William MacVay Trevarthen was a New Zealand

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

er who was part of the professional 1907-1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Great Britain. A relative of his,

Thomas Trevarthan Thomas Trevarthan (birth unknown – death unknown) was a New Zealand rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played representative rugby league (RL) for New Zealand. His brother, David, represented New Zealand in rugby union. ...

, later played for New Zealand in the 1930s.

Early years

William Trevarthen was born on September 16, 1878 to Margaret Elizabeth Trevarthen and Thomas Trevarthen. He had 9 siblings (Margaret, Henry, Mary, Ellen, William Alexander, Thomas, Rowena, Douglas, and Ernest, and 2 half siblings (Charlotte, and Agnes). William worked as a strapping clerk.John Haynes ''From All Blacks to All Golds: Rugby League's Pioneers'', Christchurch, Ryan and Haynes, 1996. He married Sophia Kaye, and had also been married to Isabella Morris who he had a daughter with named Irene Trevarthen Morris. He originally played

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

for Paeroa and Ohinemuri sub union side in 1898-99 before going to fight in the Boer War.

Boer War

Trevarthen was a part of the Ohinemuri Rifle Volunteers and played a rugby match for them in 1908 at the start of the season against Paeroa. He then enlisted in the forces to go to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. At the time of embarking his occupation was recorded as a baker. He left for the war on January 20, 1900. After returning from the war he played a preseason match for Ohinemuri Rifle Volunteers before moving to Auckland and joining the Grafton club.

Rugby career and return to Boer War

In 1901 after moving to Auckland he was embroiled in controversy. The City club protested a match where he and Renwick playing saying that they were not resident in the Auckland district for 4 weeks prior to playing for Grafton. Renwick was cleared but it turned out that Trevarthen had only been in the district since May 15 when he had returned from the war. The Auckland Rugby Union had initially banned the players for life though this was later revoked. Though not before he had gone back to the war in 1902. After he returned several clubs moved to have the disqualifications removed. He then joined the Newton club for the 1903 season. Trevarthen won

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

selection between 1904 and 1907.

Rugby league career

In 1907 Trevarthen was selected to be a part of the professional All Blacks tour of Australia and Great Britain, as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

(prior to the specialist positions of; ), during the era of contested

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s. Like all players this meant that Trevarthen received a life ban from the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

. Trevarthen played in the first ever trans-Tasman test which was the début match of the

Australia national rugby league team The Australian National Rugby League Team, the Kangaroos, have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of Rugby league in Australia, the 'Northern Union game' in Australia in 1908. Admin ...

. He had played in all six tests on the tour against

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and

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and scored one

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. Trevarthen was later part of the 1909 side that toured Australia. Overall, he played in nine tests for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

between 1907 and 1909. Trevarthen then accepted a contract to go join

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alongside New Zealanders

Edgar Wrigley Edgar Wrigley was a New Zealand rugby footballer who represented New Zealand in both rugby union and rugby league. Early years Wrigley was born in Masterton, New Zealand to Edmund & Betsy Hannah Wrigley and was a plumber by trade.John Haynes '' ...

and Conrad Byrne.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trevarthen, William 1878 births 1927 deaths Auckland rugby league team players Footballers who switched code Huddersfield Giants players New Zealand military personnel of the Second Boer War New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand rugby union players Rugby league forwards Rugby league players from Thames, New Zealand