Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Edward DOLLING

Charles Edward Dolling was the son of Johann and Minna Maria Dolling of Wokurna (near Port Broughton) where Charles was born on 4 September 1886.

Charles attended Prince Alfred College and obtained a medical degree at Adelaide University in the years 1908 -1912. Charles was an outstanding cricketer and was a member of the Australian XI 1913-1914 touring team to New Zealand. The outbreak of war prevented him going to South Africa as a member of the Australian Eleven.

When WW1 broke out in 1914 Charles was studying and working in England. He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and served in Egypt at the 15th RAMC Hospital in Alexandria and in France. He returned to Australia in 1921 where he became established as a surgeon in Adelaide.

He was captain of the South Australian Cricket Team in 1922 -23 and then a selector of the Australian Cricket Team.

Charles Edward Dolling is remembered on the Port Broughton WW1 foreshore monument.

Referee (Sydney, NSW : 1886 - 1939), Thursday 18 June 1936, page 13

CHARLES DOLLING, SPORTSMAN

Knight of Cricket, Passes at 49

THE sudden death of Dr. Charles E. Dolling in Adelaide on Thursday, was a shock to cricketers. He was in his fiftieth year, but had the unobtrusive enthusiasm of twenty-two. A personality in Australian cricket, his interest in it was vital and all embracing.

When he returned from England, via New Zealand, a little more than a year ago, Dr. Dolling looked fitter than when he left to extend his medical studies. He brought back with him undimmed his deep personal interest in the game and the players. Last season he managed the South Australian team on their tour to Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, and was very happy in the vortex of the younger men and in renewing friendships. Charlie Dolling was one of the best batsmen South Australia has had. He came into the team just after George Giffen had finished. In the Sheffield Shield he scored 1168 runs at 37.6 an innings, his centuries being 113 and 105 against New South Wales, and his best against Victoria 94 and 93. He also made 140 against the 1907-8 English team. While on active service he played some cricket in England. With West Torrens in 1922-23 he made 856 runs at 71 per innings — a club record. Though he was a member of an Australian team in New Zealand, and one

of those chosen in 1914 to tour South Africa when war broke out and the tour was abandoned, he did not play for Australia in a test match. A first-class batsman, and best of all at the pinch—he was a good field and a peerless sportsman. The services he rendered to Australia as a test selector were beyond appraising. He combined a students' interest in cricket with a profound knowledge. He had the rare good fortune to see and appreciate to the full George Giffen, Jack Lyons, Ernest Jones, Joe Darling, and Clem Hill in some of their great deeds, and to play for the State with some of them. The correct idea of standards in cricket came to him through this experience, allied with that of having seen Hugh Trumble, and played with Victor Trumper, M. A. Noble, Warwick Armstrong, and other outstanding men of their times. He was an exceptional judge of a cricketer and possessed a high judicial sense of fair play. Besides all this, Charlie Dolling's horizon had no bounds. A fine cricketer, he was, to my view, a still greater man to the game as a selector. In his profession he was a friend of the poor and needy. Cricket is the poorer for his going. He was a chivalrous knight in a game, which he regarded as the symbol of the race.