Among this year’s Christmas cricket books is a biography of Charles Macartney, Australia’s cricket hero 100 years ago writes Ken Piesse.
A forensically researched and authoritative biography of CG Macartney, Australian cricket’s ‘Governor General’, is soon to be published by ‘Golden Age’ specialist and Sdney-based author Peter Lloyd.
The copiously illustrated, leather-bound, limited-edition volume of 700 pages is entitled Charlie Macartney: Mayhem and Artistry and details in full his life on and off the field, his beginnings and family and the significant struggles they faced in establishing new lives in a foreign, and often unforgiving, colonial outpost.
An appreciation of the social, demographic and cultural context of late-Victorian/early Edwardian rural and urban Australia is central to understanding of the various forces at play as Macartney’s preternatural cricketing talents emerged.
From a young age, Charlie was recognised as being a cut above the norm with cricket bat or ball in hand. His passion for the game was enhanced and honed by George Moore, his maternal grandfather and renowned colonial top tier cricketer, with whom Charlie shared a special bond.
Retrospectively, Charlie’s path to cricketing greatness seems to have been turbo-charged and pre-ordained. It took him just five years to emerge from lower grade district cricket in Sydney in 1902-03 to the Australian Test XI.
However, his progress was far from straightforward. His form waxed and waned, as he struggled, not merely in the middle against opposition sides of differing calibre, but also with his own mental demons.
Throughout his life Macartney suffered from profound episodes of psychological depression and neurological illness.
Macartney’s predilection to avoid moments of stress are especially evident in 1909, following his initial Ashes Tour, when, inexplicably, he went walkabout to New Zealand for a whole domestic season; and again, in 1924-25, when he missed the entire home Ashes series against Arthur Gilligan’s MCC touring side.
It’s like Steven Smith walking away from Test cricket while in his prime.
An extended chapter ‘Australia’s Premier Batsman Under Dark War Clouds’, focuses on Macartney’s Great War service record and dissects, from pre-enlistment to repatriation home and subsequent de-mobbing.
It is replete with harrowing moments and explains much about his later-in-life preference to deflect inquiries on serious matters to others.
Macartney was a staunch supporter of Australia’s involvement in the Great War. Yet he was far from outspoken about enlistment and totally mute about the divisive political push to introduce conscription. His personality did not lend itself to public pronouncements about controversial matters. Nevertheless, he was prepared to allow his image to be used by those campaigning for the establishment of an AIF Sportsmen’s Unit in 1917 as recruitment drives across Australia continued to struggle to meet quotas.
Given Macartney’s history of disassociating himself from moments of tribulation and discord, he may well have responded with a degree of bewildered shock and remoteness at being confronted by the sustained carnage of extreme combat on the Western Front at Messines.
He was one of many involved in an artillery battle which continued unabated for more than a week. The relentless inferno of [Allied] shells pounding down on the Central Powers involved the constant loading and reloading of guns, and the manhandling of empty cases, while enemy fire, albeit gradually more sporadic, was, nevertheless, lethal.
So too the mustard gas which the Germans used ruthlessly throughout the engagement.
All his senses would have been under siege, overloaded with the chaotic mixture of extreme noise, vibration, heat, gas and the palpable odour of death. It is difficult not to imagine that he was anything other than overwhelmed by the combination of physical horror and psychological shock. With the bombardment at sustained fever pitch, his senses likely would have been numbed. He may have become inured, at least temporarily, to the surrounding devastation and loss of life and limb. No amount of combat training could have prepared Charlie for such an alarming initiation to war. His predisposition towards anxiety and emotional withdrawal made him a definite candidate for post-traumatic stress disorder…
On 31 July 1917, the very day after the Battle of Messines had officially concluded and the 7th Field Artillery Unit was removed from the front, Charlie was transferred, permanently, to the 3rd Divisional Artillery Headquarters where he performed creditably in a clerical role. So well, in fact, that he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal on 18 June 1918 for consistent diligence and methodical application to his clerical duties.
Cricket-loving readers should not be deterred by an account which is frank about momentous events off the pitch. The very fact that Macartney was able to corral the trauma of war-induced psychoses and perform so superbly at an elite level, if not constantly, then, at the very least, for sustained periods during a lengthy career, speaks volumes for his determination and competitive spirit. Charlie Mac would not be mastered. Nor would he be made to rein in his aggressive and adventurous batting style regardless of the advice of others who may have counselled caution. All his historic innings in ‘big cricket’ receive detailed attention from a battery of complementary and novel sources, one of which being his own personal scrapbooks. What he chose to include and what to ignore is personally informative. And, on occasions, provocative.
As with Lloyd’s earlier biographies, this latest offering considers what has been written before, notes deficiencies, and, through scholarly methods, corrects errors and fills in missing pieces of important information. Text and visuals are superbly blended with many of the images previously unseen in public.
Just 110 copies have been produced, of which 100 are for sale from cricketbooks.com.au
KEN PIESSE has covered cricket and football for more than 30 years in Melbourne. Despite that setback, Ken has written, published and edited 86 books on cricket and AFL football to become Australian sport’s most prolific author.
His latest cricket book is his own memoir, Living the Dream, 60 years in cricket and football with Wilkinson Publishing, out now.
www.cricketbooks.com.au
Discussion about this post