Elmarie
A few years ago I wrote a biography of Imperial Light Horse Trooper, H C Gorton, who died of wounds after the Battle of Wagon Hill, It was too long to post on this forum, but I have extracted a section since it has a bearing on both Johnson and Crean, who have been the subject of two of your posts today. Gorton's path would have crossed with those of these two men, both on the battlefield and on the rugby field. The link follows below.
Regards
Brett
Henry Corbett Gorton
GORTON THE RUGBY PLAYER
While still living in Burton, Gorton played rugby for the Burton Grammar School and for the town. Later reports indicate that he had a talent for the game. For example, according to the 21 November 1890 edition of Lichfield’sThe Mercury, Gorton was a member of the Burton 2nd Team that played a team from Lichfield. Comments on his skilful play were included in the report.
After Gorton settled in Johannesburg, he found that rugby had become a popular sport in parts of South Africa. The game was first played in this country during the 1870’s, and, during the 1880’s, ‘rugby football unions’ were established in the Western Province (Cape Town), Griqualand West (Kimberley), Eastern Province (Port Elizabeth), and Transvaal (Johannesburg). Although South Africa was still politically divided, the ‘provincial’ teams representing the Cape Colony and the Transvaal Republic were united under the control of the South African Rugby Football Board in 1889. This Board invited a team from the British Isles to tour South Africa in 1891. Although the South Africans provided very weak opposition, there was sufficient interest to arrange a second tour in 1896.
Allen (n. d.) reported that:
“Many English players had migrated to South Africa between [1891 and 1896]. H.C. Gorton, A. Lazard, J.B. Andrew, F.T.D. Aston and W.B. Thomson, the English international, were amongst those who helped to improve the standard of the game within the Colony (sic) during this period.”
Gorton evidently played provincial rugby for Transvaal, because he was selected to play for South Africa against the 1896 British Isles touring team in the 1st Test in Port Elizabeth on 30 July 1896. He thereby became Number 37 in the list of over 800 men, who have played rugby for South Africa.
There is an unusual link between the 1896 tour and the Anglo-Boer War. After the tour ended, two of the touring side, Thomas Crean and Robert Johnston, remained in South Africa. Another member of the team, Cuth Mullins, was a South African, who had a brother, Charles Mullins, living in Grahamstown. Shortly after the start of the war, Crean, Johnston and Charles Mullins joined the Imperial Light Horse (ILH), an irregular regiment raised in Pietermaritzburg in September 1899. These men went on to win three of the four Victoria Crosses awarded to the ILH during the war. This was a unique achievement, since no other Colonial regiment matched that number of VC’s.
Another man to enlist in the ILH was Henry Gorton.
