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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904)

Australian rugby league footballer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 14, 2025
Entity authorityQ18358415 ↗
Source-derived summary

John James Holmes (11 December 1904 – 10 September 1931) was an Australian rugby league player who played in the 1920s and 1930s.

Career

Born at Glebe, New South Wales to parents George and Ellen Holmes in 1904, Holmes was a five-eighth that came from Western Suburbs Magpies in 1926 to Newtown. He spent the next five seasons at Newtown between 1927 and 1931, often as captain. Holmes represented New South Wales on three occasions between 1929–1930 and was then chosen from the 1929–30 Kangaroo Tour, playing in 12 matches. Holmes is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No.158. He met and married an English girl, while on tour and returned with her to live in Sydney.

Death

He had completed the 1931 NSWRFL season, when he became ill with appendicitis and died during the operation to remove the infected appendix. Much grief was felt for his wife Mary and his infant daughter Angela, and a benefit match was played on 29 September 1931 at Earl Park, Arncliffe between the Kangaroos and a combined Newtown-Western Suburbs team that raised in excess of £300 for the widow and child. His funeral was attended by many members of the Newtown Rugby League Football Club and other rugby league identities.

Holmes died on 10 September 1931 aged 26, and was buried at the Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery on 11 September 1931.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904)” as australian rugby league footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904, 1931, 1926, 1927—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1904. The account is most persuasive where Jack, Holmes and rugby can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian rugby league footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q18358415. VIAF identifies the subject as 2038156497224217740002. The Library of Congress control number is n2019042886. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1931, 1926 and 1927.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904) primary sources, Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904) archive and Jack research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Jack Holmes (rugby league, born 1904)” 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.