[13] He also competed in, and came second in the open age pole vault and the running high jump at the Scotch College School Sports in 1888.

[16] Reid made his debut for Victorian Football Association (VFA) team Fitzroy, as a backman, on Saturday 9 June 1894, at the Richmond Cricket Ground.

[17] In its match report The Argus commented that "The Fitzroy captain [viz., Tom Banks] was immensely pleased with the high marking of Reid, a former Scotch College boy".

[18] In its report, The Age, noting that "it was his first game in the maroons' ranks", and that "he is a decided acquisition to the team", remarked that "Reid, among the backs, played almost perfect football throughout".

[21] By the start of 1897, when the Fitzroy Football Club left the VFA and took part in the inaugural VFL competition, Reid was already well established as a defender,[22] and had gained a reputation for his strength, his high making and his long kicking.

The representative match was originally proposed to take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, 12 June 1897; however, for some trivial reasons, relating to the question of the free admission of V.F.L.

[35] Reid was injured early in the game, was unable to continue, and left the field;[36] which, according to the rules of the day, which allowed for twenty "run on" players for each team with no replacements, left his team one man short (he was, however, fit enough by the following Saturday to play for Fitzroy against South Melbourne).

T. Banks then presented on behalf of the Fitzroy Football Club, Mr. Stanley Reid with a very useful travelling companion and pair of field glasses.

Mr Banks commented on the good the game received from gentlemen of the position of Mr. Reid in playing football.

[46] He was ordained as the first minister to the newly formed St. George's Presbyterian Church in the Western Australian gold mining town of Boulder on 15 March 1899,[47] having arrived there in December 1898.

[48] On Monday 5 June 1899, as a mark of the high esteem with which he was already held by the congregation (and the citizens of Boulder in general), the ladies of St George's Presbyterian Church presented Reid with a silk gown.

At the same gathering, presided over by the Mayor of Boulder, Mr. John M. Hopkins, Reid was also presented with an illuminated address to mark the auspicious occasion.

[49] Whilst still in Victoria, Reid had served for 18 months[50] as a member of the self-funded voluntary citizens' military force known as the Victorian Mounted Rifles.

More than a year after leaving Victoria and taking up his post at Boulder in Western Australia, he was still able to produce a good performance.

He competed in the "Military Sports" division of the four-day carnival arranged to aid the St George's Presbyterian Church in Boulder.

[54] Soon after the Second Boer War had broken out in October 1899, Reid volunteered to serve as a chaplain to the Second Contingent of the Western Australian Mounted Infantry.

In his response to the toasts, he said that whilst "he had got over the youthful glamor of war" he was also totally "prepared to take his part in what was in store for him" in South Africa.

Stanley Reid, Presbyterian minister at the Boulder, left this afternoon by the express to join the West Australian contingent for the Transvaal.

[60] The contingent (consisting of 6 officers, 97 other ranks, 125 horses, one spring cart, and one wagon[61]) left Australia on the SS Surrey on 3 February 1900.

[44] During this first tour of duty, Reid had seen action in Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, Cape Colony, and Orange Free State.

As soon as the military authorities in South Africa became aware of the letter's publication, Reid was arrested and repatriated to Australia (he reached Fremantle, along with the rest of the Second Western Australian (Mounted Infantry) Contingent, on 8 December 1900).

However, no official investigation of any kind was ever made into the circumstances of the publication of the letter; and, for some undisclosed reason, his case was unexpectedly dropped altogether.

[67] In the absence of any "official" explanation, is reasonable to suppose that one or more of several possible influences may have played a part in the decision of the authorities not to proceed against Reid: Having been released from custody, and having been selected as one of the 25 returned soldiers to represent the State of Western Australia at the celebrations held in Sydney to celebrate the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901,[72] Reid was promoted to Lieutenant on 7 March 1901,[73] and he joined the Sixth Western Australian (Mounted Infantry) Contingent in camp at Karrakatta.

[82] Collick also remarked that, he was one of the bravest officers in South Africa; and that, although "Reid's wound was serious enough to get him three months' leave of absence", he insisted on returning to action immediately he had recovered sufficiently and leading his men.

and Imperial Light Horse, with two Colt guns, left camp to reconnoitre the surrounding country, as the Boer snipers had been giving a lot of annoyance on the previous day.

There we found two dead and three wounded – Stanley through the stomach, his sergeant in three places, through the neck, through the leg, and through his lungs; and a private through the chest.

Leave was granted, and they worked away at it and made it up splendidly.He was buried in a grave especially arranged by the men he had commanded – situated beneath a clump of Australian wattles, with a large wooden cross bearing his name at its head – with full military honours in a ceremony, attended by his commanding officer Colonel Campbell and his staff, representatives of all of the regiments comprising the Sixth W.A.M.I., conducted by regimental chaplain and Reid's old friend, Mr.

[91] The West Australian of 21 May 1901, noting that Reid "was for some time the minister of the Presbyterian Church at Boulder", reported that "he was regarded as a fine soldier, and one who had a more than ordinary moral influence over his comrades in the field".

[93][94] At the same time the newspaper observed that "his death has caused sorrow in many a home", and reported that a memorial service had been held in Boulder on Sunday 14 July 1901 for the town's former Presbyterian minister and that "many Roman Catholics and people of other denominations [had] attended to show their respect to the memory of one who had proved himself a man among men".

Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Committee, on Friday 26 July 1901 in Kings Park, when Steere formally invited the Duke of York (later King George V) to lay the foundation stone for the monument that was to serve as a memorial to the 4 officers and 24 men (of the more than 900 that went to South Africa in six different contingents from Western Australia) who were killed in action or died of their wounds in the Boer War.