Alfred St. George Hamersley

Alfred St. George Hamersley

Full name	Alfred St. George Hamersley
Date of birth	(1848-10-08)8 October 1848
Place of birth	Great Haseley, Oxfordshire
Date of death	25 February 1929(1929-02-25) (aged 80)
Place of death	Bournemouth
School	Marlborough College
Occupation(s)	Solicitor/Barrister
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Forward
Professional / senior clubs Years Club / team Caps (points) to 1874 1877 to 1888 1888 to 1907 Marlborough Nomads South Canterbury Football Club Vancouver RFC
National team(s) Years Club / team Caps (points) 1871-1874 England 4 (1 try)

Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
to 1874 1877 to 1888 1888 to 1907	Marlborough Nomads South Canterbury Football Club Vancouver RFC

National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1871-1874	England	4	(1 try)

Alfred St. George Hamersley (8 October 1848 – 25 February 1929) was a nineteenth-century solicitor and entrepreneur of great renown, an English MP, and an English rugby union international who played in the first ever international match. He went on to captain his country's team, and later was instrumental in establishing the sport in the south of New Zealand and in British Columbia.

Alfred St. George Hamersley was born in Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, the son of Hugh Hamersley JP, DL (1813–1884) and Mary Anne Phillpa Edwards (d. 1877). Initially living at Haseley House, Great Haseley, he moved to Church Manor House, Pyrton, Oxford prior to 1861 where his father had inherited the manor that had been in the family since 1781. Alfred was not to inherit the manor. Rather, it passed to his younger brother Edward Samuel in 1884 at which time Alfred was living in New Zealand. Pyrton manor did not revert to the older line of Alfred, but rather in 1909, Edward's widow gave the manor to the son of her husband's sister, Major Hugh C. C. Ducat, who took the name Ducat Hamersley and whose son, Colonel Hugh Ducat Hamersley, inherited in 1945. In the Pyrton parish church are a number of monuments in the nave mostly to members of the Hamersley family. One of these is a brass tablet, designed by Eric Gill, to Col. Alfred St. George Hamersley, M.P.

Alfred was educated at Marlborough College and at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. After finishing his education moved to London where he became a Barrister-at-law in the Middle Temple in 1872.

In 1874 he emigrated to New Zealand where he married Miss Isabella Snow of Wellington. Here he practiced law for about 15 years in South Canterbury. He also took a particular interest in military matters, taking command a battery of artillery and appointed to a command a contingent at Parihaka on the last outbreak of trouble between Māori and pākehā in the North Island. He is created with introducing the game of rugby to the youth of South Canterbury. He also founded the New Zealand Grand National Steeplechase Club.

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