Major Hugh Connell was one of soccer’s most decorated officers.
When he enlisted for service in March 1916, Captain Connell was serving as President of Adamstown British Football Club, a commitment he occasionally resumed after the war on top of his long-term role as Patron. On 19 February 1919, the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate reported thatÂ
Major H. J. Connell, who was the Adamstown patron, and who took a great interest in the Rosebuds Club, won the Military Cross at Messines in June, 1917, was mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches, December, 1917, and on April 4, 1918, received a bar to his Military Cross, and in the 1919 honours was listed as D.S.O. He was recently wounded while on his horse, but when last heard of, was back in the field.
He died on 31 January 1934, aged 49 years. The Hugh Connell Memorial Shield for schoolboy football in New South Wales was subsequently named in his honour. An impressive 96 teams entered the competition in 1934, a fact taken to measure the regard in which he had been held.