Harold Tyrie

SportCountryNew ZealandSportAthleticsAchievements and titlesNational finals440 yd champion (1936, 1939, 1940)Rugby union career

Position(s)	Second-row forward
Senior career
Years	Team	Apps	(Points)
–	Southern RUFC		()
Provincial / State sides
Years	Team	Apps	(Points)
1938, 1941	Otago	2	()

Harold Joffre Tyrie (3 August 1915 – 22 February 2007) was a New Zealand track and field athlete who won a bronze medal at the 1938 British Empire Games. He also played representative rugby union for Otago.

Early life and family

Born in Dunedin on 3 August 1915, Tyrie was the son of William Leslie Tyrie and Annie Tyrie (née Miller).^[2][3] He was educated at Otago Boys' High School from 1929 to 1932.^[4] On 27 September 1940, he married Phyllis Mary McClelland at St John's Church, Millers Flat,^[3] and the couple went on to have three daughters.^[5]

Athletics

Representing Otago, Tyrie won the New Zealand national 440 yards title three times: in 1936, 1939, and 1940.^[6] At the 1938 British Empire Games in Sydney, he finished sixth in the final of the men's 440 yards, and was a member of the New Zealand quartet in the men's 4 x 440 yards relay that won the bronze medal.^[7]

He later turned to coaching, and trained athletes including Don Jowett and Robin Tait.

Rugby union

A second-row forward from the Southern Rugby Football Club in Dunedin,^[1] Tyrie played two representative rugby union games for Otago, in 1938 and 1941.^[4]

Military service

Tyrie graduated from the 12th Officer Cadet Training Unit in September 1942 and was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant in the New Zealand Infantry.^[8] Later, in 1944, with the rank of corporal, Tyrie was wounded in Italy while serving with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.^[9][10]

Later life and death

In later life, Tyrie was a ceramic artist of some note.^[5][11] He died in Christchurch on 22 February 2007.^[4]

References