Albert John Gourlay (31 July 1881 – 1 November 1918) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne and Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He died of wounds sustained in action during World War I.
Family The son of John Ebenezer Gourlay (1853-),The Premier Permanent Building Association, The Argus, (Wednesday, 5 February 1890), p.4.The Premier Permanent Building Association: Meeting of Depositors, The Argus, (Tuesday, 11 February 1890), p.8.The Premier Permanent Building Association, The Argus, (Saturday, 5 April 1890), p.5.The Premier Permanent Building Association: The Charges against the Dorectors, The Argus, (Wednesday, 28 May 1890), p.7.Premier Permanent Building Association: Settling the Contributors: J.E. Gourlay's Name Struck Out, ''The Argus, (Wednesday, 25 March 1891), p.7. and Jessie Bruce Gourlay (1862–1889), née Bell,Marriages: Gourlay—Bell, The Argus, (Saturday, 9 October 1880), p.1.Deaths: Gourlay, The Argus, (Monday, 11 November 1889), p.1. Albert John Gourlay was born at Emerald Hill on 31 July 1881.Births: Gourlay, The Age, (Wednesday, 3 August 1881), p.1.
He married Emma Randle Porteous (c.1871-1954), née Collie,Supreme Court: Divorce Cases, The New Zealand Times, (Friday, 9 December 1904), p.3. in New Zealand, in 1909.
Football Gourlay played his early football at West Melbourne before entering the VFL.Holmesby & Main (2007). He played just three games for Melbourne, in the 1903 VFL season and at the end of the year crossed to Carlton. Playing as a defender, Gourlay made three appearances with Carlton and experienced all possible results, a win, draw and a loss.AFL Tables.
New Zealand He later emigrated to New Zealand, where he got married and worked as a commercial traveller in Wellington.
Military service In 1917 he signed up to serve his adopted country in the war and, in August 1917, travelled on the MMNZT 92 Ruahine,Ruahine, flotilla-australia.com. to the United Kingdom with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Gourlay fought with the 29th Reinforcements of the Wellington Infantry Regiment, B Company, on the front and suffered serious wounds when fighting in some of the final offensives of the war.
Death He died of the wounds he had sustained in action at a military hospital in England just ten days before the ceasefire. He is buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking, Surrey, England.Private Albert John Gourlay (59358), Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
See also List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service
Footnotes
References
World War One Nominal Roll: Private Albert John Gourlay (59358), collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Fallen New Zealanders: Casualty and Hospital Lists, The New Zealand Times, (Wednesday, 6 November 1918), p.7.
External links
Albert J. Gourlay, at The VFA Project. Photograph of Headstone, at Blueseum. Albert Gourlay, at Blueseum. Albert Gourlay, at Demonwiki.