Reginald Rapley was born in Godalming, Surrey in 1888 and emigrated to Australia as a single man in 1912. In Broken Hill he plied his trade as a bricklayer and was soon involved with the recently formed Broken Hill British Football Association. He turned out for the YMCA club as a half back or centre forward, and was also a keen cricketer. Rapley represented Broken Hill against Petersburg in July 1913, scoring twice in a 4-1 win. Easter 1914 saw him make the trip to Adelaide as vice-captain of the Broken Hill XI, playing twice against South Australia at Kensington. He played once more in the return game against an SA XI in August.
Only three weeks after his final match for Broken Hill, Rapley was at Morphetville enlisting in the army. As an infantryman in the 10th Battalion, Rapley survived the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. On 8 May The Barrier Miner reported him amongst the wounded, and two weeks later went on to claim that he had died of wounds. Fortunately this was soon cleared up – Reg had been confused with another Rapley and was unharmed. He began to struggle with illness – influenza and rheumatism – later in the year, and was evacuated to Australia on a hospital ship in February 1916.
He was then discharged from the army as medically unfit. In March he visited Broken Hill and was telling friends that he felt as fit as a fiddle. He was not married at this point and his nearest relative was his mother in Godalming.
He was able to re-enlist in the army on 2 June 1916 and was soon on his way to England with the 43rd Battalion. The Barrier Miner reported on October 8th that Reg was in camp in England where he was captain of the Battalion football team. Rapley served on the Western Front throughout 1917 and 1918 and did not return to Australia until July 1919.
He arrived in Adelaide just in time to play in the final few games of the 1919 SA British Football Association season for North Adelaide. He told friends that he had never had a day’s illness or being wounded! Of course we know that he was ill in 1915 and he did admit to being “nicked” by a few small shell fragments. He had played football in both England and France, claiming that the battalion team in England was much better than the team at the front because they could always call on a few “ring-ins” in England. The South Adelaide club returned to the league competition in 1920 and Rapley joined them, serving the city club for seven seasons. He was captain by 1921 and led Souths into two Cambridge Cup finals, defeating Cheltenham in 1921 and losing in a replay to Prospect in 1923.
He made his debut for the SA state team in Melbourne in 1925, a 1-0 loss to Victoria. Shortly afterwards Rapley played against Tasmania in Launceston, South Australia winning 2-0. At the end of the 1926 season he announced his retirement from football, but somehow managed to make his third appearance for the state in 1927, playing a naval team (HMAS Melbourne) at Novar Gardens. This was a 4-1 win for SA. Rapley moved to Perth around 1930, and was named as a reserve for the North Perth soccer club as late as 1931.
By 1939 he was a successful builder and reluctantly retired from playing grade cricket. His military records in the Australian National Archives contain a letter he wrote from an address in Fremantle in 1967 applying for his Anzac commemorative medallion and badge.