Robert Barnes Flegg ( – ) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League.
Family The son of William Ernest Flegg (1882–1951),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.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).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.Victorian Amateurs, The Herald, (Saturday, 14 August 1937), p.14.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,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.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.Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (410155), Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
See also List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service
Notes
References Holmesby, Russell & Main, Jim (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. World War Two Nominal Roll: Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (419155), Department of Veterans' Affairs. World War Two Service Record: Warrant Officer Robert Barnes Flegg (419155), National Archives of Australia. R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Missing Air Operations, The Age, (Friday, 4 August 1944), p.5. R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Missing, Believed Killed, Air Operations, The Age, (Friday, 12 March 1945), p.4. R.A.A.F. Casualties: Overseas: Previously Reported Missing, Now Presumed Dead, The Age, (Tuesday, 8 May 1945), p.6.
External links
Robert Barnes Flegg, at The VFA Project.