Frank Leslie Lugton (4 November 1893 – 29 July 1916) was an Australian sportsman who played first-class cricket for Victoria and Australian rules football for Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Family

One of the ten children of Charles Edward Lugton (1860-1927), and Jane Ann Lugton (1861-1944), née May, Frank Leslie Lugton was born at Northcote, Victoria on 4 November 1893. His older brother, Edward Charles Lugton (1885-1939), served as a gunner in the First AIF. Another brother, John Archibald Lugton (1889-1918), also served in the First AIF, and died of wounds sustained in action in August 1918. Lugton Street, in Alphington, Victoria was named as a local tribute to the three brothers.

Cricket

Lugton was a right-handed batsman and a fast-medium bowler. He played five Sheffield Shield games for the Victorian cricket team in the 1913/1914 season, making 218 runs at 31.14 and taking nine wickets at 34.00.

Football

Northcote Methodists (MDFA)

He was recruited from the Northcote Methodist Football Club in the Melbourne District Football Association (MDFA).

Melbourne (VFL)

Lugton made his VFL debut for melbourne in 1913, and played 18 games in both 1913 and 1914. In May 1919, an unidentified former Melbourne footballer, wrote to the football correspondent of The Argus as follows:

Military service

Lugton survived the fighting in Gallipoli but went on to serve in France where he was killed in 1916, near Villiers-Bretonneux. He was the first Sheffield Shield cricketer to lose his life in the war.

Death

Aged 22, he was killed in action near Villers-Bretonneux, France on 29 July 1916.

Obituary

Footnotes