Stanley Rupert Rowley

Stanley Rupert Rowley was born in Young, NSW, the son of a confectioner and later publican. His parents died in 1884 and he was raised by an aunt at Croydon.

He enrolled in second year at Sydney High School in 1890. In that year, at the annual school sports meeting, he won his one and only schoolboy race, coming first in the under-14 120 yards. It is said he only really discovered his aptitude for sprinting  after leaving school, commencing his successful club career in 1895. Indeed, at the school’s 1895 annual sports meeting, he came first in the 220 yards old boys’ handicap.

Rowley went on to win the Australasian 100 yards and 220 yards championships in 1897 and 1899 (when he set Australian and Australasian records).

He attended the Paris Olympics in 1900, privately (as the Ametaeur Atheltic Union of Australasia decided not to send a team) and came third in the 60, 100 and 200 metres finals. Medals were not awarded and he was instead given a carriage clock, a ladies’ ‘wove-wire’ purse and a silver stiletto paper knife.

He also obtained “gold” as a roped-in 5th member of the British 5km team (being, as all Australians were at the time, a British subject). The team obtained enough points to win, despite Rowley (who was, after all, a sprinter, and unused to such distances) not completing the course.

He came out of retirement for his final competitive appearance in 1905, when he ran at Concord in an international 100 yds scratch race, coming the closest of thirds.

In 1908 he became honorary treasurer of the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia and New Zealand, a role he fulfilled until his death in 1924.

He continued to appear at the school’s annual sports meetings - as timekeeper in 1908 and 1909. In 1912 he was an entrant in the old boys’ 100 yards handicap and 440 yards handicap.

Throughout all of this he was employed at a stock and pastoral industry firm.

He died unexpectedly from Bright’s disease, suffering a seizure upon returning home from work.

A tribute in the sports newspaper, Referee, said of him:

“No man could leave a finer name than Stanley Rowley has done. He was an athlete of the first water, a sportsman who won with modesty, and lost with a generous smile and a compliment to the victor. Such men as he are the gems of sport.”