Almanac Rugby League (History) – Henry (Harold) Frank Bichel

 

Ninety years ago today, 25.09.1935, a young man named on the team list as Henry Bichel ran out onto Hawera Showgrounds on the North Island of NZ  to play in the #8 jersey for Australia in a tour match against a New Zealand XIII. He was 24 years and 22 days old, and left his mark on the game as a try scorer in his only appearance in the Kangaroos jersey. Actually, his real name was Harold Frank Bichel but, for whatever reason, rugby league records list him as ‘Henry’. He was my mother’s oldest brother, my Uncle Harold. (I find it hard to think of him as ‘Henry’, so please excuse me if I refer to him as ‘Harold’ throughout this article.)

 

You could say that in his early days Harold was a strong minded, independent person. He certainly wasn’t short of an opinion, not unlike his father with whom he had a fractious relationship. Harold left home early, before my mother was born, to make his own way in life. (There was an age gap of 17 years between them.) Even though he remained in the Lockyer Valley/Ipswich/Toowoomba area for many years, my mother only saw Harold for the first time when, as a child, he was pointed out to her one day in the local town of Forest Hill.  Anecdotal reports say they only ‘officially’ met when my mother was a teenager and, thankfully, they went on to enjoy a good relationship. AS the years passed, Uncle Harold was a regular and welcome guest in our home along with that of my brother Ken. After he retired, it wasn’t unusual for him to roll up unannounced with a couple of his mates and a few longnecks.

 

Harold made his representative debut at lock in the Toowoomba Bulimba Cup side in 1931 before moving to Ipswich where he became a fixture in their Cup side between 1933 and 1935, and then again in 1937. Harold won his first Queensland jersey in 1934 and played for the Maroons 11 times in 1934-35 and ’37. He played mostly in the front row but had stints in the second row and the odd game at lock. He was also a goal kicker of some note. The Brisbane Telegraph football reporter, Duncan Thompson, credited him with four and a half goals in one interstate clash in Sydney in June 1935. After one of his shots at goal, both sideline referees initially put their flags up before one of them quickly lowered his flag and the goal was disallowed! Harold won selection for the 1935 Kangaroos Tour of New Zealand, the sole representative from Ipswich. A bad leg injury interrupted his career for some time. Harold played in the Mackay area in the latter part of the 1930s before moving to Cairns where he coached for a number of years and had a stint as a selector for North Queensland. He was also a keen cricketer, playing for East Ipswich as a fast bowler, and, in his later years, a determined lawn bowler in the Redcliffe region.

 

The Queensland Maroons 1935.
Henry Bichel is in the middle row, fifth from the left.

 

To see Harold (Henry) Bichel’s full representative career statistics click here.

 

Harold had a varied working life in the years after his football career came to an end. He was a wharf worker in Cairns and Brisbane at different times, a road builder in outback Queensland for Theiss Brothers, an independent businessman in Deception Bay, a real estate agent in the broader Redcliffe area, and he served a term as a councillor on the Caboolture Shire Council. He married Lillian Bennett in 1940 and they had three children, Harold, Noleen and Ken. Harold’s last and, some would argue, greatest legacy was to be the driving force in the collation and publication of the Bichel Family History in 1986 to mark the centenary of the arrival of his grandparents in Queensland.

 

I had very little contact with Uncle Harold until I was in my mid-40s, mainly because he lived some distance away and I was off at boarding school before moving to Adelaide for tertiary studies. So when I moved to the Redcliffe Peninsula in 1990 I made it a particular goal of mine to connect with him, his wife Auntie Lil, and my cousin Noleen. I’d visit him, initially in their unit in Kippa Ring, and then in the retirement village on Anzac Avenue. Mostly we’d talk about sport. As sharp as a tack mentally, even though arthritis slowly reduced his mobility, he maintained a keen interest in a broad range of sports and his transistor radio was forever tuned into any coverage available. He also took a close interest in the progress of his children and grandchildren, and regaled me with reports on what they were all doing. He may have been a hard and rugged front-rower in football, but he also had a softer, warmer and caring side to his personality.

 

I had the honour of giving the eulogy at Uncle Harold’s funeral at Grace Lutheran Church, Clontarf on 10th March 1995. He had a good innings, passing away at the age of 83. At the time, Noleen and I agreed that the saddest thing about his passing was its timing, just a few weeks before the Queensland Bulls won their first Sheffield Shield. How he would have loved that! We had to console ourselves with the thought that that drought-breaking Queensland team featured the emerging Andy Bichel, a second (?)cousin of ours. (Andy went to play 19 Test matches and 67 ODIs for Australia.)

 

There are plans afoot for the Bichel Family History to be updated and republished ahead of a family reunion in July 2026 at, not surprisingly, Bichel Oval in Laidley. It’s an ambitious timeline but if the planners have the drive and determination that Uncle Harold showed throughout his life, then it should be quite a day!

 

 

Photo provided by Dion Bichel.

 

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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