Fred & Colin Laws Part 1: The family

Notes prepared by Patrick Flynn  for a presentation for the induction of Fred Laws and Colin Laws in to the Allora Regional Sports Museum Hall of Fame at Allora on 25 February 2017

Truth (Brisbane, Qld.: 1900 - 1954), Sunday 17 May 1931, page 5
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206274114

Fred and Colin Laws

Colin in his youth

The Family

Frederick Charles Laws was born on 5 March 1905 and Colin Chamberlain Laws on 9 September 1906 both in Brisbane. They were the seventh and eighth children of Lionel and Louisa Laws. There would be two further children born later to complete the family both of whom were born on the Downs.

Their father Lionel Edgar Laws was born on board ship on the way to Australia from England in 1868. Lionel learnt the trade of bridge carpenter under his father who did this type of work in Queensland, building wharves in Brisbane and railway bridges in Brisbane and in the country.  When Colin was very young his father won a contract to build a bridge across the Condamine at Warwick. After completion of the bridge, Lionel and his older sons engaged in road and bridge work on the Southern Downs.  Fred and Colin’s younger siblings Jack and Thelma were born in Warwick.  Their second oldest brother Richard enlisted in the Army and fought in the First World War. He was killed in France 3 months before the war ended.

In 1916 Lionel Laws was appointed Shire Engineer on the Allora Shire Council.  The family moved to Allora where they would remain for 9 years.  Frank, Fred, Colin and Jack all went to school at the Allora State School.  For Colin, Allora would be home for the rest of his life.  For Fred and the younger half of the family Allora would be a place where they spent most of their formative years. Indeed four of the brothers married Allora girls Lionel Edward to Bessie Holmes, Victor to Norma Holmes, Frank to Marjorie Stay and Colin to Kit O’Neill.

It didn’t take long for Fred and Colin to participate in football success after arriving in Allora but it wasn’t in rugby league. That would come later. They were members of the Allora State School premiership soccer team of 1917. The team consisted of W. J. Burge, H

Slater, H. Spink, L. Holmes. H. Mason, M. Davis, J. Foster, A. Ellis, F. Laws, (captain), H. Sharp, C. Laws

The Laws family were keen on sport. According to Fred and Colin’s brother Frank

Lionel and Richard were both good rifle shots………… They both played Rugby Union in competition at Warwick. (prior to rugby league)…………………… Richard was a very good footballer and a very good racing cyclist both road and track and a fairly good swimmer.

 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82180249 Warwick Examiner and Times (Qld. : 1867 - 1919), Wednesday 12 November 1913, page 2

 Lionel was also a good footballer but he had less time to play sport.

Victor, Frank, Fred, Colin and (Jack) all played football at Allora

Fred and Colin both went to Warwick High School from Allora for about a year- bicycle to Hendon, train to Warwick and reverse after school.

Fred left school to take a job as a compositor at the Allora Guardian Newspaper to learn printing. He shifted to Warwick Daily News and later was apprenticed as a plumber.  He played rugby league in Warwick in 1925. Colin secured a job with Barnes & Co where Frank also worked.

 In 1925 Lionel and Louisa Laws moved from  Allora to Killarney for 12 months before relocating to Toowoomba. Colin and his two brothers then working in Allora stayed behind and boarded at the Commercial Hotel