Lion, Wallaby and Gallipoli hero: Why the 'extraordinary life' of Blair Swannell is finally being recognised

Sydney Morning Herald

24-04-2025

In the telling of his great-nephew, Blair Swannell led a life that defies the bland categories of our modern times.
'He was a Boy's Own annual cartoon, almost; somebody who led a pretty extraordinary life,' Robert Swannell says.
Born in England in 1875, Blair Swannell was a sailor who criss-crossed the globe while still a teenager, an adventurer who hunted gold and seals in Antarctic waters, and fought on horseback in the Boer War. He was also a star rugby player who played for the British Lions on two tours to Australia.
Swannell then became a Wallaby too, after emigrating to Australia and continuing a rugby career in Sydney that was infamously polarising, given his penchant for rough and 'overzealous' play.
The jam-packed life of Swannell was finally cut short, however, after the outbreak of World War One. Having signed up for the Anzacs, Swannell was killed on the opening day of the Gallipoli landings in 1915, after leading his company onto the beach and up the treacherous cliffs.
He was 39 years old.
'So all in all, it's a short, glorious story,' Robert Swannell said.
In July, however – 110 years after his death – Blair Swannell will have one more chapter added to his story when the British and Irish Lions tour Australia.
As one of only two men to have represented both the Lions and the Wallabies, along with Tom Richards (who was also at Gallipoli), Swannell will be commemorated with a man of the match medal struck in his name.
Rugby Australia and the British and Irish Lions will announce on Anzac Day that the Blair Swannell medal will be to be awarded at the tour game between the Lions and the Australia-New Zealand invitational side in Adelaide on July 12.
The recognition is the result of years of lobbying by Robert Swannell, who began writing to Rugby Australia from London in 2017 urging them to take another look at the incredible life of Blair Swannell, Wallaby No.72.
'I am delighted, it's a perfectly fitting tribute when you look at all the parts his story,' he said.
Sense of adventure
Blair I. Swannell – the 'I' stands for Inskip and saw him known 'B.I.' or 'Blaireye' by many – was born in 1875 near Northampton in England's midlands.
The son of farmers, Blair had a taste for the sea instead and at the age of 15, began a career in the merchant navy. In 1890, the teenager made the first of several return trips to Australia on giant 2000-tonne sailing ships.
Each voyage to the colonies took about three months, one way, and by the time he'd turned 18, Swannell had already travelled to Australia three times.
He soon became known as a hard rugby player too, after returning to his home district and representing the Northampton Saints – a still-prominent premiership club.
Though not a big man at 80 kilograms and 179 centimetres, Swannell's ferocity as a flanker saw him selected for the British Lions tour of Australia in 1899, in which he played in three of four Tests on a victorious tour.
When he returned home, Swannell's appetite for adventure saw him sign up for service in the Boer War as a trooper in the Imperial Yeomanry.
If that wasn't enough, Swannell returned home in 1903 to join a madcap gold-hunting expedition, where he and 13 other English people set off in search of a fortune, sailing in rough conditions all the way to Canada, and then down the length of North and South America to the cold and unfriendly islands of Tierra del Fuego – next stop Antarctica – in the hope of finding gold.
It proved to be a grim and utterly-in-vain adventure, and half the crew abandoned the trip before Swannell and others limped home.
Throughout the trip, however, Swannell continued to pick up games of rugby – in Canada, Uruguay and Chile – and upon his return, the flanker was again called up for the British Lions, for their 1904 tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Swannell's now-notorious reputation as an overaggressive enforcer only grew on the successful tour, where the Lions won six of seven Tests. To this day, Swannell still holds a share of the record for most Test wins as a Lion, with six from his seven Tests.
Swannell became known by local fans as a villain on the Lions tour, however, with numerous examples of his use of foul play like kicking or high tackles.
Newspaper reports in Australia and New Zealand at the time, recounted in Greg Growden's book Wallabies at War, singled out Swannell for criticism due to his unsavoury and rough play.
New life in Australia
Swannell decided he wouldn't return home after the 1904 tour, and instead settled in Sydney, where he joined Norths rugby club.
As described by Growden, Swannell became known to some as an 'odd bod' whose peculiarities extended to never washing the stinky rugby breaches he wore in all games. Allied with Swannell's rough and dirty play in club rugby, he was a sharply polarising figure, earning as many enemies as admirers.
In 1940, moments from the early life of Dally Messenger, the most famous of league's early defectors, were published in a newspaper, including when he narrowly avoided being kicked after scoring in a rugby game for Easts against Norths in 1907.
The then-Wallaby took evasive action when he heard the footsteps of his assailant, who was not named in the article but was referred to as a 'famous international who'd played in England, New Zealand and Australia'. A photo of Swannell was also published in the article.
Prior to that, however, Swannell was called up to play for NSW against the All Blacks in 1905, and was then selected for the Wallabies side to play New Zealand as well.
Swannell was a contentious selection for many Wallabies given his past as a rough opponent. He played one Test and copped several kicks to the head from Kiwis on the trip, including one that saw him pick up a nasty eye injury. The official Wallabies team photo shows the eye swollen shut – and Swannell still grinning.
