William Joseph Wallace (2 August 1878 – 2 March 1972) was a New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

footballer and foundryman. Wallace won his first Test cap for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

on 15 August 1903 against

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. He was a member of the legendary 1905 Original All Blacks and played in the famous ''

Match of the Century Match of the Century has referred to many events in various sports: Contract bridge * Bridge Battle of the Century, Lenz vs Culbertson, 1931–1932 Chess * The World Chess Championship 1972, between Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spass ...

'' against

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. In total he played 51 matches for the All Blacks including 11 internationals. Following the death of

Loftus Armstrong Adam Loftus Armstrong (13 April 1878 – 30 January 1959) was a New Zealand rugby union player. A wing-forward, Armstrong represented Wairarapa at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, in 1903. ...

in 1959, Wallace was the oldest living All Black. Wallace died in Wellington in 1972 and was buried at

Karori Cemetery Karori Cemetery is the second-largest cemetery in New Zealand. It opened in 1891, and is located in the Wellington suburb of Karori. History Karori Cemetery opened in 1891 to address overcrowding at Bolton Street Cemetery. In 1909, it recei ...

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* * 1878 births 1972 deaths Rugby union players from Wellington City New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Wellington rugby union players Otago rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Burials at Karori Cemetery {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1870s-stub