Alexander William Francis, born in Hartford, Connecticut, was resident in Port Adelaide as early as 1902 when he married Frances Sullivan at St Margaret’s church, Woodville. He appears on the Alagich AIF list and on Port Adelaide player lists in the press from 1908 to 1913. He was mainly a reserves player, and may have played earlier but published team lists were scarcer prior to 1908. It would be interesting to learn if he had played soccer in the US, or began playing with Port as a mature-age novice.
Francis was 39 years old and employed as a sawyer when he enlisted on February 7th 1916. He had trained as a machine gunner in the militia, but was placed in the army engineers. He arrived in England in July 1916, but was destined to never reach France. In and out of hospital with illness, he alternated between engineer training depots and various civil and military hospitals.
When he was finally sent home in December 1917, his major illness was noted as “rheumatism”, but “senility” was also mentioned on the medical record. Alexander Francis was medically discharged in March 1918.
He died in Adelaide in 1944.