Born: 3rd April 1871
Died: 26th October 1953

PREFACE

A great deal has been written about John Wren and much of it fueled by political agendas and the ever increasing need to fulllfill the Australian public's adoration of 'the villian'.  Perhaps it is our convict heritage, but I suspect Australian's, as a people, are intensely conformist and when someone comes along and does extroadinary things we need to isolate them as they threaten our own apathetic existance.  John Wren was just an ordinary man doing very extroadinary things and his notoriety was used to drive a wedge between the Labour movement and the Catholic church by the Communist Party.  It is important to remember that in a battle between history and popular culture, popular culture will always win.

Recently James Griffin embarked on a ten year journey to try and correct many of the myths surrounding the life of John Wren.  It is an intense document that categorically rebuts the accusations made against the Wren family and goes a long way to setting history straight.   I commend anyone that is at all interested in the history of sport in Melbourne to take the time to read James' work.   It is not an easy book to get through, as Mr Griffin's mission was to debunk the false history that has unfortunately become part of Melbourne's popular culture and he has done this very, very thoroughly.  That false history was declared as fiction by it's own authors and yet the people of Melbourne still reflect upon it as historical fact.  As I mentioned before, the truth does not fullfil the public's craving for a villian.

The Wren family have kindly given us the time to assist in the creation of this tribute that started out as just an architectural history of the suburb of Collingwood and has blown out into potentially the most significant page on the entire website.  Chris J Wren SC is a respected Melbourne Barrister and Grandson of John Wren.  He is passionate about justice and has immersed his life in the battle to bring justice to the people of Melbourne.  Perhaps it is the injustice that has been served upon his late Grandfather that has, to a large part, motivated Chris to pursue a life in the law.  One thing is for sure, Chris is a passionate family man, just like his Grandfather, and he is committed to the cause of correcting the false history surrounding John's life.

We can only hope that this tribute can do justice to a glorious life lived to its fullest and full of colourful people that shaped the sporting landscape in Melbourne in it's very earliest days.

PART 1 - Will the real John Wren please stand up?

Melbourne is passionate about Australian Rules Football, and Collingwood has been its most famous and ardently supported club; conversely it has been the most reviled. Between the wars, a premiership in 1919, four successive ones 1927-30, two more in 1935-6 and seven times runners-up cemented the popular notion that money provided this success and that it came from John Wren, the only non-player or non-official privileged to enter the dressing rooms during 'closed doors sessions'. Fans of other clubs wanted to believe it. Absurd stories have been accepted. People have believed that Wren gave or sold the Victoria Park ground to the city of Collingwood for the purposes of football. In fact, municipal council acquired Victoria Park when Wren was seven years old in 1878 from Edwin Trenerry, a resident of Cornwall, UK.

John Wren lived and worked within very close proximity to the Collingwood Football Club and it has been far too easy for social commentators to draw speculative conclusions on the level of influence that John Wren had on the club.  A closer examination of the early success of the league’s youngest football club reveals that an unmatched level of discipline, comradery, hard work and a scientific approach to football where the underlying factors that launched the Collingwood Football Club to the pinnacle of the league.  Dick Condon’s invention of the ‘stab kick’ in 1902 played a major part.  The speed with which the Collingwood players were able to adapt to the new VFL rules was no less significant either.  The notion that Collingwood’s players somehow achieved this through unscrupulous means is narrow minded and vindictive at best.  The heart of Collingwood’s success must have been due to the baseborn suburb's fierce pride and the enthusiastic promotion of the club by the council. Many of its players, 'born into a magpie family and reared in the Magpie nest', were recruited from youths who desperately wanted to wear the famous black and white striped jumper. Harry Collier (Captain 1935-9; EW Copeland Trophy 1928, 1930; 1930 Brownlow medallist), who went to school opposite Victoria Park, was so honoured to play for the club he was shocked to learn he would be paid!.  Lou Richards, captain of the 1953 premiership side and long serving media star comedian-commentator, was one of a third generation of his family to play for the club. His grandfather had also captained the Magpies in a grand final in 1905; each of two uncles played in five grand finals and two premiership teams between 1917-22 and 1935-9, one of them becoming captain. To be selected to play in 1941, said Richards, 'was bliss'.  Champions stared down from photos on the walls at Victoria Park, while in the flesh there was the most domineering and durable of coaches (1913-49), Jock McHale. Collingwood believed it had an inimitable, unimpeachable tradition.  John Wren shared this fervour. Fortunately there is a professionally researched history of the Collingwood Football Club with a devout title, Kill for Collingwood, by Richard Stremski. He points out that, although Wren had played in local teams when an adolescent and had been an official patron of the club in 1897-1901, he had then, with the exception of 1911, allowed his membership to lapse until 1914. Although previously a member of the Fitzroy Cricket Club, he became a member of the Collingwood Cricket Club from its inception in 1906. Stremski thinks Wren kept aloof from the football rivalry with the Maddens. Sir John (Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor) was appointed number one patron in 1896', while Frank (secretary of the Victoria Racing Club) was 'reputed...an implacable foe of Wren'. Their mansions in Studley Park were near Wren's; this probably made it clear to the club that they would not associate with the Tote man whose horses had been barred from the VRC-registered courses. Also, Wren may not have had the self-confidence at that stage to outface this upper crust, socially that is. According to Stremski, Wren's patronage resumed during the First World War, as the Maddens retreated. Claims that John Wren was on the CFC committee in 1903 are incorrect, and blaming John for initiating illegal player payments and thus the professionalisation of football is complete without any evidence or foundation.
 
John Wren was known to be a generous supporter of the Collingwood Football Club.  So, when in the aftermath of Collingwood's premiership of 1903, the second in a row, there was talk of professionalism among the players, it was Wren's name that came to mind.  There was significant controversy surrounding the allegations at the time but they have proved to be without any substance to this very day.  Stories of John’s generosity are captured anecdotally by the players and officials of the time.  When player payments were legalised it became common place for a quid or two to come the way of the best player of the day.  As John’s fortune grew, so did his level of generosity.  While the boy from Ballarat Street was living atop Studley Park in Kew looking down upon the flat, he never forgot where he came from.  John, like any devoted father, wanted the very best for his family and hence why he built Studley House.  John would usually sleep on the balcony; his preference for fresh air preceded the need for fine bedding in a large ornate room.

One undoubted fact is that John Wren loved sport and specifically the thrill of competition.  Whether it be his beloved Magpies, his horses, cleaning up the trotting industry or a boxing match, he wanted to be involved and he wanted other people to be involved.  John made sport accessible to all Melbournians and this drew resentment from the elite classes that believed they had a devine right to control and enjoy all types of entertainment in the rapidly growing city.  John crossed class boundaries and made a swag of friends on the way, but he presented the upper classes with a serious threat to their ability to control the working man and as a result John acculmulated some very powerful enemies.  To this day the Wren family name still suffers the stigma of the innuendo and baseless allegations propagated by those threatened by the rise of a Flatite made good.

PART 2 - The Tote

To be continued...

Further reading:

CLICK HERE  for the Australian dictionary of biography