Two Rugby Men Die

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32280, 24 April 1970, Page 18

Two Rugby Men Die

“The Press” Special Service s' ; INVERCARGILL. >i The death occurred in In- • vercargill yesterday of Mr ’ John Elliott (“Jock”) Cuthill, j a former All Black. He was 78. [ While a pupil of Otago ■Boys High School, he was sei-’ Ijected to represent Otago at: ’Rugby, and subsequently' played for the South Island: 1 and New Zealand Universal ' ties, with which he toured '■New South Wales in 1913. I The same year he was selected for the All Blacks tour of California and British Columbia, as full-back. However, his promising Rugby career was halted by World War I, in which he was wounded in action at Gallipoli, and again in France, in 1916, this time severely, and for some time he was posted as “missing, believed dead.” In 1925, Mr Cuthill began a long association with South-’

{land racing circles, when he became secretary of the Southland Racing Club and of the Invercargill Trotting Club —positions he held for 40 years. Mr Alfred Mitchell, aged 83, who died in Timaru yesterday was a former Otago and Southland Rugby representative, referee and administra- ■ tor, according to a Press Association report. In 1910, he was chosen to tour Australia with the All Blacks, but became unavailable before the team left. After his transfer to Timaru in 1939, he served on the South Canterbury RugbyUnion’s management committee. Mr Mitchell’s disappointment in missing the 1910 tour of Australia was softened 25 years later when his son, Mr N. A. Mitchell, was selected for the 1935 tour of the British Isles.