How many left wingers would have taken up the call to arms in 1914? Perhaps not many, but of those who did many would have been like Cessnock’s Rob Wilson, a left winger of the footballing variety. Listed as having been born at Bando Station midway between Coonabarabran and Gunnedah, one wonders just how a man from deep in rugby union’s heartland came to be counted as one of Cessnock’s best during the early years of the Hornets, but that he was, and that is how he was remembered when his death was announced in the Newcastle Morning Herald on Saturday 28 March, 1917:
Rob was one of Cessnock’s best a few years ago, but the call of duty came, and Rob answered it.
Though born on the north western slopes and plains, it was in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn that he grew up. Auburn is part of the Granville Football Association so clearly he was surrounded by the game, but it is also clear that he was a man with a sense of wanderlust. One assumes that it was work that took the young labourer to Cessnock at 20, and it was there that he found work and football.
Wilson was late to the game from a military point of view but being newly married one can understand why. He enlisted in April of 1916, as a 22 year old. Assigned to the 2nd reinforcement of the AIF’s 35th Battalion, Rob shipped out to western front in September leaving his heavily pregnant wife Lotte behind.
It is unclear just how Rob lost his life, as his unit was not recorded as being involved in a conflict leading up to the Battle of Messines, but killed in action on 25 May 25 he was, and was buried in the Strand Military Cemetery in Ploegsteert in Belgium.
Wilson never got to meet his son Roy to whom Lotte gave birth not long after Rob left Australia. Lotte never remarried.