Date of death 1998 (aged 78–79) | ||
Date of birth (1919-06-10)10 June 1919 Education Hurlstone Agricultural High School | ||
Cecil Ramalli (1919 – 1998) was an Australian rugby union player and soldier. Ramalli played twice for Australia.
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Early life and education
Ramalli was born on 10 June 1919 to Ali Ramalli and Adeline Doyle in Moree. His father was a merchant from Lahore who arrived in Sydney in 1898 to work as a hawker. Ramalli's mother was an Aboriginal Australian woman from near Mungindi, New South Wales.
In 1934 Ramalli began attending Hurlstone Agricultural High School in Sydney.
Rugby career
At Hurlstone, his aptitude for rugby was discovered. By his third season of school rugby, he had become the captain of the school's first XV.
Ramalli made his representative debut for New South Wales at the age of 18 in 1938.
In August 1938 Ramalli made his debut for Australia in the second Test match between Australia and New Zealand at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. He also played the third Test in Sydney, which would be his final match for the Wallabies.
Ramalli was named in a 29-player squad to tour Britain in 1939. The team arrived in Portsmouth the day before Britain declared war on Germany. With the outbreak of war, the team returned to Australia.
War service
In 1940 Ramalli enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force after initially trying to join the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy.