Abraham Swannick arrived in Australia from Lancashire in 1911, joining his sister in Rockhampton. He was soon playing for the recently formed Nerimbera FC. By 1917 he had moved to Wellington, New Zealand with his fiancé Margaret Murphy, working as a porter at Barrett’s Hotel.
In May his name was drawn out in a conscription ballot under the Military Services Act, and he joined the 2nd Battalion of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces.
Swannick died aged 34 in France in August 1918 after being caught in an explosion while cleaning a tent. A later inquest determined the explosion was caused by the incorrect storage of a bomb and deemed the death accidental. Reporting the accident, the Rockhampton newspapers noted Swannick’s prominence in the local British Association football competition.