Horace Neal
New Zealand rugby league player
Horace Neal was a rugby league player who represented New Zealand in one test match in 1919 against Australia at halfback. In the process he became the 128th player to represent New Zealand. He also played one match for the Auckland representative side as well as playing for the Ponsonby United, Maritime, and Grafton Athletic clubs from 1913 to 1922. Horace Neal also served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during World War I.
Early life
Horace Richard Neal was born on 6 April 1896, while his parents were living on Randolph Street, Newton, Auckland. His parents were Adelaide Victoria Neal (née Cantell) (1870-1952), and William Neal (1868-1943). Adelaide was born in 1870 in London, England, while William was born in 1868 in Alford, Lincolnshire, England. Horace had 7 siblings: Priscilla Jane (b.1892), Archibald William (b.1894), Herbert Henry (b.1898), Roy Samuel (b.1900), Richard (b.1901), Daniel (b.1901), Richard Emanuel (b.1904), and Jane Adelaide (b.1906).
World War I
On 18 October 1915, Horace and his brother Archibald were part of 52 recruits who were called up to "proceed to Wellington" by train to join the New Zealand Rifle Brigade (Earl of Liverpool's Own). They were part of the 4th Battalion, D Company. At the time of their recruitment they were living at 2 Harcourt Street in Grey Lynn.
“Horace Neal” enters the record as new Zealand rugby league player. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Horace, Neal and Zealand can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Horace Neal” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Horace, Neal and Zealand provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108571046. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1913, 1922 and 1896.
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This entry incorporates text from “Horace Neal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.