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William Albert Stanley (Bert) Oldfield was born on 9 September 1894 at Alexandria, New South Wales, the youngest of seven children to John William Oldfield and his wife, Mary Oldfield (née Gregory).

Bert was educated at Newtown Public School and Cleveland Street, Surry Hills Superior Public School. He took an interest in playing cricket and became an all-rounder while attending Cleveland Street School. Later, at Glebe and then Gordon Cricket Clubs, Bert became a regular wicket-keeper, at which he excelled.

A Tramways Clerk aged 20, single and living at Glebe Point, Bert enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force for war service in September 1915. He was posted as a Private to the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital and embarked at Sydney in December 1915 for overseas.

The 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital was set up in Abbassia, Cairo, Egypt where patients were treated until September 1916. That month, the hospital was re-located to the village of Belford, Wiltshire, England.

On 8 June 1917 Bert Oldfield was transferred to the 15th Australian Field Ambulance, the primary role of which was medical evacuation of soldiers from infantry and other combat unit regimental aid posts close to the front line.

At the time, the 15th Field Ambulance was not in a combat area but was operating as the 5th Australian Division Rest Camp on a farm on the south-eastern outskirts of Albert, a town in the Somme Department, northern France. The unit moved shortly afterwards to Contay, a village west of Albert and set up a Corps Mumps Station.

By early August 1917 the 15th Field Ambulance was located at Sercus, a village in the Nord Department, northern France where the unit undertook further training ahead of imminent offensive operations with the 15th Australian Infantry Brigade.

The Field Ambulance commenced evacuating soldiers east of Ypres in what developed as the Battle of Polygon Wood. On 26 September 1917 Bert was wounded in the right thigh and was buried for several hours during the heavy bombardment of Polygon Wood. He was barely alive when rescued and was evacuated to England. He recovered by January 1918 when he was transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford, Kent. In March 1918 he was again transferred, this time to the AIF Kit Store at Hammersmith, London. He was promoted to Corporal in September 1918.

Bert Oldfield was selected as wicket-keeper for the AIF cricket team that played 28 first class matches in Britain, South Africa and Australia in 1919. He was discharged from the army in March 1920 upon returning to Australia.

Shortly after his return, Bert opened a sports store in Hunter Street, Sydney. It was to become a highly successful business as he leveraged his business activities off his cricket profile and fame. High profile cricketers such as Charlie Macartney worked in the business.

He was selected for his first Test match against England in his hometown of Sydney in the 1920-21 season. He was dropped for several matches over the next few years but established himself as Australia's automatic selection for wicket-keeper in the 1924-25 Ashes series against England.

He missed only one other Test in his career, that being the fourth Test of the 1932-33 Bodyline series. In the notorious third Test at Adelaide, the English Bodyline tactic of bowling fast balls directed at the Australian batsmen's bodies reached its most dramatic moment when fast bowler Harold Larwood hit Oldfield in the head, fracturing his skull (although this was from a top edge off a traditional non-Bodyline ball and Oldfield admitted it was his fault). Oldfield was carried from the ground unconscious. He recovered in time for the fifth Test of the series.

Always an easy-going personality, Oldfield immediately forgave Larwood for the incident, and the two eventually became firm friends when Larwood later emigrated to Australia.

Oldfield played Test cricket for four more years, ending his career in 1937.

Bert Oldfield played 54 Tests for Australia, scoring 1,427 runs at an average of 22.65, and taking 78 catches and 52 stumpings. His tally of 52 stumpings remains a Test career world record. In first-class cricket he played 245 matches, scoring 6,135 runs at an average of 23.77, and taking 399 catches and 263 stumpings. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1927.

In 1929 married Ruth Maud Hunter at St Jude's Anglican Church, Randwick in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. In the early 1930s the couple moved to Killara to reside at 'Poitiers' in Springdale Road.

Just after the outbreak of World War II, Bert Oldfield was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 17th Infantry Battalion, Citizen Military Forces. He transferred to the AIF in April 1941 and worked with the Australian Army Amenities Service, was promoted to Captain the same year then to Major in 1943. He was posted to Headquarters, Second Australian Corps at the time of his discharge from the AIF in March 1946.

In 1970 he was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to cricket.

Bert Oldfield, husband, father, soldier, cricketer and businessman passed away on 10 August 1976 aged 81 at his home of many years, ‘Poitiers’, Killara, New South Wales. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.