Sesquicentenary of Stories: King’s Rugby

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While events to celebrate the Sesquicentenary of Rugby were unable to take place as planned, a win against our earliest rival, Newington and a Championship win, certainly cemented the 2020 season as one of the more memorable. Behind the scenes, Barry Ross, a well known journalist has been compiling 150 stories about the School’s Rugby past and one of those stories recalls Wallaby number 146, Montague Massy-Westropp (1904-09). During celebrations during the next season, hopefully the 150 stories will be available for all to read.

Monty was born at Robertson on 7 August 1891, the son of the local police chief, Frank Massy-Westropp. A good all-round athlete from an early-age, Monty was a speedy winger and centre with the 1st XV for three years from 1907. Awarded Honour Caps in 1908 and 1909, Monty was selected for the GPS 1st XV in 1909. After leaving school, he played with the Sydney club for one season and then joined Glebe for the next four seasons, before competition rugby ceased due to World War I.

At Glebe he was a member of the Premiership winning first grade teams of 1912 and 1914, while he was also the Competition’s leading try scorer in both these years, collecting 14 tries in 1912 and 15 in 1914. Monty played the first of his five games for NSW (1912-1914) on 3 August 1912 at University Oval. He finished with four games against Queensland and one with Central Queensland. On 15 August 1914, he played his only Test against New Zealand at the Sydney Sports Ground. Because of the War, this was Australia’s last Test for six years. After leaving King’s, he worked as a clerk with the New Zealand Loan Company in Sydney for a year and then worked in a similar role with several contracting firms during the War years. He was Secretary of the Old Boys’ Union (1913-15) and after the War, he farmed in the Upper Kangaroo Valley area and then moved back to work on a property in his home town of Robertson. While at Robertson, he was captain/coach of the Robertson rugby league club for three seasons, before moving to Kiama/Jamberoo at the end of 1924. He remained in this region for the next 50 years, passing away on 2 July 1974, aged 82.

The School’s Museum collection includes some of this NSW and Australian Rugby history, including the 1914 test Rugby jersey, NSW Honour Cap and the gold medal from the Glebe winning premiership.

Jenny Pearce Archivist