In January 1901 Gallaher enlisted with the 6th NZ Contingent of Mounted Rifles for the South African War. A scout who rode the veld ahead of his unit to detect threats, he came through the conflict unscathed, though he was treated for malaria and told his sister Molly in a letter that he had "a couple of close calls."
He played some rugby in South Africa, and pulled on his boots again back in New Zealand in 1903, the year he won his first national cap in a test against Australia in Sydney. He wore the black jersey again the following year when the All Blacks beat the touring Lions in New Zealand's first home test. In 1905 Gallaher was named All Black captain for an historic UK tour - an appointment which did not sit well with mainland players who felt it showed an Auckland bias.
A shipboard vote settled the matter, though 11 of his 29 team-mates voted against him as skipper. Any doubts about his leadership were erased by the team's triumphant march through Britain and France. In 33 matches, the team played an exhilarating brand of rugby, with only the long-disputed 0-3 defeat by Wales in the loss column. Gallaher made the position of wing-forward - a kind of loosie - his own, and his success generated deep hostility from Fleet St.
Crowds at the games barked his name, critics tore his playing style apart while companies traded on his notoriety by selling 'Gallaher" pipes, braces
and tobacco.
The tour behind him, Gallaher settled back into domestic life in Auckland, but kept his hand in the game as Auckland selector-coach. When the war arrived in 1914, Gallaher was past the cut-off for enlistment. But he signed up regardless, getting the sad news while he waited to resume training that his younger brother Douglas, who was in the Australian Imperial Force, had died in France.
Dave Gallaher returned to Britain in February 1917 on board the troopship Aparima. He completed further training at Sling Camp, and by June his Auckland Infantry Brigade unit was in action in the Third Battle for Ypres in Flanders.
The brigade then prepared for Passchendaele, the Belgium village which has since become shorthand for the ghastly waste of trench warfare. In the attack on Gravenstafel Spur in the battlefield mud on 4 October 1917, David Gallaher was mortally wounded in the face.
Carried to a tunnel housing the No 3 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, he was placed next to a soldier named Edward Fitzgerald. A Catholic priest tending to Fitzgerald asked: "Do you know who that is, on the next table?" Fitzgerald shook his head. 'That is Dave Gallaher, captain of the 1905 All Blacks'.
Gallaher, aged nearly 44, died that day, the oldest and most illustrious All Black casualty of the war. He was survived by Nellie, his wife and daughter Nora. Gallaher was buried near the battlefield at Nine Elms British cemetery. Former All Black captain Anton Oliver, one of many players who have made the pilgrimage to the Nine Elms British cemetery on northern hemisphere tours, said on a visit in 2000: "It was a time for reflection, not only for Dave Gallaher, but for all the other . . . New Zealanders who are buried there and all the other soldiers gone but not forgotten."
The captain of the 'Originals' is far from forgotten. The Gallaher Shield, awarded to the winner of Auckland's premier club competition, carries his name and another trophy, the Dave Gallaher Cup, goes on the line when New Zealand and France play each other. Closer to home a 2.7m bronze statue of Gallaher stands at an entrance to Eden Park.
Ernest Booth, a teammate in the 1905 side, said of his skipper: "He was a valuable friend and could be, I think, a remorseless foe. To us All Blacks his words would often be, 'Give nothing away: take no chances'."
