IHHOF - Library
Biography: George Richardson
By Ron Ellsworth
When, in the morning of Aug. 4, 1914, a young Kingston, Ont., man named George Richardson heard that England had declared war on Germany, his reaction was immediate. "That means me," he said. Less than a week later, Richardson was among the first group of volunteers from Kingston to join the British war effort.
Born on Sept. 14, 1886, Richardson made a name for himself as a gifted athlete and excellent hockey player. In 1903, when he was just 16, he joined Queen's University's hockey team and played for the Intercollegiate Hockey Union championship teams of 1904 and 1906. Queen's beat McGill 13-3 in the 1906 final, with Richardson scoring five goals. He was recognized as one of the best athletes in hockey and football that Queen's had produced.
Richardson received offers to turn professional but didn't need the money (his family had extensive commercial interests), and he believed in the amateur code. After leaving Queen's, he starred as a left winger for the 14 Regiment of Kingston senior team, which went to three consecutive Ontario Hockey League final series, and later joined the Kingston Frontenacs seniors as a player and team president. He was outstanding in the senior championship final series against Stratford in 1908. In the final game of the series, Richardson set an OHA senior championship record by scoring seven goals in a 9-7 win as the Kingston team won the title.
Besides being a prolific scorer, Richardson was known as a fine stickhandler and gentlemanly player. Ross M. McRae, who attended games when Richardson was playing for Queen's, wrote: "George was a born athlete, a keen and fair competitor at all times and a most outstanding hockey player." During one game McRae attended, Richardson was tripped by a University of Toronto player. The referee was calling a penalty when Richardson skated over to him and said the U of T player should not be penalized because the trip was accidental. And as Queen's ran up the score in that 13-3 thrashing of McGill in 1906, he asked the referee to call no more penalties against McGill.
Richardson was highly patriotic, so it is not surprising that when war broke out in 1914, he immediately volunteered to serve. After intensive training, he was sent
overseas as a company commander in the Overseas Military Forces of Canada. Of his war service it was said that "no braver or more considerate officer ever held His Majesty's commission." Indeed, not satisfied with the quality of the boots supplied to the men under his command, Richardson journeyed to England and bought 300 pair of better boots for them. Later, when German mustard gas attacks had begun and his troops had no protection against the deadly substance, he returned to England and obtained a quantity of gas masks that had recently been invented by an English firm. He paid for both of these purchases out of his own pocket.
On the night of Feb. 9, 1916, Richardson was leading a patrol in no man's land. They were spotted by German forces, who opened fire. The patrol was almost wiped out. Richardson, though severely wounded, made it back to the British trenches but died of his wounds there at about 8 a.m. on Feb. 10.
In an obituary published on Feb. 14, the Queen's Journal declared of Richardson: "No man at college was so widely known and so thoroughly liked. Not only was he the best player in hockey and football on teams which brought home Intercollegiate championships, but his reputation for clean and true sportsmanship became a tradition...." The university's Richardson Stadium is named in his honour.
George Richardson was elected to the International Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950.
Ron Ellsworth is a freelance writer and contributor to www.ihhof.com. Ron recently retired from the Kingston Whig Standard newspaper in Kingston, Ontario where he spent almost thirty-years as a writer and editor.
