Player

POSITION: wing
CLUBS/TEAMS: Lansdowne (Dublin), Dublin Old Wesley F.C., Belfast College, Leinster, Swansea, Glamorgan, Cardiff, Llanelli, London Welsh, Aberavon, Hull RLFC, East Melbourne (Victoria, Aus.), Victoria State Rugby Team,
Honours: Ireland 3 caps, Canada (sub, not capped).

Irish international A.E. (Albert Edward) Freear's rugby career was a colourful one as was his life. He was a man seemingly always on the lookout for the next opportunity both in his rugby and business careers. In fact Albert was not even an Irishman by birth and could have played for England. The stipulations set down by rugby’s International Board in 1894 allowed a man to play for any rugby nation that selected him, as long as he did not thereafter try and transfer to another. Had Freear not been capped by Ireland, he may well have found a place in a Welsh international fifteen. As we discover, he found favour in several Welsh clubs for his speed and power as a runner.

Albert Freear was Born in Salford Lancashire on 15th November 1877, son of a fire insurance assessor Charles T. W. Freear. By 1893 the family was living in Dublin in the Sandymount area on the south side. An early indication of Albert’s entrepreneurial spirit was his advertisement in Freeman’s Journal for the sale of some prize winning English owls and homing pigeons – he would have been 13 years old. The family later moved to the Pembroke East area of the city, young Albert living with his father, two brothers, three sisters and father. His deaf and dumb aunt Emma also housed with the Freear family. By 1894-95 aged seventeen years, and possessing his father’s fine physique, he started at the position of centre for the Dublin based Lansdowne Rugby Club. From there he progressed to playing on the wing. He took part in the Lansdowne club’s tour to Wales in November 1894, though the youngster is not recorded as making much impression, Cardiff and Newport severely trouncing the tourists.

Freear played in a trial for selection to the Leinster team in October 1898 but didn’t make the side. He had to wait until the season he was capped by Ireland to win his Leinster cap. But his club play obviously improved significantly and he was first capped for Ireland in their 10 - 6 win against England in Dublin on 9th February 1901, being picked alongside his Lansdowne Club team mate, centre B R W Doran. He went on to play in the other Irish internationals of 1901 against Scotland and Wales, scoring a try against Wales on 16th March 1901 at the St Helens ground in Swansea. This was his final cap. Freear has squeezed in at the corner to score in the first half in a match where Wales were generally considered fortunate to have won by two goals and two tries to three tries. Albert had by now made an impression on Welsh rugby supporters and he was described in the Evening Express in the build up to the match as possessing “immense speed, is a magnificent kick with either foot, and about the surest tackle in the [back] division. He is also an adept at placing goals from long distances, and can always be relied upon to keep his head.” He was recorded at this time as 5ft. 7 ¾ in. and 11st. 6lb. This international match also saw the thirty third consecutive and last appearance of Swansea’s Billy Bancroft and first caps for Dickie Owen and Dick Jones of Swansea. Freear would soon be playing alongside the ‘Dancing Dicks’ for the ‘All Whites’.

But this was not Freear’s first visit to St Helen’s. He had toured with the Dublin Old Wesley F.C. (OWRFC) in December 1899 when they played Cardiff, Penygraig and Swansea. Albert played in all four of the tour fixtures. They turned out twice against Swansea at St Helen’s, losing by 16 points to 12 on Boxing Day. In this match Albert Freear dropped a fine goal for the Old Wesley side. The report said: “Freear stands out conspicuously for dashing play and also for effective tackling. His drop goal was a very smart bit of work.” OWRFC also scored a first half drop goal courtesy of three-quarter J. R. Magee. Swansea had countered with tries by Bancroft and Gordon. Freear then got a try in the second half which Magee converted. The game was described as: “one of the most exciting matches ever witnessed on the Swansea field, as the result hung in the balance till the call of time.” The visitors had led by a point at half-time and certainly weren’t overawed by Swansea’s reputation. A drop goal while surrounded by opponents – a ‘Billy Bancroft special’ followed by tries from Gordon and George Davies secured the home win.

