Wikipedia

Horace Nunn

William Horace Nunn (8 August 1891 – 4 February 1957) was a New Zealand rugby footballer who played both rugby union and rugby league.

Horace Nunn
Personal information
Full nameWilliam Horace Nunn
Born(1891-08-08)8 August 1891
Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Died4 February 1957(1957-02-04) (aged 65)
Wellington, New Zealand
Playing information
Height1.66 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)[1]
Weight68 kg (149 lb)[1]
Rugby union
PositionHalfback
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1910–16 Petone
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1912–14 Wellington
1914 North Island
Rugby league
PositionStand-off
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1919 Marist Old Boys (ARL) 2 0 1 0 2
1921–22 Petone 8 5 4 1 25
Total 10 5 5 1 27
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1921–22 Wellington 3 0 0 0 0
1921 New Zealand 3 1 0 0 3
Coaching information
Club
Years Team Gms W D L W%
1923–24 Hutt RL Club 22 12 1 9 55
1923 Wellington
Total 22 12 1 9 55

Early life

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Born in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia in 1891, Nunn emigrated to New Zealand with his parents in about 1903, and worked as an iron moulder in Petone.[2] He played cricket for the Petone club as a batsman and leg-break bowler, and was noted for being a good outfielder with a strong arm.[3][4][5]

Rugby union

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A "diminutive but nuggety" halfback, Nunn played for the Petone Rugby Club,[6] and represented Wellington at a provincial level from 1912 to 1914, and the North Island in 1914.[1] In 1914, he was controversially omitted from the All Blacks for their tour of Australia, the stated reason being that he had been certified as unfit for military service and could therefore not be considered for selection.[7]

Rugby league

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Nunn 2nd from the right in the 'New Zealand' team to play Auckland on May 21, 1921.

Nunn played for Wellington, as a stand-off, captaining the side in 1922.[8] In 1923 he began coaching the new Hutt rugby league club, and was appointed as one of the three selectors for the Wellington senior representative side.[9][10] The Hutt side won the competition in their first year beating Petone who had won for several years by one competition point. The following year they finished 3rd under his tutelage. He also coached the Wellington representative team.[11] In 1926 Nunn was elected as one of 10 vice-presidents of the Wellington Rugby League.[12]

Nunn represented New Zealand on their 1921 tour of Australia,[1] becoming Kiwi number 150.[13]

World War I

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Nunn enlisted as a private in F Company, 28th Reinforcements, New Zealand Expeditionary Force in February 1917, but deserted from camp at Trentham in May that year. In 1919 Nunn was listed as one of the country's military defaulters.[14] Arrested in Dunedin in April 1920, he was found guilty by a district court-martial the following month and sentenced to one year's imprisonment with hard labour.[2] If Nunn had been detained during the war he potentially faced a firing squad. Although Nunn had blamed his sport commitments, there were earlier indications of his pacificism as he had been previously fined for failing to attend training parades in 1913.[15]

In 1919 Horace and his brother played for Marist in a Roope Rooster match at the Auckland Domain. In the Marist Memories book produced by the Marist club for their Golden Jubilee it was recalled by Bill Glover that the Robinson brothers who played for Marist in that game were in fact the Nunn brothers from Wellington. The story was retold by Glover 50 years later that they were trying to avoid detection from the military police and gave aliases to the police.[16]

Personal life

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After release from prison Nunn became involved in a paternity case involving Lydia Ann Scott and her son, Howard Phillip Scott. Nunn's visibility as a sportsperson attracted the attentions of the newspapers.[17] Nunn lost the affiliation case. Subsequent DNA testing of the descendants of Lydia Scott has confirmed that Nunn was the child's father.[18]

Death

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Nunn died unmarried at a care home in Upper Hutt on the 4th February 1957.[19] He is credited in his obituary as one of the founding members of the Upper Hutt Cricket Club.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "New Zealand tourists: team for Sydney said to be very solid". Referee. 25 May 1921. p. 12. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Nunn, William Horace – WW1 52353 – Army". Archives New Zealand. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Cricket". Free Lance. 13 March 1909. p. 18. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Cricket: Happy Wednesday men". The Dominion. 11 November 1911. p. 12. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  5. ^ "Cricket". Free Lance. 31 October 1914. p. 19. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  6. ^ "The rugby game: how fare the various clubs?". Evening Post. 21 March 1914. p. 14. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  7. ^ "All-Black team: Nunn's exclusion". Evening Post. 10 July 1914. p. 2. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  8. ^ "League football: representatives selected". Evening Post. 7 June 1922. p. 3. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  9. ^ "League code". Evening Post. 12 May 1923. p. 17. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  10. ^ "League code". Evening Post. 14 April 1923. p. 15. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Rugby league: representative teams". Evening Post. 19 August 1924. p. 3. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  12. ^ "League football: annual meeting". Evening Post. 21 April 1926. p. 7. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  13. ^ "Roll of Honour". New Zealand Rugby League. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  14. ^ "New Zealanders who resisted the First World War". May 1919. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  15. ^ "Hutt and Petone News". Dominion. 31 January 1913. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  16. ^ "The Formative Year" (PDF). Marist Memories. 1 January 1969. p. 7. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  17. ^ "Walking Out at Petone". NZ Truth. 22 September 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  18. ^ "William Horace Nun". MyHeritage. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Mr H Nunn". Upper Hutt Leader. 14 February 1957. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
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