DOUBLE ALL BLACK: Bill Carson in an All Black shirt, in a studio shot (as indicated by the watch he is wearing). Picture from the Crown Studios collection, Alexander Turnbull Library
DOUBLE All Black William (Bill) Nicol Carson was born in Gisborne 100 years ago today.
The rugby and cricket international who played the willow-on-leather game for Poverty Bay aged just 15, was a member of the New Zealand cricket team to tour Britain in 1937, and played for the 1938 All Blacks in Australia.
Awarded the Military Cross for his actions during a battle in 1943, Bill Carson died in October 1944 after being seriously wounded at San Michele, near Florence, just over two months before. While awaiting travel on a hospital ship back to New Zealand, he developed jaundice in Bari, Italy, and failed to respond to treatment. He died on board the ship and was buried at Heliopolis military cemetery in Egypt.
Carson is recorded as one of seven double All Blacks, along with George Dickinson, Curly Page, Charlie Oliver, Eric Tindill and latter-day dual internationals Brian McKechnie and Jeff Wilson.
But Carson did not play a test in either sport. Of the seven, only Tindill played both test rugby and test cricket.
Carson was the son of Mabel Alice Carson (née Scoullar) and Alexander John Carson, who was the Gisborne harbourmaster.
Bill Carson was educated at Kaiti School and then Gisborne High School, where he played for both the first 15 and first 11.
In 1940, he married Marie Patricia Jeffries in Auckland, where he worked as a warehouseman. The couple did not have children.
Immediate successCarson had immediate success as a first-class cricketer for Auckland in the summer of 1936-1937. In only his second first-class match, against Otago at Carisbrook, Carson made 290.
His score was only two runs short of Australian great Victor Trumper’s record of 292 not out as the highest maiden century in world first-class cricket.
But the record books did not evade Carson. In scoring his 290 runs, he was part of a world record first-class third-wicket partnership of 445 with Paul Whitelaw.
In his next match, Carson made 194 runs in 214 minutes against Wellington, and shortly afterwards found himself on the ship to Britain with the 1937 New Zealand team.
Carson started the tour in fine form, making 85 runs against Surrey and 86 against Northamptonshire. But Carson struggled on the slower English wickets for the rest of the tour, and finished with 627 runs at 19.00.
According to English cricket identity Sir Pelham Warner, he developed a fault with deliveries on his leg stump and went out several times playing weak shots.
Carson was an aggressive left-handed batsman and useful fast-medium bowler. He ended his career with an average of 34.88 with four centuries, and 35 wickets at 21.48 from 31 first-class matches.
Carson played rugby for Auckland, out of the Ponsonby club, in 1936, 1938 and 1939. A flanker, he played three matches for the 1938 All Blacks in Australia and scored one try. But Carson was hampered by injuries and was unavailable for most of the tour matches.
According to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Carson was regarded as a certainty for the 1940 All Black tour of South Africa, but the side was never named because of the outbreak of World War 2.
Carson also played for the North Island in 1938 and 1939, and was in the All Black trial of 1939 and a Central-Trentham army team in 1940.
Service during the warDuring the war, Carson served in Crete, North Africa and Italy. In Crete, he was injured in the famous charge to retake Galatos. In North Africa, at Sidi Rezegh, his artillery battery held off a dozen enemy tanks for two days.
Carson’s unit was often assigned to special duties. His troop was sent to support the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards, an armoured car unit doing reconnaissance for the New Zealand Corps, during the chase after Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s retreating Afrika Korps.
Carson was awarded the Military Cross for quickly positioning his guns to fire accurately against two well-equipped Italian battalions at the battle of Mareth in 1943.
On July 29, 1944, then serving as acting major, Carson was seriously wounded at San Michele. He suffered extensive wounds to his lungs, liver, thigh and ankle.
While waiting in Bari for a hospital ship home, Carson developed jaundice. He failed to respond to treatment and died on board the ship on October 8. He was 28 years old. Carson was one of seven All Blacks to die in World War 2.
Major General Howard Kippenberger, who encountered Carson at various stages of the war, said of him: “How often other commanders had cause to be grateful for his skill and boldness and his sportsman’s sense of anticipation I do not know, but there were many times’’.
Carson’s memory is honoured in several trophies named after him. The Auckland Cricket Association has a Carson Cup, which is presented to a player or administrator for their contribution to the sport as a volunteer.
The prestigious Roller Mills Shield rugby tournament for primary-school-age representative teams from unions in the upper half of the North Island also features a Carson Cup.
It is awarded to the team displaying the best sportsmanship and behaviour on and off the field.
Photographs of Carson are in the Gisborne Boys High School assembly hall and in the former cricket pavilion.
Before Carson sailed to England with the 1937 New Zealand cricket team, the school presented him with a pen, which Carson’s nephews have given back to the school.