KeithQuinnRugby
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You are here: Home » Favourite Photos » Where All Blacks Fell: A visit to the last resting place of a man who has no known grave
8 May 2015
It was with a particular sadness that I visited the last resting place of the Ponsonby Club's All Black hooker from 1913 and 1914, George Sellars.
George was a top bloke, his family and friends all said, and no one would have been surprised that he died assisting a colleague on 7 June 1917. A part-Maori George was on the slopes of Messines Ridge in only his fifth day on the battlefield. It was typical that he saw a wounded colleague and rushed to help him. But a shell exploded near them both, so close that, to speak directly, George and his mate were blown to bits.
So it is with a particular sense of irony that when one goes to pay tribute to some fallen footballers of WWI, a number of them are only represented by a name carved, albeit in honour, on a marble wall. Sad but true in the case of Private George Maurice Victor Sellars.
The photo was taken at the Messines Ridge Memorial.
Comments 1
This was the breakthrough day - NZ beat Wales 19-16 in Cardiff. There's been live TV coverage of every All Black test since.
b.16.07.1894 – d.25.01.48
West Hartlepool, Headingley, Blackheath and England
16 internationals for England 1928–33
5 internationals for Great Britain 1930
This tall, elegant centre three-quarter will always be found near the start of any A to Z rugby book.
The brilliant Aarvold made his international debut against the touring New South Wales Waratahs of 1928, but made his biggest rugby impact in the 1930 Great Britain team in New Zealand, where he scored three tries in the second and third tests. On that tour the British chose to not play their tour captain, Doug Prentice, in three of the tests and Aarvold captained in Prentice’s absence.
He made a success of life after rugby, becoming Sir Carl Aarvold, a judge at the Old Bailey. He died in March 1991, aged 83.
Who was the New Zealand test cricketer who played one rugby test for England?
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27 December 2015 (9 years ago)
Robomo
Thanks Keith.
George Sellars was my great-uncle and George was included as my middle name in his memory. I knew he was killed at Messines but not the circumstances. My father (George Sellars), nephew of GMV Sellars was a Ponsonby Football Club Stalwart and also played many games for Auckland and for Combined Services in England during WWII. I'm visiting Belgium in September 2016 and the Messines memorial is high on my list of places to visit.