BIO

An attacking player from Prince Alfred College, Stanley Rhodes showed early promise with Norwood before moving to Western Australia, where he represented South Fremantle and West Perth.  

Stanley was born at Norwood on 23 June 1879.  He made the best players when Princes defeated St Peter’s by a goal, 6.8 to 5.8, in the 1895 intercoll.

He came to the fore for Norwood at Adelaide Oval on 4 August 1900 when stalwarts Bill Plunkett and Jim Gosse were unable to play against South Adelaide because of illness.  Norwood finished strongly but hit the post three times and went down by 10 points. The South Australian Register said: “Rhodes showed the skill which earned him his outside reputation, and nothing finer was seen than when on two occasions he struggled with two opponents and beat them.”


Stanley Rhodes was a grandson of William Rhodes who, with his brother Thomas, established the leading Adelaide firm of W&T Rhodes, wholesale and retail ironmongers.
 
In 1901, Stanley moved to Perth, where he was employed by the WA Government Railways, initially as a hall porter and chainman but from 1910 as sunprinter and photographer.

As a racehorse owner, he achieved a fair measure of success with Golden Bond, Mymeta and Sir Bodley.

He was just 55 when he died in hospital in Perth on 24 June, 1934, a week after he was struck by a locomotive near his home in Rivervale. He was survived by his widow and two sons.


* For our picture we thank Jeff Austin of Rail Heritage WA.

C Lane March 2018, P Robins Oct 2022