About Us
Light Blues Association and its formation
What are the Light Blues?
Henry Gordon (Abe) Munro and Harold Service CBE conceived the idea of forming an
Association of former players, officials and supporters of the Otago University
Rugby Club to foster interest in rugby at the University of Otago and in the Club.
Formal constitution was completed at a meeting on 13 April 1960, duly called by
public notice inserted by Abe in the Otago Daily Times. The Silver Jubilee was held
last year.
"A"Team Photos
Its first major project was the collection of premier A team photographs from 1886.
This Herculean undertaking took Abe and Harold 20 years to complete. Photographs
were gifted or loaned for copying. Harold then raised special funds for a cabinet
to house them and the Association presented the housed collection to the then President
of the Club, Hugh Tohill, on opening night, 25 March 1983.
Subscriptions
Fund-raising for the OURFC has never been an objective of the Association; consequently
solely to meet printing, postage etc., the annual subscriptions have been kept at
nominal (some members consider ridiculously low) figures. They began at one guinea
(10 guineas Life Subscription) and are now only $10 per annum, or $100 Life Subscription.
Nevertheless, the Association has been able to support the Club over the years with
grants to enable travel to matches such as versus Canterbury and Lincoln Universities,
gear, first aid equipment, scrum machines, after-match meals, lighting at the Oval
and so on.
The Association played a large part in arranging celebrations to mark the Club's
75th year, honoured in 1961, the centennial marked in 1986, and the 125th
jubilee held in 2009, even though the Club was actually formed in 1884! Of major
importance was the saving of the Grandstand from destruction by an outrageous OUSA
executive in the 1970s and then the key fund-raising for the Arnold Perry Room in
1977, the Club’s first and only previous home, underneath the Grandstand. It has
been the dominant entity in the ongoing appeal for the new Clubrooms, beginning
in 2004.
Two of us are appointed Trustees of the OU Rugby Foundation, which was founded in
1989 to establish a firm financial basis for the future development of the Club,
excluding its regular running expenses. The capital of that fund now exceeds $145,000.
And the Foundation is the vehicle for the current Clubrooms appeal, by virtue of
its charitable status, with consequential tax donee status.
Social Functions
A lively spirit is engendered in the Light Blues by social functions held in Dunedin,
with dinners before Test Matches being the catalyst for bringing members together.
Membership keeps keeping past players and supporters informed about Club activity
over the past year and helps members keep in touch with one another.
Co-founders of the Light Blues
A word or two on the co-founders, both becoming Life Members: Abe Munro, founding
President, was the Engineer at Cadburys. He was an All Black in 1924, a hooker with
the "Invincibles" tour of Great Britain 1924-25 and played 8 games for
Otago. Abe played for the Club 1922-1925 and was Vice-Captain of the combined Australasian
University team, while on a NZU tour of Australia in 1923, playing in Sydney. He
as Club Captain in 1926 and 1927, coached the A's 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941 and
1946 and was Club President in 1949. He was also an NZU selector. Abe served on
the ORFU for 22 years between 1940 and 1962, being ORFU President in 1949 and 1950.
Abe studied at Canterbury University College and played for Canterbury before coming
to Dunedin. He died in 1974 and is buried in Alexandra.
Harold Service played for the Club between 1930 and 1933 and also played 8 games
for Otago. Harold coached the A's in 1959 and 1960, was Club captain 1961 and
1962, President in 1967. He served on ORFU Management Committee 1963-67; was Vice-
President 1977-79 and President of the ORFU 1979-80. Harold had an unbroken record
of 31 continuous years on the Light Blues committee and held almost every position.
A fine student, Harold graduated MSc, 1933 and BE in 1934. He was awarded the Stuart
Prize, Turnbull Thomson Memorial Scholarship - Surveying, Ulrich Scholarship in
Arts, and the coveted 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship.
Harold worked as a geologist in Malaya and became a prisoner of war of the Japanese.
He found it impossible to forgive the Japanese in view of the treatment he received
and he could not billet any Japanese rugby player. A great man, full of humour and
meticulous in everything he took on. Harold died in 1993 and was cremated. I was
a pall bearer, the only non-family member. I still have the unfinished bottle of
his favorite Wilson's whisky which I always kept at home especially for him.
Hugh Tohill
17 April 2011