Roy Le Messurier
Alfred Roy Le Messurier, generally known as Roy or A. Roy Le Messurier, was an Australian rules footballer and businessman in the exotic timber trade. The family name was often styled LeMessurier.
The eldest surviving son of Alfred Le Messurier, and Jane Sinclair Le Messurier, née Neill, Alfred Roy Le Messurier was born at Semaphore, South Australia on 19 February 1886.
He was educated at Semaphore Collegiate School and at St Peter's College.
Employment
At age 16, Roy entered his father's shipping agency, A. & E. Le Messurier, where he specialized in importing timber from Tasmania for local furniture-makers, and developed it into a significant enterprise. He became chairman of directors and also managing director of Gunnersen, Le Messurier Ltd.His directorships included S.A. Gas Company, Quarry Industries Ltd, and Cowell Brothers & Co. Ltd.
He was a member of the Royal Adelaide and Mount Lofty Golf Clubs.
Football
He played for Port Adelaide before the family moved to North Adelaide in 1908, and he qualified for the North Adelaide team under the electorate system. He played at North Adelaide from 1908–09 and 1910–13, playing 46 games and kicking 4 goals.He played for South Australia at the 1908 Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival held in Melbourne.
His younger brother, Frederick Neill Le Messurier, also played for North Adelaide from 1908–10 and 1913–14.
He later re-joined Port Adelaide as a committeeman.
Family
Le Messurier married Margaret Galway Saunders, at Semaphore, on 17 April 1912. Margaret was a daughter of William Henry Saunders, town clerk of Port Adelaide and brother of A. T. Saunders.They had three sons, and were living at 14 Martin Avenue, Fitzroy, in 1928 when his wife sought a review of the allowance he had settled on her and their children.
Le Messurier and his wife toured Europe and America in 1929.
Their sons: Peter Le Messurier, Lindsay Le Messurier, and Richard Ward "Dick" Le Messurier were, for much of the 20th-century, South Australia's major importer and exporter of timber.
They had a sizeable stake in Softwood Holdings and Timber Holdings for which, in 1987, they accepted a cash offer from CSR Limited.