George William Rea and his father Thomas were miners who arrived in Australia from England in 1911. By 1913 they were living in the Blue Mountains, and had been joined by Rea’s mother Sarah, and brother Abraham. The 1915 electoral rolls show the rest of the family had moved to Murgon, Queensland, but Rea was not listed, though his enlistment papers a year later showed he was farming in the area.
Tracking Rea’s footballing career before the war is difficult given the paucity of records of the game in regional areas. But there are hints he was an experienced player before the war. Future Socceroo Wilf Bratton, reminiscing in the Brisbane Courier of 12 May 1928, stated that both he and Rea had played in the 3rd Australia Division soccer side alongside top Brisbane talent Bob Craig, Archie McDonald and future Socceroo John Peebles. “I happened to be an ex-international”, Bratton wrote,” but I was the weakest member of our team, thus indicating the team was the pick of the 3rd Division.” This suggests Rea was experienced in the game before the war.
The game described happened in the winter of 1917, at Ballieul, France. He was allocated to the 16th Machine Gun Company, where he fought until his war was cut short by illness in mid-1918, which required evacuation to England. Rea would not return to the front but remained in England until 1919, during which time he married Florence Dalton. The pair moved to Queensland, where their first child Thomas Wilfred was born in Murgon in 1920. The family moved to the Sunshine Coast hinterland where a second son, George Hilton, was born in Nambour in 1921. The same year the North Coast Football Association (Soccer) was formed, and Rae was picked for the North Coast regional representative side to play Brisbane.
Two years later, Rae and Bratton were both selected for North Coast to play against the visiting New Zealand team, in a game which ended 2-1 to the visitors. In club football, Rae was seen playing for Mapleton from 1922, including as captain, until suffering a knee injury in 1924. By 1928, according to Bratton, Rae was playing for Kin Kin.
Rae passed away in Murgon in March 1966.