John Walter Fletcher

John Walter Fletcher is known as the "Father of Australian Football."

Oxford educated schoolmaster John Walter Fletcher was born in England in 1847 and migrated to Australia in 1875.

He advocated the establishment of football in Sydney as early as 1877.

Fletcher was the foundation secretary of Australia's first soccer club, The Wanderers, formed in Sydney in 1880.

He was responsible for another club started by students at Coreen College.

In 1882, Fletcher formed the NSW English FA, Australia's first soccer association and one of the earliest to be formed outside the United Kingdom.

Two years later he moved to the NSW Blue Mountains where he continued establishing teams.

Fletcher joined the Bar in 1893, became a magistrate in 1899 and retired in 1914.

He died in Sydney in March, 1918.