Sydney Harold John Malthouse was born in the Adelaide suburb of Bowden in 1896. Malthouses were long established in Adelaide, the first ones having arrived in the 1840s. Bowden was one of Adelaide’s poorest suburbs. Situated east of Port Road and only a short walk from Hindmarsh Oval. A maze of narrow streets and alleyways lined with small cheap cottages, it was home to Adelaide’s lowest paid workers and troublesome youth gangs.
Sydney Malthouse was a labourer when he enlisted in June 1915. His father (but not his mother) was illiterate, signing a “permission to enlist” letter with an X. Despite this unpromising background, Sydney Malthouse’s life began on a respectable path: he served in the cadets and he and his brother George played soccer for a Hindmarsh junior team.
The SABFA did not run a junior league competition- juniors played in reserve teams with some senior players, whilst some clubs, like Port and Hindmarsh, ran third teams which were entirely for juniors. The Frys Cocoa Cup was a junior trophy, with Port Adelaide the first winners in 1911.
Malthouse went with 10th Battalion reinforcements to Egypt in late 1915 where he was soon hospitalized with VD. He was gassed at Pozieres in July, and after recovering in hospital his military career seemed to run off the rails. It became a lengthy list of drunk, disobeying orders and AWOL charges. One incident of AWOL was so long it turned into “desertion” for which he was sentenced to prison, but it was commuted to a lesser punishment.
The final straw for the military authorities was recorded as “taking part in a mutiny” in 1918. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for this, but it was reduced to two after he returned to Australia.
Still a troubled soul after his return to Adelaide, Malthouse was charged with indecent assault on a 14 year old girl in 1923, but was acquitted. Sydney Malthouse died in Adelaide in 1957. Bowden and the neighbouring suburb of Brompton have been gentrified today, with greenspaces, tasteful graffiti artworks, community centers and coffee shops.