A ‘tag’ exhibition game of twenty minutes a side was all that could be managed on a frozen pitch at Penygraig in the Rhondda two days later. The return match with Swansea on 30th was a more one sided affair with Swansea emerging victors by 23 points to nil. Freear “played a grand game” but when two Irish players collided and had to retire injured, the visitors, reduced to 13 men, could not stem the tide of smart inter-passing between Swansea’s backs and forwards. Swansea fielded a much changed side with several capped players withdrawing – the international with England approaching. Llwynypia’s Willie Llewellyn played for Swansea as a test to see how he and Dan Rees would play together in the back line for Wales the following week. He scored one of Swansea’s four tries. The last match of the OWRFC tour was against Cardiff on 1st January and they were overwhelmed in the second half, losing by four goals to a try. Again they played handicapped with a man retiring injured before the second half began. The tourist included future Irish caps George Hamlet, Bill Hinton and Tom Robinson in their party, as well as Albert Freear of course.

But Albert Freear had made his mark on the Swansea players and supporters. Freear had not attended Wesley College, Dublin and the weekend before the OWRFC tour he had played for his own club of Lansdowne. So it seems he was a last minute addition to the tour. Possibly he saw it as an opportunity to return to Swansea and look for employment there.

Albert Freear arrived back in Swansea again with the Belfast College team in April 1901. The college were one of three Bank Holiday opponents for Swansea and were beaten at St Helen’s by four goals and a try to a single goal. West Country side Rockliffe were similarly beaten the following day. Then Freear took the opportunity to offer his services to the “All Whites” in their last engagement of the holiday when centre George Davies had to step down due to a family bereavement. The back line was rearranged and on 9th April 1901 Albert Freear played on the wing against the touring Barbarians club on their first visit to St Helen’s. A win for Swansea resulted by a goal and two tries to nil. Freear had made a try for Fred Jowett in the second half and the Irish international was described as having played “a fine dashing game”.

Freear liked the town and as the town’s rugby supporters liked him, he decided to stay and make what he could of his Irish capped fame. During the 1901-02 season Albert was used sparingly as a stand in for the oft’ injured Swansea talisman Billy Trew. Albert scored 11 tries that season despite his few opportunities to play. The price he paid for his Abertawe dalliance was that he was not called up for the Irish trial match, the IRFU taking a dim view of his Welsh allegiance; thus ended his career as an Irish international.

Albert Freear played for Swansea at centre and wing during 1902-03, again being selected only intermittently. He once more notched up 11 tries. He added to his CV by turning out for the touring Canadian national side when they were a man short against Mountain Ash on 12th January 1903. As a stand-in player he could not receive his Canadian cap. Five days later Freear was in the Swansea side that beat the Canadians, scoring the first try within five minutes while handing off two players. So, IRB rulings notwithstanding, he now had the distinction of having played both for and against the North American tourists!

Albert settled into Swansea life and in February 1902 he married Kate Gwendoline Fitt, daughter of the owners of Swansea’s prestigious Grand Hotel. The young lady was said to be an avid fan of the ‘All Whites’. His new father in law J. E. Fitt was instrumental in getting him licensed as landlord of the White Rose public house in Walters Road in February 1902. He resided there until November that year when he moved to take charge of the True Briton public house in the High Street. They were the first of several pubs he would manage.

When the rugby season finished Albert was able to display his sprinting abilities at more than one Athletics meeting around this time though it was said that on the rugby pitch Fred Jowett was a faster wing, if not as robust a man to stop. Whilst a favourite with the Swansea crowd and a lethal runner when given good ball in the right areas, Freear did suffer from frequent omission from the starting line-up of the first fifteen. With such stellar talent as Billy Trew, Frank Gordon, George Davies Dan Rees and Fred Jowett, his opportunities were limited. Comments on his play at this time, while admiring his pace and strength, sometimes alluded to a lack of awareness of others around him. Against Watsonians in December 1902 he was chastised in a match report that said he had not yet: "tumbled to the Welsh game, and allowed himself to be tackled frequently when he ought to have got rid of the ball." But other reports describe him as a "universal favourite with all sections of the spectators at St Helen's." Despite the criticism of his playing style, Freear managed a sprint down the line to score a fine try late in the Watsonians match. The Scots were certainly aware of his pace and marked him well. When he did get the ball in space early on “he was watched closely by Forbes [Watsonians’ outside-half], who bottled him up at once”. With Swansea in the middle of their 'Golden Era', Freear was always up for selection against established and well known Welsh players, nearly all internationals themselves.

