Laurence ‘Laurie’ Carr grew up in the Scottish town of Alexandria, where he most likely played football as a child.
On moving to Perth he commenced employment with the Western Australian Government Railways, working as a Boilermaker at the Midland Junction workshops. It was inevitable that he would join the workshops’ football team, Thistle, who played in the local league. Laurence Carr first donned the blue, white and black of Thistle in 1913, helping the club win the Division Two championship before scoring twice in the 4-0 Charity Cup final thrashing of Perth. Thistle’s dominance across the next two seasons was near-total with successive Division One titles, one Challenge Cup and Shield, a second Charity Cup and back-to-back Wanderers Cups captured.
In 1915 Laurence Carr had the honour of representing Scotland in the local international series against England and Australia, wearing the captains armband against the latter. “Laurie Carr, one of the cleverest players even seen in W.A., has also been successful at last in passing the doctor,” reported The Truth newspaper of 4 September, 1915, in reference to him enlisting in the Australian Imperial Forces.
A Private with the 28th Battalion, Laurence Carr was part of the first body of Australian troops to be deployed to the European battlefield when his battalion was transferred from Egypt to France in March 1916. After serving on the frontline at Armentieres, he would have been involved in the mid-year Battle of Pozieres.
Laurence Carr was hospitalised in Boulogne during September 1916 suffering from piles, and while recuperating was fined one days pay for “overstaying (his leave) pass (by) 35 minutes”. The following month he was transferred to Perham Downs, one of four Australian Command Depots in England soldiers requiring further training prior to returning to the front.
But first, Laurence Carr travelled back to Scotland where he married Sarah Friel in Dumbarton, three miles north of his childhood home, a week before Christmas 1916. The remainder of his war service appears to have been spent in and out of hospitals and training facilities in England before returning to Australia in February 1918 after being declared medically unfit due to asthma. Laurence Carr was reunited with his wife, Sarah, and young daughter, Margaret, after applying to the Department for Repatriation for their “free passage” from England to Australia in August 1919.
They initially settled in East Fremantle and later relocated to Bassendean as the family expanded with the birth of four more children. Laurence Carr resumed employment with WA Government Railways in June 1927 only to be retrenched two and a half years later.
He re-enlisted with the 5th Battalion in August 1940 and was assigned to garrison duties in the south-west town of Harvey. In December 1941 he was declared unfit and discharged. Laurence Carr passed away in Perth on 7 February, 1942, at the age of 59.
