Arthur Bollard

His grandfather was a pastoralist whose brother was a member of the famous Hume and Hovell expeditions. His grandfather moved around rural New South Wales and died in 1891, becoming the first person to be buried in the Humula cemetery, near Wagga Wagga.

Arthur began his Rugby Union career playing for Temora in 1897, moving to Blayney in 1900 before enlisting with the Australian army to serve in the Boer war towards the end of the conflict.

He returned in early 1902 having reached the rank of Sergeant and took up playing Second Grade Rugby in Sydney, playing for Glebe Carlton, Dulwich Hill, Mosman and finally North Sydney in 1907, While at Norths in 1907 he got promoted to a place in their first grade side.

The hard running second rower switched codes in 1908, making his debut for Norths in Round 8 of their debut season.

Despite Norths having a very poor start to the 1909 season, Bollard was a stand-out, earning selection on the bench for the New South Wales team against the visiting Maori side. 3 days later he was picked in the Australian team to face the Maori side. During the match, Bollard was involved in an unfortunate accident, which caused somewhat of a riot. Dally Messenger kicked the ball downfield and the Maori fullback Tuki ran across and put his leg out to try and trap the ball with his foot. Bollard was running through and was accidentally tripped by Tuki’s outstretched leg. Tuki was sent off. The game ended with a Maori win. They quickly stormed across and collected the trophy and stormed off the ground to the chagrin of the booing crowd. Several thousand fans of the big crowd stormed the ground. A few police officers were protecting the referee, while the players managed to get off the ground. The referee received a cut to his head but managed to escape.

Bollard was retained in the Australian side for the next two games before being named in the Kangaroos side that played the Wallabies.

He remained with the Norths club throughout their poor 1910 campaign before playing just one match in 1911, which was to be his last.

He enlisted to serve in World War I on October 2, 1915, however after just 15 months he was discharged due to illness.

He sadly died of cancer in 1919, aged just 40 years old.