Bob Flegg
{{short description|Australian rules footballer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Bob Flegg
| image =
| fullname = Robert Barnes Flegg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1918|8|19|df=y}}
| birth_place = Sandringham, Victoria
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|7|7|1918|8|19|df=y}}
| death_place = over Feuersbrunn, Grafenwörth, Austria
| originalteam = Sandringham
| height = 178 cm
| weight = 77 kg
| position =
| guernsey = 12
| statsend = 1941
| years1 = 1941
| club1 = {{AFL StK}}
| games_goals1 = 18 (47)
| careerhighlights =
}}
Robert Barnes Flegg ({{birth date|1918|8|19|df=y}} – {{Death date|1944|7|7|df=y}}) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League.
Family
The son of William Ernest Flegg (1882–1951),[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244230659 Deaths: Flegg, The Herald, (Monday, 30 July 1951), p.6.] and Grace Pearl Flegg (1886–1967), née Walsh, Robert Barnes Flegg was born at Sandringham, Victoria on 19 August 1918.
He married Leslie Mavis Smith (1919–1965), later Mrs. Clarence Wilbur Henry Harvey, in 1941.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RjNVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9JQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3588%2C5247391 Deaths: Harvey, The Age, (Monday, 30 August 1965), p.14.]
Football
=Ormond (VAFA)=
He played for several seasons with Ormond Amateur Football Club in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA).[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180861326 Flegg (Ormond is Dashing in Amateur F'ball, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 14 May 1938), p.5.] He scored 130 goals in the 1937 season, and won the club's "Best Recruit" award.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244230659 Victorian Amateurs, The Herald, (Saturday, 14 August 1937), p.14.][http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206728728 Amateur Association: Ormond Club Awards, The Age, (Tuesday, 21 September 1937), p.6.]
=Sandringham (VFA)=
Recruited from Ormond, he played for Sandringham First XVIII in the last five home-and-away matches for the 1940 VFA season, and the first three matches of the 1941 season.
=St Kilda=
Cleared from Sandringham on 23 April 1941,[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8185448 Morrison for Footscray: V.F.L. Permits, The Argus, (Thursday, 24 April 1941), p.12.] he played in all eighteen of the 1941 season's home-and-away matches with the St Kilda First XVIII. He was St Kilda's top goal scorer in 1941, with a total of 47 goals for the season (including 7 goals in rounds 2 and 5, 6 goals in round 4, and 5 goals in rounds 3 and 13).
:: "At Ormond, Bob Flegg gained a high reputation as a full-forward. After the Amateur competition was abandoned, Flegg crossed to Sandringham, and this season came to St. Kilda. He seems to have solved their worries about the full-forward position.
Strangely, they were not convinced at St. Kilda, before the season opened, that Flegg could fill the position. However, he has done everything to show them they were mistaken.
The feature of his work is his leading out for passes. Provided St. Kilda can give him the ball as he likes it and make the fullest use of his leading, he will get them a bag of goals. He is second on the goal-kickers' list with 19 goals to Sel Murray's 24." -- The Sporting Globe, 21 May 1941.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180298803 Fine Crop of Full Forwards, The Sporting Globe, (Wednesday, 21 May 1941), p.10.]
Military service
He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II on 5 December 1941.
Death
He was killed when his plane was shot down over Feuersbrunn in the Grafenwörth district of Austria on 7 July 1944.
He was buried at the British War Cemetery at Klagenfurt, in Austria.[https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2805368/ROBERT%20BARNES%20FLEGG Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (410155), Commonwealth War Graves Commission.]
See also
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing.
- [https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=1013664&c=WW2 World War Two Nominal Roll: Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (419155), Department of Veterans' Affairs.]
- [https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=1068053&S=1&T=PDF&D=D World War Two Service Record: Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (419155), National Archives of Australia.]
- [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206003737 R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Missing Air Operations, The Age, (Friday, 4 August 1944), p.5.]
- [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206861701 R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Missing, Believed Killed, Air Operations, The Age, (Friday, 12 March 1945), p.4.]
- [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204025335 R.A.A.F. Casualties: Overseas: Previously Reported Missing, Now Presumed Dead, The Age, (Tuesday, 8 May 1945), p.6.]
External links
- {{AFL Tables|ref=B/Bob_Flegg.html}}
- {{AustralianFootball|ref=Bob%2BFlegg/6730}}
- [http://www.thevfaproject.org/pages/Players/Flegg,_Robert_Barnes.php Robert Barnes Flegg, at The VFA Project.]
{{St Kilda leading goalkickers}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flegg, Bob}}
Category:Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
Category:St Kilda Football Club players
Category:Sandringham Football Club players
Category:Australian military personnel killed in World War II
Category:Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II
Category:Ormond Amateur Football Club players
Category:Australian World War II pilots
Category:Royal Australian Air Force airmen
Category:Military personnel from Melbourne