The History of Sport Played in China's Treaty Ports

In this April 1938 issue of Walla Walla we find an amusing cartoon featuring a certain "Handsome Harry" Havriluk. It will require a litlle more research, but I think that this is most likely Paul Havriluk who was playing rugby for the Marines in Shanghai in this period.

The Walla Walla magazine, this one from January 1938 included comprehensive reports of the rugby matches that the Maribes played in Shanghai.

Almost ten years later, the magazine had developed into a multi paged magazine. This one from my collection was published in January 1938.

No doubt many Marines Rugby stories were told in this Shanghai bar in the 1930s.

In this November 1937 issue of Walla Walla we see three soldiers pictured who are practising for the annual Thanksgiving American Football game played. Two of them, Lieutenant Bruce T Hemphill and Lieutenant Herman Nickerson also played rugby in Shanghai for the Fourth Marines.

The cover of the first issue of Walla Walla in June 1928. In that first issue was a competition to name the magazine.

Background

The US Marines arrived in Shanghai in February 1928 and stayed until November 1941. During that time they published a weekly newspaper, the Walla Walla, that kept the large contingent of American soldiers informed of events in Shanghai and beyond. The first issue was published in June 1928 as a four page bulletin and over the years grew into a large professionally produced magazine, often with full colour covers and more than thirty pages.

The magazine

I have acquired four copies of the magazine on eBay over the years. They present a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Marines in Shanghai in their 14 years. As noted elsewhere in this website (see here) the Marines learned to play rugby in China and became a formidable opposition. The Walla Walla Magazines present a fertile source of information about their rugby playing adventures and details of the rugby players non rugby activities.

I will be shortly visiting the Marines Archives and library in Quantico, Virginia near Washington to look at their complete run of Walla Walla Magazines. Before then, I have chosen a selection of rugby related articles, advertisements and photos to give an overview of what other artifacts I hope to discover...

Visit the Facebook group page SHANGHAI RUGBY HISTORY

Walla Walla, the US Marines weekly Shanghai newspaper

Artifact of the Month Number 16 - June 2015 (for previous artifacts see bottom of page)