Family members recently saw fit to forward the club a brief bio and sepia photograph of their grandfather - the Taswegian Jim Tumilty - who represented the old dark Navy Blues in just two senior appearances almost 100 years ago, in the fifth and sixth rounds of season 1910.
The bio, prepared with the assistance of the local football historian Adrian Collins, paints a picture of a genuine football journeyman, whose commitment to the game he loved was overcome by an even greater commitment to King and Country.
James Bertram “Bertie” Tumilty was born in Launceston on June 29, 1886. He was not yet a man of 21 when he joined the Launceston Football Club, and by 1908, having relocated to Queenstown, plied his on-field craft as a rover for the Mechanics outfit in the Lyell District Football Association.
Regrettably Mechanics was nutted by rival team Railway for the 1909 premiership, but Tumilty’s talent as a rover/forward had not gone unnoticed.
On May 25, 1910, Tumilty won the necessary clearance papers through the Tasmanian Football League to join the Carlton Football Club. He was 23 years and 340 days old when he turned out for the old dark Navy Blues in the fifth round match against Fitzroy at Brunswick Street, on what was the King’s Birthday weekend - although the recent death of the reigning monarch, Edward VII, cast an obvious pall over the occasion.
Tumilty and co. comfortably accounted for their Fitzroy counterparts, and they backed it up barely 48 hours against University at the East Melbourne Football Ground. Following out the legendary Carlton captain-coach Fred “Pompey” Elliott, Tumilty booted his one and only goal for his club from a half-forward flank, as the old dark Navy Blues comfortably dispensed with the students.
But Tumilty’s League career would end in a blink, and on June 22 of that year, for reasons that remain unclear, he obtained a clearance from Carlton to VFA outfit Brunswick, and played out the season under captain-coach Jack “Dookie” McKenzie. Again, Tumilty’s team would end up on the wrong end of a Grand Final result, with Brunswick runners-up to North Melbourne for the 1910 VFA pennant.
In 1911 Tumilty made the trek to Broken Hill, turning out with the West Broken Hill Football Club in the Barrier Ranges Football Association. His on-field performances were both rewarded with selection in the association’s representative teams which took on both the VFA and Boulder.
But Tumilty was a restless soul, and Launceston’s Weekly Courier of May 2, 1912, noted “Tumilty, who played here some years ago, is back from the mainland. He once played with Carlton, and has been at Broken Hill. He is showing the best form in the practice matches”.
Tumilty settled back into Launceston life (it is said he drove a team of log-hauling horses through the forests of the north) and represented the local club through 1912-1915. During that time he finally savoured sweet premiership success, with Launceston downing North Launceston to win the big one of 1913.
With the onset of World War I, Private Jim Tumilty effectively opted to put his life on the line. He enlisted on February 13, 1915 and saw active service with the 26th and 40th battalions on the slopes of Gallipoli. There Tumilty and his fellow cobbers were subjected to a barrage of shellfire, a horror compounded with the general shortage of water and sanitation.
Ultimately, Tumilty was cut down with typhoid fever and was repatriated back to Australia to convalesce for three months.
But by September 1917, Tumilty was again risking life and limb, this time in the mud and slush-filled trenches of France. There he suffered poisoning in a gas attack, but somehow prevailed. He was then confined to duties as a corporal in a supply depot, as hostilities mercifully drew to an end.
After four years and five months of active service, Tumilty made it home to his beloved Launceston. Though he toiled on the Launceston waterfront immediately after the war, the old soldier became a TPI at a relatively tender age.
Regardless, Tumilty was highly-regarded for his capacity to help fellow war veterans who were not well or were having a hard time coping. He was always there to assist war widows and their children in any way he could, whether ensuring they received entitlements owed to them, or helping them with the very basics such as food. He was known to rise from his sick bed to help those in need and he was an active member of the Launceston RSL Club.
Tumilty continued to lend Carlton his support. On more than one occasion, a club official would write to him seeking intelligence on a prospective Tasmanian recruit, which prompted Tumilty to check out the player and report back to Carlton.
In 1922, Tumilty exchanged wedding vows with Alberta Jordan. Together they raised a son, Max, whom they adopted in 1928, two years after his birth. Max died in Hobart in 1989, but not before his father had passed on that passion for all things Navy Blue . . . and today, Max’s four daughters continue to fly the Carlton flag.
Jim Tumilty, a good bloke who had a good word for everyone, and a man who often put the needs of others before his own, died in Launceston on August 28, 1953.
At Carlton, for as long as young men of his ilk continue to traverse the Strait in search of the leather, he will be remembered.
Blueseum Footnote: For a list of all Carlton Tasmanians, click here.