Bobby Black (rugby union) explained

Bobby Black
Birth Name:Robert Stanley Black
Birth Date:24 August 1893
Birth Place:Arrowtown, New Zealand
Death Place:Somme, France
Ru Position:First five-eighth
Height:5feet[1]
Weight:161order=flipNaNorder=flip
Repyears1:1914
Repcaps1:1
Reppoints1:0
Provinceyears1:1911–14, 1915
Provinceyears2:1914
Provinceapps1:12
Provinceapps2:2
Provincepoints1:0
Occupation:Bank clerk
School:Otago Boys' High School
Module:
Embed:yes
Serviceyears:1915–16
Rank:Private
Servicenumber:9/2048
Unit:Otago Mounted Rifles
Canterbury Regiment
Battles:Battle of the Somme
Placeofburial:Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial
Placeofburial Label:Memorialised at

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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Black, Robert Stanley - WWi 9/2048 - Army . Archives New Zealand . 22 September 2015.
  2. Web site: Bobby Black . Knight . Lindsay . New Zealand Rugby Union . 22 September 2015.
  3. Web site: Casualty details: Black, Robert Stanley . Commonwealth War Graves Commission . 22 September 2015.
  4. Web site: Cemetery details: Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial . Commonwealth War Graves Commission . 22 September 2015.
  5. Book: McGibbon, Ian . New Zealand Battlefields and Memorials of the Western Front . 2001. Oxford University Press . Auckland . 58 .