Stanley McKenzie


Matthew Stanley McKenzie was an Australian first-class cricketer and Australian rules footballer.

Family

The son of Henry McKenzie, and Jane Danks McKenzie, née Young, Matthew Stanley McKenzie was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 17 May 1890.
His brother, George Frank McKenzie, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1915.

Education

He was educated at Scotch College, Launceston.

Cricket

A right-handed opening batsman, he played five first-class matches for Tasmania between 1910 and 1913.

Football

McKenzie was also an accomplished footballer, and he represented Tasmania at the 1911 Adelaide Carnival. He played club football for Launceston in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association in the early 1910s. He was part of the team which forfeited the 1913 Tasmanian State Premiership match, and he along with team-mates were consequently issued amateur sports suspensions by the Tasmanian Football League, which became a major off-field dispute between Northern Tasmania and Southern Tasmania in the months that followed. In the fall-out, when McKenzie was selected by the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association to play for the North XI in an intrastate cricket match against the South XI team in December 1913, the South called off the match.
He moved to Victoria at the start of 1914, and joined both the Carlton Football Club and the Carlton Cricket Club. His senior VFL career with Carlton did not begin until June 1914, when the dispute in Tasmania had ended and his suspension was lifted. He played 14 VFL games for the year, including a Preliminary Final, but he was omitted from the winning 1914 Grand Final team on form. McKenzie's final game for Carlton was in the 1914 Championship of Australia match against.

Military service

McKenzie enlisted with the First AIF as a medical orderly. He was a Sergeant with the 1st Australian Clearing Hospital, First A.I.F., and spent some time at Gallipoli before being moved to Alexandria in Egypt.

Death

He died of appendicitis on the hospital ship HMHS Gloucester Castle, in Alexandria Harbour, Egypt, on 8 December 1915, and was buried at the Alexandria Military Cemetery.

Footnotes