Charles Francis Fincher played just nine games for South Melbourne in 1913, yet his memory is held as close to the heart of the club as any. 

Fincher was a private in the First Australian Imperial Force, the main expenditionary force of the Australian Army during World War I that was formed on 15 August 1914 following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. 

He enlisted on 18 August 1914 in the 5th Battalion (No. 472) and was on the flagship Orvieto when it departed Melbourne in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. 

Like so many others remembered by the AFL family on Anzac Day each year, he did not return.

On 25 April 1915, 103 years ago today, 23-year-old Charlie Fincher is believed to have been the first South Melbourne player killed while serving Australia in the war. 

He was shot by a bullet as he reached the beach at Gallipoli as a member Australian troops looking to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula and open the way for the Black Sea for the Allies navies.

The objective was to capture Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was an ally of Germany during the war.

The ANZAC forces, Fincher among them, had planned a bold strike in the hope of knocking the Ottomans out of the war quickly. But they met fierce resistance from the Ottoman Army, and during an eight-month stalemate more than 40,000 members of the Allied forces were killed.

Among them were 8,709 Australians, including Fincher, who was posthumously awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

His remains were never recovered and he has no known grave, but his name is recorded on the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli, Turkey, at the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and at the War Memorial at Kyneton, Victoria. 

The Lone Pine Memorial, situated in the Lone Pine Cemetery at Anzac, is the main Australian Memorial on Gallipoli.

It is a thick tapering pylon 14.3m high on a square base 12.98m wide.

The Memorial commemorates the 3268 Australians and 456 New Zealanders who have no known grave, and the 960 Australians and 252 New Zealanders who were buried at sea, after evacuation through wounds or disease.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed to achieve its military objectives, history remembers proudly how the actions of the Australian and New Zealand troops during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy that has been an important part of the national identity in both countries.

Fincher was the second eldest of nine children (six boys and three girls) of George and Margaret Fincher. He was born in Footscray on 23 January 1892, and grew up with his family in Lauriston, near Kyneton.

According to football folklore, he was an exceptionally talented young footballer, playing in the Lauriston senior team at 15.

In 1911 he played the first of his two seasons with the Ballarat club Scarsdale, and in 1912 he represented the Ballarat League in matches against Geelong, a combined Broken Hill side, and a combined VFL team.

His form in the representative matches saw him invited to train at South Melbourne, and he was granted a clearance to the Swans on 25 April 2013 – two years to the day before his death.

A slightly built 170cm and 68kg rover, he became player #245 on the all-time Swans list when he debuted in Round 1, 1913 against St Kilda at Lake Oval. He reportedly played well, kicking a goal in a nine-point win.

Among four other South debutants that day were Stan Hiskins, a 66-gamer who is believed to have been the first South player to enlist for World War 1 duties, and Arthur Rademacher, who went on to play 101 games for the club and was a member of the 1918 grand final team before serving as Hawthorn captain-coach in the old VFA (now the VFL).

Harvey “Duff” Kelly, a nine-game South player in 1902 and a premiership player at Carlton in 1907-08, coached South for the first time on the same day as Bruce Sloss played his 50th game and Joe Prince, formerly of St Kilda, played his 50th game for the Swans.

Sloss, too, would lose his life at war in 1917.

Fincher played Rounds 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13 for six wins and a draw.

In Round 8 against University at the MCG he played alongside first-gamer Jack Freeman, who was also killed in the war, and in Round 13, in what turned out to be his last game for the club, he shared the 100th game celebrations of Arthur Hiskins, brother of Stan and a 1909 premiership player who was captain-coach of the club in 1920, and a VFL goal umpire from 1930-33.

From Round 13 on Fincher watched as South finished the home-and-away season second on the ladder with a 14-1-3 record before being eliminated by St Kilda in the semi-final. In 1914 he transferred to play with Essendon Town, also known as Essendon A, in the old VFA.

At the time of his enlistment on 18 August 1914 Fincher was living in Albert Park and employed as an engine-driver with the Metropolitan Gas Company.

He embarked from Melbourne on the HMAT Orvieto on 21 October 1914, bound for Egypt and the Dardanelles. Midway across the Indian Ocean their ship encountered, and took on board, survivors from the German raider, the SMS Emden, that had been defeated by HMAS Sydney.

As his aunt Valerie Anderson recounted in a story about Fincher for Victoria’s Anzac Centenery website, he befriended the rescued sailors and in return was given some German coins which he later sent home to his family.

Each year for many years after his death his parents inserted ‘In Memoriam’ notices in the Kyneton Guardian in remembrance of their beloved son.

Two of his brothers, Lieutenant George Fincher and Lieutenant James Fincher, also served in the First AIF, returning to Australia in 1919.

Another brother, John Fincher, played 97 VFL games with Richmond and Footscray from 1927-33, including Richmond’s  losing grand final side in 1928 and 1929, before serving with the RAAF in World War II.

Fincher is one of 20 Swans players known to have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and who remain in the hearts and thoughts of the club forever.

World War I

Norm Bradford
Rank: Corporal, 23rd Battalion, First A.I.F
Date of Death: 4 August, 1916
Location: Pozieres, France

Hughie Callan
Private, 14th Battalion, First A.I.F.
5 February, 1917
Bapaume, France           

Fred Fielding
Private, 28th Battalion, First A.I.F.
8 August, 1918
Villers-Bretonneux, France

Charlie Fincher
Private, 5th Battalion, First A.I.F.
25 April, 1915
Gallipoli, Turkey

Jack Freeman
Sapper, 2nd Field Company, Australian Engineers, First A.I.F.
15 November, 1916
Flers, France

Ed Harrison
Sergeant, 24th Battalion, First A.I.F.
13 March, 1917
Étaples, France

Harold Rippon
Private, 2nd Pioneer Battalion
16 January, 1917
France

Bruce Sloss
Lieutenant, 10th Machine Gun Company, First A.I.F.
4 January, 1917
Armentières, France

Claude Thomas
Private, 14th Battalion, First A.I.F.
5 July, 1918
Hamel, France

Jack Turnbull
Private, 39th Battalion, First A.I.F.
2 May, 1917
Western Front, France

World War II

Jeff Grieve
Flight Sergeant, R.A.A.F
8 November, 1944
Glen Shee, Scotland

Gordon Hamilton
Seaman, HMAS Cerberus, R.A.N.
23 February, 1941
Chelsea, Victoria

Alf Hedge
Pilot Officer, 78 Squadron, R.A.A.F.
4 May, 1942/
Hamburg, Germany

Norm Le Brun
Trooper, 2/10th Australian Cavalry
15 November, 1944
Aitapi, New Guinea

Alan Pearsall
Flying Officer, 16 Squadron, R.A.A.F.
8 March, 1944
English Channel

Gordon Sawley
Flying Officer, 19 Operational Training Unit, R.A.A.F.
14 August, 1942
Scotland

Jack Shelton
Lieutenant, 2/21st Battalion, Second A.I.F.
1 May, 1941
Libya

Len A. Smith
N/A
29 July, 1943
OAS Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria

Len Thomas
Private, 2/3rd Independent Company, Second A.I.F.
17 August, 1943
Salamaua, New Guinea

Jack Wade
Private, 2/27th Battalion, Second A.I.F.
11 June, 1941
Syria

Lest We Forget.