Service/branch New Zealand Army Name Bobby Black Service number 9/2048 | Rank Private Years of service 1915–16 | |
Memorialised at Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial Unit Otago Mounted Rifles
Canterbury Regiment | ||
Robert Stanley "Bobby" Black (24 August 1893 – 21 September 1916) was a New Zealand rugby union player. A first five-eighth, Black represented Otago and Buller at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the All Blacks, on their 1914 tour of Australia. He played six matches for the All Blacks on that tour, including one international.
Black enlisted in the Otago Mounted Rifles in November 1915 and, after transferring to the Canterbury Regiment, saw active service in the Battle of the Somme. He was killed in action on 21 September 1916, and he was memorialised on the Caterpillar Valley (New Zealand) Memorial, which commemorates over 1200 New Zealand soldiers who died in the Battles of the Somme in 1916 for whom there is no known grave, although his body was subsequently identified and buried.