Yet he was held in high regard at the Swansea club. ‘Forward’ in his Athletic Notes in the Evening Express put it this way in October 1902: “Freear has always been recognised at Swansea as a class man. No one has any fault to find in him. He was never fed properly by his centres or he would have had tries galore. He makes a cleaner dash for the line than any other wing, and if he is not a great dodger, he is terribly hard to stop. There is no disrespect to Freear at Swansea, I can assure you.” In the Cambrian ‘Argus’ felt that Albert Freear was no longer progressing in the ‘Welsh game’ and that he ran too close to the touch line, reducing the options for play. But the scribe also acknowledged that Freear was not served very well for a sprinting wing. Perhaps his forthright style of wing play did not suit the Swansea style of fluid play that had brought them to the premier position in British rugby. He began to look around to secure regular matches.

In fact Freear had begun his Welsh club wanderings at the end of 1901-02 when he turned out for Llanelli against Bristol in their last match of the season on 19th April. As the Evening Express had it: “A. E. Freear, the well-known Swansea wing, will assist Llanelly against Bristol next Saturday. The Irishman is as a big favourite in Llanelly.” By the beginning of 1902-03 Albert was in demand by several clubs, all knowing that such a talented player was struggling to get regular games with Swansea’s first fifteen. He did not help his own cause when he and Billy Trew played a game of ping-pong a couple of hours before a home match with Championship rivals Newport, in which he was to have played on the wing. Shaping to make a powerful strike, he brought on a back spasm and missed a match he was picked to play in. With Billy Bancroft and Dick Jones also absent, Newport broke Swansea’s unbeaten record. They went on to gain the garland of Welsh ‘Premiers’, thus interrupting the series of consecutive Championships won by Swansea – who regained the laurel in 1903-04.

Good performances during the early part of 1902-03 saw Freear selected to play for Glamorgan County against Yorkshire on 11th October 1902. In this match he was fortunate to have Gwyn Nicholls at centre supplying him with plenty of good ball and the wing scored three of Glamorgan’s four tries, giving a classy performance and reminding the Welsh sporting public of his potency as a try scoring wing three-quarter. Yorkshire were well beaten.

Still Albert’s appearances for Swansea were irregular as the St Helen’s club enjoyed a glut of talent behind the scrum. Freear expressed a desire to play for Neath if he couldn’t get a first team game for Swansea. He was promptly selected by them for their match against Llanelli. But Welsh international Willie Llewellyn, currently studying in London, persuaded Freear to turn out with him for London Welsh that day away at Midland Champions Leicester. So he added another Welsh team to his portfolio, albeit an ‘exiles’ one. Cardiff also hankered after his services, with injury problems of their own. He declined to play for them against Swansea on 25th October 1902 but did play for Cardiff in a match they lost to Devon on 5th November. By then he had notched up another two games for Llanelli; both away, against Northampton (won) and London Welsh (lost) on 27th and 28th October.

Rumours abounded of his permanent departure to other clubs or to ‘northern poachers’. Eventually it was his wife’s illness and the need to move to Port Talbot and its ‘relatively’ cleaner air at that time, that forced his transfer to Aberavon Rugby Club for the 1903-04 season. He became licensee in the Castle Hotel in Port Talbot. Aberavon were rebuilding their side after disappointing recent results and ‘Alby’ as he was known at the club, injected pace and flair into the black and reds, as well as bolstering the ‘gate’ in home matches. But ‘Alby’ was not to reside at Aberavon for long.