One of Swannell's biggest detractors was Wallabies captain Dr Herbert 'Paddy' Moran, who later labelled the Englishman 'a bad influence in Sydney football'.
'His conception of rugby was one of trained violence,' Moran wrote. 'He was a hard, virile, unsympathetic type, but a man.'
Swannell eventually hung up the boots but continued to be at the centre of rancour, later becoming a forthright newspaper columnist, joining the referees ranks – he even officiated a NSW-Queensland game in 1914 – and became a Sydney rugby administrator during a time of great upheaval as well.
Swannell's profile on the Classic Wallabies website says: 'A straight shooter, he seemed to be an individual who people liked or vehemently opposed. There seemed to have been no middle ground.'
One place Swannell is still fondly remembered is the famous rugby nursery, St Josephs College in Hunters Hill. Swannell coached the First XV for three seasons between 1905 an 1907. Joeys won the GPS premiership in all three years.
In a monograph compiled by historians Jon Cooksey, Graham McKechnie and Dennis Burns, the trio say 'there's no doubt Swannell was a difficult, divisive man'.
But they further contend: 'He was also fiercely loyal. He had a fine sense of humour and he was most certainly very courageous. Blair Swannell is a remarkable man … (and) a man who deserves to be more accurately – and better remembered – by a much wider audience.'
The outbreak of war
Swannell was quick to sign up for the Australian Infantry Forces (AIF) when World War One broke out.
Aged 39, he was made major of D Company, First Infantry battalion, which travelled to Egypt and awaited further orders in sandy camps, with the pyramids as a backdrop. D Company was shipped out to be part of the Gallipoli campaign at Anzac Cove.
Swannell's men were part of the second wave on the first day, landing around 10am on April 25, 1915. Swannell led his troops up the cliffs towards Russell's Top.
By late morning D Company had reached an elevated area called Baby 700, and were preparing an assault on the Turkish Troops.
But as the company came under attack, Swannell attempted to show one of his soldiers how to handle his weapon and return fire, but he was shot and instantly killed. He was one of 10 Wallabies to die in WW1, including six from the 1913 side alone.
As recounted by Growden in Wallabies at War, Swannell's death was mentioned by Australia's official war correspondent, C. E. W. Bean, in his early Gallipoli dispatches. They'd sailed on the same troopship.
'I believe Major Swannell of the 1st Battalion was picked out by a sharpshooter that day while he was fighting like a tiger. He had said on board ship the day before he knew he was going to be killed. He fought that day as a footballer fights in a good Rugger scrum – as he had fought in many an interstate and international match – and you cannot say more than that,' Bean wrote.
Respectful, and kinder, tributes to Swannell appeared in many of Australia's newspapers.
Tom Richards was also at Gallipoli as a stretcher bearer and, as Growden recounted, wrote in his diary a few days later: 'I am really grieved, as 'Swanny' with all his faults etc was quite all right, though he was a character seldom met.'
Push for remembrance
Robert Swannell, a well-known business figure in London who once chaired the Marks and Spencer board, began reading up on his great uncle after he was invited to a function at Australia House and sat next to the head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
He researched Blair's story further when he later took part in 100th anniversary of Gallipoli events at Westminster Abbey and the Cenotaph in 2015.
'It was very moving, as you can imagine, and it gave me a view of my great uncle that I just felt, he hadn't quite been recognised in the way he should,' Robert said.
Robert, who has some of Blair's possessions including his Lions and Wallabies rugby caps, personal diaries and letters, and a commemorative coin issued by King George V to the next of kin of those who died in action – known as a 'dead man's penny' – discovered Rugby Australia listed Richards as the only dual Lion-Wallaby.
The Lions and Wallabies play for the Tom Richards Trophy.
He wrote to RA pointing out the error, which was amended, and then began a campaign to have Blair's name honoured alongside Richards'.
'My emails go back at least seven or eight years,' Swannell said. 'I am not easily put off. Maybe I have the same genes as Blair that made him a fairly determined character.'
Earlier this year, Swannell was informed the Lions and RA had decided to strike a medal in Blair's name for the Australia-New Zealand v Lions clash.
'I am really delighted,' Swannell said.
'I am just very, very pleased that we have got to the point we have got to. In a way, its part of the tale of determination that Blair had in his own way, in his lifetime.
'This medal for the Lions against combined Australia and New Zealand, it's a rather good idea. Blair played for Australia against New Zealand, and obviously, the ANZAC element is very special in this case.'
RA chief executive Phil Waugh said: 'On the battlefield and sporting field, Blair Swannell holds a unique place in Australian and British history, having represented both nations militarily and in rugby.
'It is with deep honour and respect that Rugby Australia and the British and Irish Lions recognise Blair's extraordinary life this Anzac Day - 110 years to the day since he made the ultimate sacrifice on the shores of Gallipoli - by commissioning an award in his name for this year's historic Lions tour.'
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Robert, who will travel to Australia for the game, says he hopes the recognition of Blair can help people better understand his great-uncle.
'When you step back and look Blair's short and incredible life, and of course making the ultimate sacrifice at Gallipoli, it was all pretty extraordinary,' he said.
'He is certainly worthy of our remembrance.'