Ray Lawless (rugby league, born 1909)

[5] On September 20 he played for Otahuhu against Marist Old Boys in a benefit match at Sturges Park for W. McManus who had been ill for a long time in hospital.

[7] He made his 1931 debut for the Richmond senior side on May 2, 1931, in a match at Carlaw Park against Marist Old Boys.

[10][11] During a match against Ellerslie-Otahuhu on May 23 it was later reported that “Lawless, the Richmond rugby league forward who has been outstanding this season, received a nasty kick in the face… and may be laid aside for several weeks”.

[15] Lawless played in the second row alongside Trevor Hall with Alan Clarke at lock.

[17][18] Lawless had recovered enough to be named for his debut in the Auckland team to play the touring England side.

[25] Lawless was then chosen in a New Zealand XIII to play England at Wellington in a midweek fixture.

He was also chosen in a Ponsonby XIII who were travelling to New Plymouth to play an exhibition match against fellow Auckland side, Devonport United on September 9.

Hanlon was a former Richmond player who was trying to return home to New Zealand after playing there and falling on hard times.

Richmond could only finish 5th in the Fox Memorial competition with 3 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses however they showed better form later in the season.

They had finished runners up in the New South Wales competition a week prior to their first match in Auckland.

Late in the match the team was shuffled with Campbell going off injured and Bert Cooke moving to fullback with Lawless taking his place in the centres.

[44] The 1934 season for Richmond was one of the most extraordinary in Auckland club rugby league history in terms of success on the field.

They won the Fox Memorial title for winning the senior championship, the Roope Rooster knockout competition, the Stormont Shield champion of champions trophy and defeated the touring Western Suburbs twice.

They stated “that they had no intention when leaving the ground to fight, Lawless merely pointing towards the side-door entrance of the grandstand as the best way of avoiding the crowd”.

They defended their Fox Memorial title and also won the Stormont Shield though they were defeated in the final of the Roope Rooster by Newton Rangers.

[58] Lawless was employed as a lorry driver when on Christmas Eve of the same year he was involved in a drink driving accident which injured two women whom he struck with his car as they were crossing the road.

The accident occurred at the corner of Richmond and Ponsonby Roads at 8:45 pm, with both women suffering head injuries.

The magistrate stated “one might say that the biggest factor in the accident was the unforgivable fact that the accused drove blind without a windscreen wipe on a foggy, wet night”.

Lawless said that he had bought the car for £35 just 12 days earlier with “the object of using the vehicle for a holiday tour with another man”.

[61] Lawless’s defender “stressed that he was the sole supporter of a widowed mother, and would lose his only source of livelihood if his license were cancelled”.

[62] During his trial both women stated that they had crossed the tramlines and that Lawless was on the wrong side of the road.

[63] He subsequently moved out of Auckland to Gisborne where he registered with the rugby code and joined the local Marist club.

Following his debut game it was said that “in all departments he played well and showed a good burst of speed in the loose”.

[67] In his younger years Ray’s life was marred by several incidents involving alcohol which saw him before the courts.

On March 22, 1929, aged 19 he was fined £2 for using lurid language and making threatening behaviour towards a couple in downtown Auckland.

[68] Then in July he was fined once again for being drunk in the Gaiety Dance Hall on Karangahape Road and acting inappropriately towards other patrons.

Ray Lawless’s younger brother Charles took his own life in the family home at 54 Dryden Street in Grey Lynn.

He was a “crippled” aged 23 and had been in ill-health for the past 12 months and had not been able to work in his occupation as a bootmaker in the days preceding his death due to illness.

[74] Raymond married Myrie Millicent Lawless (nee Joy) on April 11, 1939.

He died on June 3, 1968, while in the employment of Ardmore Teachers' Training College as a night watchman and was living in Papakura, Auckland at the time.