Do you know anyone from the Doherty or Prosser family?
The East Gippsland Family History Group (EGFHG) in Bairnsdale have had a request they have not been able to solve.
Charles Somerville Doherty, better known as Charlie, was born in Lucknow on January 23, 1876, the son of William and Alice (nee Patten) Doherty.
He had five siblings and five half siblings. Charlie died in Bairnsdale on March 5, 1961, when he was 85 years old.
The EGHFHG knows he played football for Ballarat, however he also had a very short career with the Fitzroy Football Club and played two games for the Maroons in May and June 1898 when he was 22 years old.
During those two games, Fitzroy won both games.
Reading between the lines it appears Doherty was a substitute player.
Often team members simply didn’t show up to play, sometimes four or more players would fail to appear and others filled the vacancies.
Doherty’s first game was May 21, 1898, when he replaced Power in the match against St. Kilda.
The game was described as a scramble with Fitzroy winning 7.11 (54) to St Kilda 2.4 (16).
His second (and last) game was three weeks later.
On June 11 three of the Maroons players didn’t show up and Doherty was on the ground in the match against Carlton.
Fitzroy went in hard and was met with resistance but was victorious 5.7 (37) to Carlton 4.9 (33). Doherty didn’t play another game again.
Charlie was in Melbourne up until 1914 and in 1915 he married Catherine Bozie Prosser and the couple moved to Bairnsdale.
In 1883, Ms Prosser (Charlie’s mother in law) was the postmistress at Paynesville until her daughter Kate took over from her about 1910 becoming the postmistress.
Upon Kate’s marriage to Charlie, he then became the postmaster at Paynesville for the next 30 years. Charlie and Kate were also very involved in the community at Paynesville.
It is Charlie’s short career at Fitzroy that has spurred the search for a photograph of Charlie.
The museum at Marvel Stadium, who are the custodians of all things football, are trying to complete their records and are seeking a photographs of every player involved in the AFL.
Even though Charlie only played two games they would dearly love to have a photograph of Charlie Doherty at any age.
If your family is related to the Doherty or Prosser family (who are both connected to Charlie Doherty) the EGFHG would be grateful if you searched your family photographs for any photograph of Charlie and contact the group in Morgan Street.
