THE FATHER OF OUR RUGBY

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1033, 24 January 1911, Page 4

THE FATHER OF OUR RUGBY

HIS-DEMISE ANNOUNCED, ' (By Tsleeraph.—Press Association.) Dunedin, January 23. Mr. J. H. Chapman, headmaster of tho Arthur Street School, of Dunedin, and one time prominent in Eugby 'football, is dead. ■ - ' [Mr. John H. Chapman was probably the founder of the Rugby football game in New Zealand, though the claim is disputed. Early in the 'seventies he organised the Union Club, Dunedin, still in existence. For-many, years; he was the controlling hand of the , Otago Rugby Union," at that time acknowledged to bo "the home and: stronghold of Rugby." What followed after 1892 is'rather obscure, and has, so far, never-beenipublicly stated. Some Eugby men. still: hold tho opinion that the leading spirits in the Otago Union designed'the foundation of a New Zealand Union on their own initiative, but events afterwards were taken out of their hands. In those days Mr. Chapman attended meetings of clubs, and, in vigorous speeches, foreshadowed" a general decadence of the .amateur garao if a New Zealand Union (with wbich was held out the tempting bait of-trips to Australia and elsewhere) was set up. After the setting nn of the New.Zealand Union tho late Mr. "Chapman retired from all active'participation in the. game. He was elected year after year as president or. vice-president of the Union Club, and offers of office on the executive of the Otago Union were frequently; held out to him, but ho regarded the affair from first to last (to use his own .words) "a matter of conscience," and never even acknowledged receipt of letters notifying him that he had been elected to any office. He thenceforth devoted himself entirely to his work as first assistant, and subsequently headmaster of one of the laTgest of tho Dunedin schools, and ahvnvs thereafter turned a deaf ear'to those who asked him to "write, up" his reminiscences of Eugby. In 1903 lie had the misfortune to rupture a blood vessel in the head, and, after recovering, grew more reticent than ever. In general demeanour ho was a man of powerful personality and address.!