Edward Joseph Fahey (7 July 1888 – 23 August 1950) was an Australian

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player and

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artilleryman. He was a state and

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representative

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forward who made two international rugby tours and who captained the

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on the 1913 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand.

School and club rugby

Fahey was born in Sydney and schooled at

St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill St Joseph's College (abbreviated as SJC and commonly called ''Joeys'') is an independent Catholic secondary day and boarding school for boys, conducted in the Marist Brothers tradition, located in Hunters Hill, a suburb on the Lower North Sh ...

. He captained their

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premiership winning XV of 1907 and the Combined GPS schoolboy representative side that same year. After school he joined the Eastern Suburbs Rugby Club in Sydney. He would go on to become a stalwart for the club making 73 first-grade appearances over a twelve-year period interrupted by

.Howell p53 In 1914 redrawn catchment boundaries affecting the then applicable residential club eligibility criteria, forced Fahey to switch and play for the neighbouring Randwick Rugby Club. He captained Randwick in 1914 and made 11 first-grade appearances for that club. After the war when the Australian domestic rugby season restarted, Fahey had the difficult task of captaining Eastern Suburbs Rugby Club in that rebirth season of 1919 when the game struggled to capture a public interest which had turned more to

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

in the intervening years.Howell p51

Representative career

He made his representative debut for

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in 1910 appearing in two fixtures against a touring

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side and two matches against the

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. In 1911 he played in both interstate fixtures against the

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with the Waratahs prevailing in each. Fahey's first opportunity to represent his country came in 1912 when he was selected in the

1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States The 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the Australia national rugby union team against various invitational teams from Canada and the U.S, and also against ...

Fahey played in fifteen of the sixteen tour matches including the sole Test of the tour played against the US national side at Berkeley on 16 November 1912 and which the

won 12–8. The tour was a disappointment with the squad billeted out in college fraternity houses where the hospitality played havoc with team discipline and as result the team lost against two California University sides and three Canadian provincial sides. However Fahey returned with his reputation intact and became club captain for Easts in season 1913 and made further state appearances that year as well as touring with the Wallabies to

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as vice-captain. He played in six of the nine tour matches and when tour captain Larry Dwyer was injured in the third match against Wanganui, Ted Fahey's opportunity came to captain his country. He captained the Wallabies in the first two Tests in September 1913 and in a tour match against Southland. He missed the 3rd Test through injury. He made further representative appearances in 1914 when the

toured Australia playing for a metropolitan Sydney side, for New South Wales and for Australia in the sole Test of a tour which interrupted by the outbreak of the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. At the war's end in 1919 Fahey captained a New South Wales and an Australian side in matches against an AIF team. All told Fahey made 25 international appearances for Australia including four Test cap appearances, two as captain.

War service

Fahey was aged 28 when together with his younger brother Walter he enlisted as a Gunner in 1916 with Field Artillery Brigade 7 of the AIF. They were posted to the same unit which left Sydney in May 1916 aboard HMAT , and served on the Western Front. Ted was demobilised at the

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

's end, returning to Sydney in December 1918. His brother also survived the war.Ted Fahey at the AIF Project
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Honours and awards

British War Medal The British War Medal is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men and women of British and Imperial forces for service in the First World War. Two versions of the medal were produced. About 6.5 million were st ...

* Victory Medal

References

Sources

* Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahey, Ted Australian rugby union players Australia national rugby union team captains Australia international rugby union players 1888 births 1950 deaths Australian military personnel of World War I Australian Army soldiers Rugby union players from Sydney Rugby union locks Eastern Suburbs RUFC players Randwick DRUFC players People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill New South Wales rugby union team players 20th-century Australian sportsmen