Ernie Schunke

Ernie Schunke
Personal information
Full name Ernest Wilfred Schunke[1]
Date of birth (1882-10-26)26 October 1882
Place of birth Carlton, Victoria
Date of death 6 November 1922(1922-11-06) (aged 40)
Place of death South Melbourne, Victoria
Original team(s) Carlton Districts
Height 169 cm (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Wing
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1909 Richmond 6 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1909.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Ernest Wilfred Schunke (26 October 1882 – 6 November 1922) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He has the unusual distinction of having been a VFL umpire, before his VFL playing career.[2]

Family

The son of August Henry Schunke (1850–1928),[3] a butcher,[4] and Elizabeth Schunke, née Coleman, Ernest grew up with three siblings, Charles Henry Schunke (1879–1924) who played for Carlton, Edwin James (1887–1974), and Rose Elizabeth Langstreth (1885–1940), née Schunke.[1]

He married Helena Francesca "Nellie" Spackman in 1913. They had two children: Joy and Ivy.[1]

Football

Umpire

Schunke was a boundary umpire for 11 games in the 1904 VFL season.[2] It was the year that the VFL introduced boundary umpires.[5]

Richmond

Recruited by Richmond from Carlton Districts,[6] he played in the final six rounds of the 1909 VFL season.[7]

Death

He was killed almost instantaneously in a work accident at the James Moore and Son's timber yards in South Melbourne on 6 November 1922,[8] when a cutting knife from a shaping machine, which had come loose, flew through the air and struck him just above the heart.[9][10]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c "Family Notices". The Argus. Melbourne. 7 November 1922. p. 1. Retrieved 22 May 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ a b "AFLUA Player umpires: Ernest Schunke". AFLUA. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  3. ^ Deaths: Schunke, The Argus, (Saturday, 3 March 1928), p.17; The Human Interest: Wills and Estates, The Weekly Times, (Saturday, 2 June 1928), p.9.
  4. ^ Judicial and Law Notices (Christiana Dorathea Schunke), The Argus, (Tuesday, 2 April 1895), p.3.
  5. ^ Lovett, Michael (2004). AFL 2004 – The Official Statistical History Of The AFL. AFL Publishing. ISBN 0-9580300-5-7.
  6. ^ Holmesby, Russell; Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia Of AFL Footballers. BAS Publishing. ISBN 9781920910785.
  7. ^ "Ernie Schunke – Games Played". AFL Tables. Retrieved 22 May 2015.
  8. ^ Deaths: Schunke, The Argus, (Tuesday, 7 November 1922), p.1.
  9. ^ A Machine Fatality: Steel Fragment Pierces Workman's Chest, The Age, (Tuesday, 7 November 1922), p.8; Latest News, The Horsham Times, (Tuesday, 7 November 1922), p.5.
  10. ^ Struck to the Heart: Timber Worker Killed by Cutter, The Herald, (Thursday, 23 November 1922), p.4; Timber Mill Fatality: Question of Machine Guards, The Argus, (Friday, 24 November 1922), p.7; Fatality at Timber Works: Steel Cutter Penetrates Man's Body, The Age, (Friday, 24 November 1922), p.11.

References