John Hithersay was born in Manchester, England, in 1886, the second child Herbert Hithersay and Emilia Jones. His parents separated soon after his birth and then divorced in 1899, by which time Jack had two half-siblings on his father’s side. And when he departed for Australia in 1910 he had two additional half-sisters, both on the side of his mother, who had re-married.
Jack is likely to have been the Hithersay that turned out for Rangers during the 1912 metropolitan league season. He moved to Geraldton, a coastal city some 424 kilometers north of Perth, where he worked as a commercial traveller – better known as a travelling salesman – for Henry Wills & Co, who acted as a merchant for wool and sheepskins.
Football in Geraldton was in its infancy and for the 1914 season Jack joined Queens Park Rangers, formerly known as Civil Service. When Australia entered the war he enlisted as a Private in the 11th Battalion and two days later was amongst the first contingent to travel from Geraldton to Perth by train, joining clubmate William Allen and Geraldton Town midfielder Joseph Deasington.
After basic training at Blackboy Hill camp, Jack was promoted to Lance Corporal ahead of the 11th Battalion setting sail for Egypt, where they were based at the Mena Camp just outside Cairo. On the morning of 25 April, 1915, he landed at Gallipoli and the following day received a gun shot wound to the leg. Jack was duly admitted to the 1st Australia General Hospital in Heliopolis, Egypt.
Prior to his battalion’s deployment to Europe, Jack sustained a bullet wound to the thigh which resulted in him being invalided to Australia in April 1916. During the journey home he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and hospitalised on arrival in Fremantle at No.8 Australia General Hospital. Jack received his military discharge in July.
Before the year was out Jack had settled in Bunbury where he resuming working with Henry Wills & Co. He married Cornelia Daly in November 1917 and within three years had welcomed the arrival of two daughters. Jack switched employer in 1922 to Dalgety & Co, taking up the position of business manager with the Fremantle-based wool broker.
Jack was an active member of the Bunbury community – playing golf, involved in horse racing and a judge at the annual Agricultural Show. In 1926 the family moved to Manjimup where Jack became licensee of the Manjimup Hotel. He served a decade as president of the Warren Football Association (AFL) and donated a silver trophy – the Hithersay Cup – to the Manjimup (horse racing) Club.
Jack and Connie had two more daughters plus a son on board by the time they returned to Bunbury in 1937. Jack was running the prominent Rose Hotel in central Bunbury when World War Two broke out in Europe. He enlisted with the Recruit Reception Depot in Claremont in July 1940 and was discharged 16 months later. After that Jack moved to the Melbourne suburb of Prahran, seemingly by himself.
John Hithersay was 59 years of age when he passed away on 25 November 1945 in Melbourne, Victoria.