{{short description|Australian rules footballer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}} {{Infobox AFL biography | name = Arch Corbett | image = | fullname = Archibald Gladstone Corbett | birth_date = {{birth date|1883|10|18|df=y}} | birth_place = Fitzroy, Victoria | death_date = {{death date and age|1920|6|25|1883|10|18|df=y}} | death_place = near Toulon, France | originalteam = Wesley College | height = | weight = | position = | statsend = 1913 | years1 = 1912–1913 | club1 = {{AFL Uni}} | games_goals1 = 7 (0) | careerhighlights = }}
'''Archibald Gladstone Corbett''' (18 October 1883 – 25 June 1920) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the University Football Club in the Victorian Football League.
==Family== The son of Charles William Corbett (1852–1915),<ref>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154929064 Deaths: Corbett, ''The Age'', (Wednesday, 27 January 1915), p.1.]</ref> and Emma Corbett (1851–1897), née Foyle,<ref>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197933866 Marriages: Corbett—Foyle, ''The Leader'', (Saturday, 16 October 1875), p.23.]</ref><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9190359 Deaths: Corbett, ''The Argus'', (Tuesday, 1 June 1897), p.1.]</ref> Archibald Gladstone Corbett was born on 18 August 1883.
He was lost overboard on 25 June 1920 while travelling back to Australia following his service in the First AIF.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4595055 Deaths: Corbett, ''The Argus'', (Tuesday, 20 July 1920, p.1.]</ref>
==Education== He attended Wesley College, Melbourne; and, on leaving school, he worked with his older brother, Charles William Corbett (1876–1947), for the Australian Mutual Provident Society for ten years. [[File:Melbourne University's Inter-Varsity Team (Adelaide 1914).tiff|thumb|350px|Melbourne University's's football team for the annual (inter-varsity) match against University of Adelaide, played in Adelaide on 12 August 1914 (Corbett is at the far left of second row).]] At the age of 28, he enrolled in medicine at University of Melbourne, and entered Ormond College, graduating Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) in September 1917.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1650102 University Graduates: Presentation of Degrees, ''The Argus'', (Tuesday, 18 September 1917), p.4.]</ref><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/219835284 About People, ''The Bendigo Independent'', (Friday, 23 November 1917), p.4.]</ref>
==Football== While at Ormond, he was a prominent footballer. He played with the university's team in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association; and, as well, he played seven senior games with the university's team in the VFL competition: four games in 1912 (rounds 5, 6, 7, and 8), and three games in 1913 (rounds 2, 15, and 17).
He was a member of the university's inter-state team in 1914;<ref>Inter-University Match: To be Played Today, ''The (Adelaide) Advertiser'', (Monday, 12 August 1912), [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5322633/952822 pp.13], [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5322633/952823 14.]</ref><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5322970 Football: Inter-University Match: Won by Melbourne, ''The (Adelaide) Advertiser'', (Monday, 12 August 1912), p.13.]</ref> and was awarded a blue for football.<ref>Roll of the Fallen, 1926, p.9.</ref>
==Rowing== He was also an oarsman.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/142992892 'Old Boy', "College Sports: Boat Race Memories", ''The Australasian'', (Saturday, 20 May 1916), p.21.]</ref><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/211912476 Personal, ''The Ballarat Star'', (Saturday, 17 July 1920), p.1.]</ref>
==Military== Enlisting in the First A.I.F. immediately on graduating, at the age of 34, he served as a medical officer during World War I with the Australian Army Medical Corps (A.A.M.C.), and remained in England after the war to work in London hospitals.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1473976 Personal, ''The Argus'', (Saturday, 31 May 1919), p.18.]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Holmesby|first=Russell|last2=Main|first2=Jim|title=The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers| publisher=BAS Publishing|year=2007|isbn=9781920910785}}</ref>
==Death== He died at sea in 1920 after "disappearing" from his cabin on the night of 25/26 June 1920 – he was last seen around 12:30 in the early morning of 26 June 1920, near the coast of Toulon – while returning to Australia from England on the RMS Orontes.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79411036 |title=Mainly About People. |newspaper=The Daily News |location=Perth |date=27 July 1920 |accessdate=20 May 2015 |page=3|edition=Third |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
According to the documents contained within his Service Record, and a search of the ship revealed that no trace of him was found. On the basis of the evidence given to the military Court of Inquiry conducted on 26 June 1920 – by five witnesses, two of whom had known him at Melbourne University – combined with the contents of a note left at the head of his bed,<ref>"Have had insomnia for over six weeks past. For past two veronal has been used but is now having no effect. Can only see myself going mad which is intolerable so better to go overboard. The depression is unbearable. Corbett."</ref> the concluded three things: :: (a) he had been seen, alive and in person, on the vessel on the previous evening; :: (b) a thorough search had revealed that he was no longer on the vessel, :: (c) that he was dead, and '''nothing else'''.
