A mystery solved

One of the best things about researching The Game of Their Lives was discovering some of the characters behind the match: they were, by any measure, a rich mix, from the paragons to the mischievous. But one of the elements about the research was that it was, in some instances, only the starting point for revealing something about some of those men. We knew so little about most of them, and since the book came out, other researchers have embarked on their own work to help shed extra light on the cast of characters from 1916.

Bob Gartland, a legend down Geelong way, has done a wonderful and painstaking job in revealing that the man who I thought was Charlie Armstrong in the 1916 game at Queen’s Club was a different Armstrong.

He contacted me a few months ago and had this to say:

I have been interested in this famous game for many years, and one aspect of the record of the match has always intrigued me. As photos became available of the event, I was not able to identify Charlie Armstrong from Geelong in any of the images. This research went on for many months, until a most extraordinary coincidence occurred. I have about 120,000 images in my collection… I happened to search the name Charlie Armstrong, when O. Armstrong came up in my search… a young fellow from Barwon Football Club who played a few games at Geelong…. Eureka!! I matched this O. Armstrong to an unnamed player in the 1916 London photos… and so… the was mystery solved! Charlie Armstrong never played in the London game, and he doesn’t appear in the team photos. The player who does appear however, is Oswald Robert Armstrong, (b. 30/5/1892, d. 1/3/1958). “Ossie” was a boy recruited to Geelong from the Barwon Football Club in the Geelong area, who played his only three games for Geelong in 1915, the year before the London game. He played at Barwon in 1914 & 1915, prior to him joining the army in 1916. He is also photographed in a Geelong squad in 1915. Upon his return from the War, Ossie again plays with Barwon in 1919.

I’m grateful to Bob for being able to establish the real identify of the Armstrong who was there on the day.

And for everyone else, who might have missed it, here’s the little video we shot last year with Western Bulldogs’ captain Easton Wood of the remastered and coloured footage of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B88dBgC01YA