Dick Wardill
Richard Cameron Wardill was an Australian rules footballer and coach who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League.
Family
The son of Richard Wilson Wardill — the brother of Benjamin Johnston Wardill — and Eliza Helena Lovett Wardill, née Cameron, later Mrs. Edward Thomas Tatham, Richard Cameron Wardill was born in Melbourne on 5 July 1872.Marriage
He married Dorothy Elspeth Wilson, at Mosman, New South Wales, on 17 December 1909.They had four children: Elspeth Margaret Wardill, later Mrs. Donald Hastings Bennett, Richard David Wardill, Diana Mary Wardill, later Mrs. Godfrey Robert Donaldson, and Dorothy Wardill.
Father's suicide
Education
He attended Caulfield Grammar School from 1886 to 1888.Football
Melbourne (VFA)
Playing as a ruckman, and recruited from the Alberton Football Club, he played for Melbourne's VFA side for four years.Melbourne (VFL)
He played in 60 matches for Melbourne in the VFL ; and was captain of the team that beat Fitzroy in Melbourne's first ever premiership: the 1900 Grand Final against Fitzroy, at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, on 22 September 1900.One of the best players for Melbourne on the day, Wardill was carried off the ground shoulder-high by his team-mates at the end of the match.
In 1901, when it was thought that he had retired, the eminent footballer, coach, and sports journalist, Jack Worrall, observed that Wardill "was one of the most brilliant exponents the game has seen".
Representative team (VFL)
In June 1900 he was a member of the VFL's representative team that played a match against a combined Ballarat team.Death
He died at Elsternwick after jumping in front of a train on 28 August 1929.Given the circumstances of his father's own suicide, it is significant that the newspaper reports of the time stressed that he was "without any financial or other worry", but "was passing through a period of mental depression" at the time of his suicide.