BIO

Fred Terrell and his younger brother Arthur came from the defunct Woodville Football Club and quickly proved their worth as foundation Norwood players. Fred participated in Norwood’s first four premierships. A strong backman who according to one commentator ‘defends goal like a tiger defending her young’, he was also an excellent mark and fine drop-kick who performed well throughout the club’s first season and appeared in all 12 matches.

Fred was born in 1858 in the Talunga region of South Australia, near Gumeracha, the second son of  John Beaton Terrell and his wife Mary, who was a sister of prominent colonial grain merchant and ship-owner William Cave. Fred had seven siblings, Thomas, Wiilliam, Arthur, Ernest, Walter, Hannah and Ruth.

Fred played with Woodville from 1875 to 1877, often with his brothers Tom, William and Arthur.  He kicked the winning goal in a match against Adelaide in 1875.  He served on the Woodville FC committee in 1977 and the Norwood FC committee in 1880.  Fred, William and Arthur were members of a Norwood team which played a bunch of theatricals in a fun match in 1879.  Fred also played matches in Melbourne with the Norwood touring team in 1880.

Fred was late starting the 1881 season and dropped out of football after that.  The following Wanted to Sell advertisement appeared in The Express & Telegraph on 19 February 1889: BEES. – 14 Colonies (Landstroth Hives), Honey Extractor, Sections, Lathe, Backgeared, Slide-rest, Fretsaw attachment.  – J. F. Terrell, Medindie.

Fred Terrell, 31,  died nine days later, at Medindie on 1 March 1889.   He was one of three Norwood  figures whose untimely deaths were noted with deep regret at the club’s annual general meeting at the International Hotel on 7 March 1889, the others being 1887 premiership player George Mugg, 20, and delegate to the SA Football Association, Montague Rowe, 30

Fred and Arthur Terrell were elected to Norwood life membership

Reference: Whimpress, B  1878; Norwood’s first year, by B Whimpress, research by M Coligan.  Norwood Football Club History Group, 2013 p 89

P Robins, D Cox Sept 2020