Robert Louis Challoner (3 October 1872 – 6 May 1955) was a

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 ...

player who represented for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Challoner, a number 8, was born in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

and claimed a total of 1 international rugby caps for Australia. His debut game was against Great Britain, at Brisbane, on 22 July 1899 the second ever Test match played by an Australian national side

Early life

Robert attended

Warwick School Warwick School is a British Public school (United Kingdom), public school (independent school (UK), independent boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school) for boys, in the market town of Warwick, in Warwickshire, England. Known as ...

, and in fact was in the same school rugby side as

Sidney Nelson Crowther Sidney Crowther (1875–1914) was an English rugby union international who represented Great Britain on the 1904 tour to Australia and New Zealand. Early life Sidney Crowther was born in the early part of 1875 in Keston, Kent and grew up at H ...

, the first Old Warwickian to gain international honours for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. Robert, after leaving school, emigrated to Australia and represented

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and later

in the second test against a touring Great Britain side in 1899. Due to funding constraints he was one of only six

players ( with Charlie Ellis, Hyram Marks, Lonnie Spragg, Peter Ward & Bob McCowan) selected to make the trip to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

four weeks after the historic first Test.Howell p19 His performance in that match was noted as ''excellent'' by the press.

References

Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players 1872 births 1955 deaths People educated at Warwick School Rugby union players from Stratford-upon-Avon Rugby union players from Warwickshire Rugby union number eights British emigrants to Australia New South Wales rugby union team players {{Australia-rugbyunion-bio-1870s-stub