He played his last game for Aberavon in September 1904 before signing for Hull Rugby League Club later that month on terms of over £100 down, with the promise of a pub and a regular wage of £2 a week from the club itself. The pub promised (The Waverley) fell through and Freear was employed as a clerk. There was rumour of his being refused the license on the advice of Swansea and Aberavon police about his fitness to hold a license. Nothing was proven and Freear insisted he had simply missed the licence and was promised another. Neath's Joe Burchell (a Swansea boy and former Excelsiors player) was already a member of the Hull F.C. and may have been instrumental in Freear's move there. Swansea's capped centre Dan Rees would shortly afterwards join Hull F.C.'s rivals across the river, Hull Kingston Rovers, for a record fee. Freear played for Hull F.C. against Leigh the following Saturday, giving good account of himself, though his team mate and erstwhile fellow ‘Welshman’ Joe Burchell was badly injured in the same match. Freear settled in as easily at Hull F.C. as he had in South Wales. Returning to Swansea for his sister in law’s wedding in January 1905, he spoke of playing for his new club, saying he had not found the play any rougher than that in Wales and he had been injured: “not once. I haven’t missed a match since I played for them.” He said of his new surroundings: “I like them very well. I get along with everyone.” While with the Hull F.C. Albert added further interest to his story by becoming the first Irish rugby union international to win international honours in the league game when he played in the ‘Other Nations’ side against England in Bradford in 1905. Albert captained Hull F.C. during the 1905-06 and 1906-07 seasons. While at Hull F.C. Albert made 61 first team appearances, scoring 19 tries.

Little more is known of Freear’s whereabouts until he turned up in court for embezzlement from his employer the Gladiator Motor Company of Longacre, London in October of 1908. Gladiator manufactured early model French cars in England. Freear, who was employed as a storekeeper by the firm, pleaded guilty to the charges, citing the responsibility to his ill wife and three children as his motive for taking £58 from the company! He served four months in prison.

But this was not the end of albert Freear’s nomadic and colourful sporting career. He emigrated to Fawkner, Victoria in Australia in 1909, probably having gone there directly on his release from prison, with a criminal record hindering employment opportunities in Britain. His wife was too ill to accompany him. Freear became a commercial traveller in New South Wales and Queensland. He played rugby for the East Melbourne Club and represented the state of Victoria in 1909-10. He is recorded as playing at three-quarter for Victoria against a touring Maoris side on 2 July 1910, where he had a hand in Victoria's only score of the game, being part of the move that led to the try and converting it himself. He reportedly continued to play well though some of his team mates became demoralised as the Maoris finished the match winning 32 - 5. It was one of two matches they played in Melbourne at the end of the first officially sanctioned Maoris tour. All Blacks Billy Stead and Bill Cunningham were in the Maoris side as well as one of the famous Warbrick brothers of the 1888 pre-All Blacks tour fame.
Freear's acceptance by the Victoria Rugby Union is somewhat surprising as they would have been aware of his professional career with Hull F.C. and were at least officially, staunchly against professionalism.

Albert next appears in New Zealand where he lived from about 1914 to 1919 and appeared on the WW1 reserve list. He was employed again in the motor trade and apparently doing well enough to call his twelve year old son Gwyn to join him from Wales. But he had another brush with the law and fraud allegations prompted him to return to Australia, again working as a commercial traveller. He stayed in Australia for the rest of his life and died in Cheltenham (Melbourne) on 25th August 1960, with a colourful life behind him.

By Dave Dow of the Swansea RFC Archives team.

Sources: Cambrian, Evening Express, South Wales Daily News, South Wales Daily Post, Freeman’s Journal (Dublin), and Daily Telegraph (Sydney), A History of Rugby in Victoria by Ron Grainger. With thanks also to John Griffiths, rugby historian, Colin Booth (Hull F.C.), Ken Richardson (ld Wesley RFC, Dublin) and Mike Halliday (Archives, Wesley College, Dublin).