Evander Shand Robertson

“Born in Richmond, Surrey on 26 November 1876, Evander Shand ‘Robbie’ Robertson was educated and no doubt played football at Harrow, the same public school as one of England’s foremost football identifies, Charles W. Alcock, and former Prime Minister of England, Sir Winston Churchill. After working at the London offices of the P&O shipping company, he joined the mounted police force in South Africa. He then worked at a Johannesburg diamond mine, where he encountered what was possibly a spitting cobra. Although his sight was impaired, he continued to play football and in fact made a Possibles vs. Probables trial for the Transvaal team which toured South Africa in 1907. He signed for Perth not long after arriving in WA in 1908 when he made a scoring debut on 20 June against Training College in a 2-1 win. Robbie was vice-captain for the 1909 State tour of the eastern seaboard, being just one month older than the skipper Charlie Bodenham. His contribution was six goals in nine games. He then moved to the south-west of the State, working as a tally clerk on the Bunbury Wharf before assuming caretaker duties at the Bunbury High School. He enlisted with the Australian Forces in September 1914 (Cpl- 11th Bn. H Company) and eventually became one of the remarkable few to answer the call for the Boer, First and Second World Wars. And it is quite likely he told an untruth about his age so could enlist for the Second World War. Robbie passed away May 1963, aged 86 after contracting pneumonia as a result of being swept off the Bunbury Jetty while fishing. His son, Iver Robertson became a talented Australian Rules footballer and coach for South Bunbury from 1936 until 1964 and was also a Bunbury Councillor.”
Excerpted from Richard Kreider’s Paddocks to Pitches: The Definitive History of Western Australian Football.