Robert McFadden was born on 23 November 1891 in Minmi, NSW two years before his brother John. He became a prominent member of Weston, appointed chairman prior to the war. As chair he wrote to the NSW clubs in August 1914, appealing for financial support for the Weston and Cessnock clubs, hit by the big Maitland strike. His perceived value to Weston is intimated in the following report from the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate from 18 August 1915:
WESTON. The members of the Weston British football club, at Mrs. Humble’s rooms on Saturday night, made a presentation to Mr. R. M’Fadden, on the event of his marriage. Mr. M’Fadden has also joined the colours, and expects to leave for the scene of action shortly. The presentation took the form of a clock, mounted with a bronze figure of a soldier, and was suitably inscribed. Dr. Dawson made the pufentation, and wished Mr. and Mrs. M’Fadden long life and happiness, to enjoy the presents which the members of the club were making them, and that Mr. M’Fadden would return again to assist in the management of his club after his services to his King and country.
The report neatly combines the significance of marriage, club and imperial loyalty in a scene that was replicated across Australian life. The marriage annulled the possibility of repetition of a brotherly opposition two months earlier when betrothed Robert confronted hitched John on the field in a Weston married v singles game.
Robert served from early 1916 and was wounded in action in July that year. He rejoined the 17th Battalion in France in October 1917 and spent a year on the Western Front. He returned to Australia in the middle of 1919. All the while he was gradually promoted to Lieutenant by war’s end.
After Robert’s war service he didn’t quite make the mark the club had hoped. There might be a sense in which both brothers were so damaged by the war that they seemed to step back from the club, even while younger brother Alexander played there in the 1920s. Nonetheless, at the 1947 Weston reunion, among many greats of the club, Robert was a featured guest.
He died on 16 October 1965 in Rankin Park Hospital, New Lambton, NSW.