Documents contained within his Service Record (p. 60) show that the Officer-in-Charge of Base Records of the Defence Department, one Major J. M. Lean, as part of the routine bureaucratic process, submitted the following (on 6 August 1920) to his superiors: ::"The evidence discloses that Captain A.G. Corbett, A.A.M.C., disappeared from the transport "Orontes" on the night of the 25th./26th. June 1920, when that vessel was at sea, 130 miles from Toulon, France, so he can only reasonably be presumed to have thrown himself overboard —this is borne out by the letter he left before disappearing – and is dead.<br>Recommend that he be recorded as "drowned at sea – suicide".
The superior officer to whom Major Lean's (idiosyncratic and unsubstantiated by any of the documentary evidence) version of the Court's findings were referred was Brigadier General Cecil Henry Foott, the Deputy Adjutant General. Foott approved the findings, with the single, hand-written ''proviso'' that Corbett's death was "'''to be recorded as drowned at sea'''", dated 12 August 1920 (at p. 60; and at p. 92 "suicide" has been crossed out, with the annotation "Deleted D.A.G. ruling").<ref>Note the complete omission of any reference to "'''suicide'''"; however, and despite this, the War Memorial's Honour Roll, rather than either "lost at sea" or "drowned at sea", continues to unjustly and inexplicably record his "Cause of Death" as "suicide".</ref><ref>Within any bureaucratic process, it doesn't matter who ''recommends'' '''which'''. The only thing that matters is '''what''' is finally ''approved''. In the case of Corbett, it is unequivocally clear from the notation placed upon the Instructions – by the superior officer (to whom the inquiry's "findings" were submitted) – as to the actual wording of the way in which his death was to be officially recorded. Further, it is significant that this specific wording was "confirmed by C. H. Foott, Brigadier General, Deputy Adjutant General": namely, "'''adjudged to have been drowned at sea'''" (p.26; p.37). N.B. no mention of "suicide".</ref>
==See also== * List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service
==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{Commons category}} * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/16457654 Third Year Medicals at the Melbourne University, ''(Melbourne) Punch'', (Thursday, 20 May 1915), p.19.] * {{cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1713486/|title=Roll of Honour: Archibald Gladstone Corbett|publisher=Australian War Memorial|accessdate=20 May 2015}} * [https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ViewPDF.aspx?B=3418728&D=D World War I Service Record: Captain Archibald Gladstone Corbett, ''National Archives of Australia''.] * [http://cdm16403.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15336cdi/id/1681/filename/1682.pdf#toolbar=1&navpanes=1 Obituary: Captain Archibald Gladstone Corbett (1898), ''Wesley College Chronicle'', No.159 (August 1920), p.14.] * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/242316966 Personal: Doctor Lost Overboard, ''The Herald'', (Friday, 16 July 1920), p.1.] * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146690801 Ladies' Letter, ''Table Talk'', (Thursday, 22 July 1920), p.28.] * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/222552939 Obituary, ''The Weekly Times'', (Saturday, 24 July 1920), p.30.] * [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=uc1.%24b744566;orient=0;size=100;seq=41;num=xxxvii;attachment=0 Roll of the Fallen: Corbett, Archibald Gladstone. 1911, ''The University of Melbourne Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers, and Servants in the European War, 1914—1918'', The University of Melbourne, (Parkville), 1926, p.9.]
==External links== * {{AFL Tables|ref=A/Arch_Corbett.html}} * {{AustralianFootball|ref=arch%2Bcorbett/3066}} * [http://www.wesleycollege.net/Our-Community/Archives-and-Collections/Roll-of-Honour/Cpt-Archibald-Gladstone-Corbett.aspx Wesley College Roll of Honour: Captain Archibald Gladstone Corbett.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbett, Arch}} Category:1883 births Category:1920 deaths Category:Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Category:University Football Club players Category:People educated at Wesley College (Victoria) Category:University of Melbourne alumni Category:Australian military personnel of World War I Category:Australian military doctors Category:People lost at sea Category:Deaths by drowning in France Category:People from Fitzroy, Victoria Category:Military personnel from Melbourne