Alexander George William Strang was born in Sittingbourne, Kent. After emigrating to South Australia he was playing for the Hindmarsh club by 1912. G. Strang, presumably a younger brother, joined him there in 1913. Alex was a winger and played in two Cambridge Cup finals for Hindmarsh, the Reds losing them both to the Adelaide club. Apparently Hindmarsh’s style of “individual dash” could not cope with Adelaide’s short passing method. Alex Strang scored the Hindmarsh goal in the 1914 final, a 2-1 defeat in extra time.
He enlisted in the AIF on May 15th 1915. Strangely, he gave his occupation as “dairy farmer” and his address as Hope Valley. A north eastern suburb of Adelaide today, Hope Valley in 1915 would have been an isolated settlement a long way from any soccer ground. He may have moved there from Hindmarsh between the end of the 1914 season and the time he enlisted.
Strang went to Gallipoli with reinforcements to the 10th Battalion on August 4th 1915. After only four weeks at the front he was struck down by acute diarrhoea which developed into chronic dysentery. He was evacuated to Egypt and never recovered fitness.
Eventually he was returned to Adelaide and discharged in November 1916. Alexander Strang married Lillian Fowles at Hindmarsh in 1919, and died at Talunga, near Gumeracha in 1947, aged 60. Talunga today is a winery and function centre.