Prize, the captain of athletics, winning the St John Grey Cup as athletics champion and the captaincy of the First XV.

He had also established a record for the 100 yards at under-16 level at the All Schools Sports that stood for many years. Few Australian schoolboys of any era can claim a list of achievements to match this one. He left school right in the middle of the war and no rugby was played anywhere in the country, although he enlisted in the Artillery and was quickly called to active service. On is return he briefly enrolled at Sydney University, gaining his Blue in 1920. In the same year international rugby was resumed with the All Blacks touring and Farquhar was chosen for the second Test. The New South Wales team – these matches were only accorded Test status in 1986 and Farquhar died without knowing he was a Test player – for that match on 31 July at the Sydney Sports Ground was: Jackie Beith, Arthur Mayne, Larry Wogan, Pup Raymond, Clive Farquhar, Tommy Lawton snr, Arthur Walker, George McKay, Viv Dunn, Irv Ormiston, Geoff Wyld, Charlie Fox, Tom Davis, John Bond and Willie Walker (capt.). New Zealand won 14-6.

He had another match against the All Blacks two days later, being part of the Metropolitan Union team that lost 11-20. Although he was only 24 years old, this ended his representative career. He left university to join the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, becoming CSR manager in Fiji. He had an untimely death, as he was only 45 when he passed away.