Garry Hemingway
John Garry Hemingway was an English rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s. He played representative level rugby union for Yorkshire and Sheffield and South Yorkshire, and at club level Old Thornensians RUFC, as a wing, and club level rugby league for Leeds, as a.
Background
Garry Hemingway was born in Thorne, Doncaster. He was a pupil at Thorne Grammar School and the English Schools' Athletics Championships long jump champion two years in succession, in 1951 and 1952. He undertook his national service in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1953, including at RAF Cosford, Shropshire. He became a Physical Training Instructor and in 1954, worked as a temporary teacher at Thorne Secondary Modern School and the Stainforth Secondary Modern School.In 1955, Hemingway began a 3-year Diploma of Education Teacher Training course at Cheltenham Training College at Francis Close Hall, St. Pauls, Cheltenham, where he was the college rugby union team's top try-scorer. After 2-years he left the college with Certificate of Education to pursue a professional rugby league career with Leeds. He became a French language and physical education teacher at Kirkstall County Secondary School in Leeds from the 1950s to the 1980s where he taught, amongst others, the future rugby league footballer; John Holmes. In the late-1960s, he coached Yorkshire Schoolboys rugby league team with George Cranage.
Hemingway retired to near Grange-over-Sands close to the Lake District with his wife Shirley. He died aged 69 in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; his funeral took place in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England.