This post features three more members who served in WW1, most notably Major Edward Champion who served the club as President both pre and post war. Not a rower himself, he contributed significantly to the club over 30 years and was instrumental in rebuilding the membership after the war.
All three members were older than the enlistment age of 38 and all enlisted in the Australian Medical Corps.
Below is a photograph of the committee at Ballarat Regatta in 1924. Dr. Champion is third from the left in the front row. Next to him is Zachariah Giles, who has a wooden leg. He was the clubs first intercolonial oarsman and champion stroke of the 1870’s.
MAJOR EDWARD CHAMPION
Ballarat City Rowing Club
President for eight years -1897-98,1901-02,1905-06,1909-10,1922-23,1923-24,1924-25,1925-26
Vice President -1896-97,1898-99,1899-1901
Edward was born in 1867, the seventh of thirteen children of Benjamin Champion and Elizabeth nee Plowman. He was alleged to have been educated at Geelong College, then studied at Melbourne Grammar School and Trinity College, The University of Melbourne, where he graduated MB BS.
He became the Senior Resident at Melbourne Hospital in 1892 and Ballarat Hospital from 1893 until 1896. In 1898 at Ballarat he married Miss Elfrida Bennett Retallack, daughter of Cyrus and Elfrida Bennett Retallack, and they had four children, Olive Beryl Champion, born at Queenscliff in 1900, Doris Hope Champion in 1902, Philip Edward Champion in 1904, and Henry Alan Champion in 1906, the latter three being born in Ballarat.
While not a rower himself he joined the Ballarat City Rowing Club soon after he moved to Ballarat and in 1896 first appeared on the committee elected as a Vice-President. He spent the next 30 years associated with the club serving as President for eight of those years. He was President in the early 1920’s when the club was rebuilding after WW1 and made a significant contribution to the club in this time.
He was employed as a Physician Surgeon in Ballarat when he enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps Reinforcements on 16 March 1917 at the age of 49. His unit embarked from Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A30 Borda on 23 June 1917. He sailed from Melbourne on the Shropshire on May 11th and disembarked at Plymouth on July 19th. Three weeks later he was attached to the No.1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station in France.
During the course of the war he served at the No.6 Australian Stationary Hospital and the 15th Casualty Clearing Station. In July 1918 he was elevated to the rank of Major. He left England in July 1919 to return to Australia aboard the Orsova.
STAFF SARGEANT ROBERT STANLEY ANDERSON (Medical Corps)
Ballarat City Rowing Club
R.Anderson named in Scratch fours in 1900.
Born in Ballarat, Victoria and a Pharmacist/ Chemist by trade, Robert Stanley Anderson, was 39 years and married enlisted on the 21st of March 1916 in the Staff Sergeant Dispensers, Australian Imperial Force, with the rank of Staff Sergeant, Number 13128, in the Unit Australian Army Medical Corps. Discharged as permanently unfit and was advised returning to Australia on the 26th of December 1916. Returned to Australia from service abroad on the 9th of March 1917 and discharged on the 18th of July 1918.
STAFF SARGEANT ALBERT PATRICK AHERN (Medical Corps)
Ballarat City Rowing Club
Despite much research,I have been unable to find A.P.Ahern listed in any crews. It is possible he was a social member.
Albert Patrick Ahern was born in Fitzroy and a Masseur by trade when he enlisted on July 20th 1915 at the age of 42. He trained with the Australian Medical Corps before embarking from Adelaide on the Morea on August 24th. He served at the 10th Australian General Hospital in England until June 1916 when he was assigned to nursing duties on the Euripides which was returning sick and wounded soldiers to Australia, where he disembarked on August 8th 1916. He was discharged from the AIF two months later. He died in October 1937 at the age of 67.
Ballarat City Rowing Club History Blog 