Jack Brake

Jack Brake
Personal information
Full name John Brake
Date of birth (1890-11-11)11 November 1890
Place of birth Horsham, Victoria
Date of death 16 May 1970(1970-05-16) (aged 79)
Place of death Castlemaine, Victoria
Original team(s) Horsham
Height 188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 92 kg (203 lb)
Position(s) Ruck
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1909–1914 University 81 (21)
1915, 1920–1921 Melbourne 17 0(2)
Total 98 (23)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1921.
Career highlights
  • Victorian interstate representative: 1912
  • University vice captain: 1913
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

John "Jack" Brake (11 November 1890 – 16 May 1970) was a former leading Australian rules footballer who played with University and Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Generally regarded as one of University's few great players, Brake usually played in the ruck. He represented Victoria in 1912, and was vice captain of the University side in 1913.

World War I

As with many players at the time, World War I severely interrupted his career. Brake enlisted in the Third Division Artillery of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at the start of the war, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.[1] Brake was stationed with the 3rd Division in London when an Australian rules match was organised for 28 October 1916 between two teams of Australian servicemen in aid of the British and French Red Cross.[2]

Promoted as the "Pioneer Exhibition Game of Australian Football in London", Brake represented the Third Australian Divisional Team against Australian Training Units at Queen's Club, West Kensington before an estimated crowd of 3,000, including the (then) Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), and King Manuel II of Portugal.[2]

Post-war

Brake continued to appear sporadically for Melbourne after World War I, finally retiring in 1921 after 17 matches with Melbourne and 98 VFL matches over all. Brake later became a member of the VFL Tribunal.[3] Brake died in 1970 in Castlemaine.[4]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Page - AWM133, 05-103". First World War Nominal Roll. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  2. 1 2 Anon, "News in Brief", The Times, Issue 41309, (Friday, 27 October 1916), p.15, column B.
  3. ↑ Atkinson, p. 7.
  4. ↑ "Melbourne University Football: Some famous Personalities" (PDF). Melbourne University Football Club. Retrieved 14 August 2014.

References

  • Atkinson, G. (1982) Everything you ever wanted to know about Australian Rules Football but couldn't be bothered asking, The Five Mile Press: Melbourne. ISBN 0 86788 009 0.
  • Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.
  • World War One Nominal Roll: Second Lieutenant John Brake.
  • Roll of Service Overseas 1914–1918: Roll of the Returned: Brake, John 1910, The University of Melbourne Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers and Servants in the European War, 1914–1918, University of Melbourne, (Melbourne), 1926, p.78.
  • Serle, G., "Brake, John (1890–1970)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, 1993.
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