Frederick H. Thompson (1890–1915) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n national representative rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player and soldier who fell in the Great War.

Born in Maroubra, New South Wales

Maroubra, New South Wales

Maroubra is a beachside suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Maroubra is located 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Randwick. Maroubra is the largest suburb in the area governed...

 to Henry and Dorothy Thompson, Fred Thompson played at number eight with the Eastern Suburbs RUFC

Eastern Suburbs RUFC

The Eastern Suburbs Rugby Union Football Club is a team in the Shute Shield and the Tooheys New cup, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales....

. His international debut was made during the Wallabies 1913 tour of New Zealand captained by Larry Dwyer

Larry Dwyer

Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Dwyer was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative fullback who captained the Wallabies in 1913.Dwyer, a fullback, was born in Orange, New South Wales...

. Thompson played in all three Tests of the tour. In 1914 the All Blacks

All Blacks

The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....

 came to Australia and again Thompson played in all three Tests , twice as number 8 and once at flanker. His rugby career ended with the start of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 with a tally of six international rugby caps for Australia.

He enlisted in Sydney in the AIF

AIF

AIF may refer to:*AIF , refer List of role-playing games by name*Accredited Investment Fiduciary*Adult Interactive fiction, a game genre*American India Foundation*Anti-Iraqi Forces*Apoptosis inducing factor...

 in January 1915 six months after war was declared, citing his occupation as carpenter. He embarked as a Private with the 13th Battalion

13th Battalion (Australia)

The 13th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally raised for the 1st Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, it was formed just six weeks after the start of the war. Along with the 14th, 15th and 16th Battalions which were recruited from New South Wales,...

 (3rd reinforcement) from Sydney on 11 February 1915 on board the HMAT A49 Seang Choon. He saw active service at Gallipoli and was there killed in action on 29 May 1915. He is buried in the Shrapnel Valley Cemetery at Gallipoli

Shrapnel Valley Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery

Shrapnel Valley Cemetery is a cemetery from World War I and is the second largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, after Lone Pine Cemetery...

.

Sources

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney (J.C Davis article "Patriots of the Battlefield" 1st published in The Referee Sept 1915)
• Fred Thompson's record at the AIF Project

Footnotes