 Farrell in 1943 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Francis Michael Farrell[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1917-09-16)16 September 1917 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 23 April 1985(1985-04-23) (aged 67) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Front row forward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coaching information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Jack Elsegood (grandson) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Francis Michael "Bumper" Farrell (16 September 1917 – 23 April 1985) was an Australian premiership winning andinternational representativerugby league footballer. Aprop forward, his long club career with theNewtown Bluebags was from 1938 to 1951 with four Test appearances for theAustralian national side between 1946 and 1948.
Farrell also served as a policeman in the New South Wales force; where he earned a divisive reputation as a detective in the Vice Squad.
Farrell was the great-grandson of Irish convict Patrick Farrell, who was transported to Sydney in 1837 for stealing a pig.[citation needed] His father, Sydney-born Reginald Francis Farrell (1889–1983), was a jeweller, while his mother, Scottish-born Margaret Theresa Wynne (1886–1977) was an ironing lady.[citation needed] His parents were married in 1913.[citation needed] Frank, their second child, was born at St. Margaret's Hospital inSurry Hills, an inner suburb of Sydney.[citation needed] He was brought up inRedfern,Tempe,Arncliffe andMarrickville. Frank was educated at Patrician Brothers' school, Redfern andMarist College Kogarah,[1] and remained a committed Roman Catholic throughout his life.[citation needed]
Frank Farrell married Phyllis Dorothy Read (1912–1981) on 11 November 1944 and the couple had two sons and two daughters.[3]
Farrell was a rugby league footballer with a long sporting career.
Graded in 1936, he made his début for the Newtown Rugby League Football Club's first-grade team in the1938 NSWRFL season.[1] He played his entireNew South Wales Rugby Football League premiership career of over 250 games with theNewtown club. He made hisstate representative debut for New South Wales againstQueensland in 1939 and went on to play thirteen career matches for his state. He became captain of the club in 1942, leading them to victory in the1943 NSWRFL season Premiership Final againstNorth Sydney. One of Farrell's closest and lifelong friends,Frank Hyde, was his opposing captain that day.
Farrell was captain in1944 when Newtown finished the regular season on top of the table. Decimated by injuries and the active-duty call up of servicemenLen Smith andHerb Narvo who had starred for them all season the Bluebags were beaten byBalmain 16–19 in a Final. Newtown exercised their "right of challenge" as minor premiers and called for aGrand final in which Farrell led the side. Balmain again prevailed in a low scoring match when their representative centreJoe Jorgenson kicked two late penalty goals to give the Tigers a 12–8 win.[4] In a famous incident during a game on 28 July 1945, he was accused of biting off a portion ofSt. George playerBill McRitchie's ear during a match atHenson Park. He formally denied the allegation at the time. It took seven months for theNew South Wales Rugby League judiciary to finalise their inquiry and Farrell was found not guilty.[5][6]
After the war, he made his international representative debut for Australia in the 1946 Test series against theGreat Britain Lions, becoming Kangaroo No. 223.[7] He played in all three matches of the series. It was a violent era and every team had three or four 'enforcers'. Greg Ellis, who was the Newtown ball boy in Bumper's day, said he only ever saw two blokes get the better of him.[citation needed] One wasGeorge Jardine, of St. George, and the other was the enormous British propFrank Whitcombe. During the brutal exchanges in the first test Bumper was'King Hit' by Whitcombe when the unfortunate St John's ambulanceman ran on to treat him, a still groggy Farrell lashed out at him mistaking him for Whitcombe.[citation needed]
Farrell made another Test appearance againstNew Zealand in 1948.[8] Farrell was captain-coach of the Newtown club from 1946 to 1951 and in that six-year period the club made the finals on four occasions. He retired in 1951 and was at that time the first Sydney top-grade player with 250 grade games for his club. He remains today[when?] the only player to top 200 first-grade appearances for Newtown.[citation needed] He later served a long term as President of theNewtown Jets.[9] Former Mayor of Newtown Joe Bugler described him as the "greatest man God ever put breath into".[citation needed]
While playing football, Farrell was employed in theNew South Wales Police Force in a career that lasted from 1938 to 1976.[3]
He was a sergeant of the 21st Division Darlinghurst (Kings Cross) police station in Sydney and a member of the Vice Squad. His highest rank was Inspector 1st Class.
Farrell was known to harass and intimidate local business people and residents, particularly anyone considered "bohemian."[10][11][12]
Residents of Darlinghurst at the time recall,
"Some of the gambling dives were chockablock with thuggish cops, like Bumper Farrell, whose reputation for turncoat behaviour was legendary. Farrell hunted vagrants (and anyone he didn't like the look of, myself included) to boost the score of arrests at Paddington Police Station, while turning a blind eye to grander villainy".[13][14]
"The Darlinghurst police back in those days with Bumper Farrell, they weren't very nice. They'd put you in a steel-built cabinet and rock you round the room. Then they'd get you out and throw you on the ground and get telephone books and jump on top of the phone books. But they'd never leave a mark". Debra Deveraux, George Negus Tonight, ABC, 2004.[15]
In the 1950s[when?] Melbourne newspaperTruth ran the headline "Sex Chocolates: Anna Hoffmann Strikes Again." Anna Hoffman was an alleged sex worker, who allegedly spiked Farrell's food with marijuana during a tryst with him, whilst recording the event with equipment placed under her bed.[16]Hoffman had also previously threatened to expose details of corruption within the Darlinghurst police force. She was allegedly deported.[citation needed]
Bill Jenkings, a well-known Australian writer and newspaper reporter, who knew Farrell personally, disputed Farrell's alleged involvement in corrupt activities. Writing in his biographyAs Crime Goes By.. (Ironbark Press, 1992), Jenkings stated that Farrell would constantly harass "the Queens of Sydney's underworld,"Tilly Devine andKate Leigh, writing that "he'd run them in every chance that he got."[citation needed]
A biography calledBumper: The Life and Times of Frank Bumper Farrell (2011), by author Larry Writer, states "[Farrell] enforced law the 'Bumper' way, with his fists and boots, and by his own moral code, which while terribly politically incorrect, was certainly effective. He was the toughest, roughest street cop that Australia has ever seen."[17] Farrell retired, and was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for Distinguished Service on 1 January 1976.
Frank Farrell died suddenly of a heart attack at his home on 23 April 1985.[citation needed] His funeral service was attended by many police and football colleagues and was widely reported in the national media. He was later buried atMona Vale Cemetery on 3 May 1985. Frank Farrell was survived by his four children and many grandchildren.[citation needed]
Farrell's grandsonJack Elsegood became a prominentrugby league footballer as well.
In 2008, Rugby League's centenary year in Australia, Farrell was named at prop forward in both theNSW Police andNewtown Jets Teams of the Century. He was named captain in the Newtown Team.
Farrell's name was immortalised in Farrell Avenue,Darlinghurst. He was also mentioned by Sydney folk punk rockers The Rumjacks[18][circular reference] in their song "Sober and Godless." In the song, from the album of the same name, the singer recounts how "I could dead-lift a barrel, / Flog the arse off 'Bumper' Farrell..."
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