A collection of wartime enlistments photographs of former Carlton footballers has been donated to the Carlton Football Club.

Eleven portrait photos of players who enlisted for service in World War 2  were graciously donated by Australian football historian Barbara Cullen OAM, who spent more than two decades pursuing the service history of more than 2500 VFL players - including 160 who gave their lives in action in every major conflict from the Boer War to the Vietnam War – for her book Harder Than Football.

Amongst the players photographed are Carlton’s first Brownlow Medallist Bert Deacon, its second known Indigenous footballer Cyril Mann and one-game player Leonard (Len) Clarke, whose image is the first to sourced by the club.

Also featured are the 1921 Carlton Captain Charlie Canet, James Jones, Les Opray, Percy Outram, Charles Parsons, Charles Street and Frank Walshe.

A similar portrait of another former Carlton footballer Eric Little only recently surfaced.

Barb’s great empathy for all those who served is reflected in the stories she compiled.

As she noted in the introduction to her tome: “The players who served are representative of our community - they were labourers and clerks and teachers and surgeons and barristers. They had ranks from Private to Major General and everything in between”.

“Most importantly they were loved sons, husbands, brothers - and even grandparents - whose service had a lasting effect upon their families,” she said.

The players whose enlistment photographs are featured are as follows:

Charles Canet – 80 Carlton games 1916-’21, captain 1921, service no. VX111769, HQ S. Commd TRG Depots, enlisted September 17, 1941 (aged 46)

Leonard Hector Clarke – one Carlton game 1931; service no. VX68669, 3 Aust Fld Butchery Coy (includes first photograph of one-game player, R1, 1931 v Richmond), enlisted December 13, 1941 (aged 36);

Bertrand John Deacon – 106 Carlton games 1942-’51, Premiership player 1945 & ’47, Club B&F and Brownlow Medallist 1947; service no. VX63153, General Reinforcements AIF, enlisted September 8, 1941 (aged 19)

James Henry Charles Jones – 15 Carlton games 1939-’40 & 1945-’46; service no. 41027, enlisted Melbourne June 9, 1941 (aged 23), Flying Officer, RAAF

Cyril Stanley Mann – 42 Carlton games 1939-’42 & ’45; service no. VX68975, enlisted Caulfield January 5, 1941 (aged 19), 2/23rd Battalion

Leo Charles Opray – 31 Carlton games 1932-’33; service no. VX48566, enlisted Richmond August 1, 1940 (aged  38), 2/32 Battalion

Percy Dwight Outram – 24 Carlton games 1925-’27; service no. VX33892, enlisted Melbourne June 18, 1940 (aged 39), AAMC 8th Division

Charles Berry Parsons – 33 Carlton games 1929-’30; service no. VX24730, enlisted place unknown circa June 1940, LHQ Car Coy.

Charles Street – 33 Carlton games 1932-’33; service no. VX70428, enlisted Caulfield January 2, 1942 (aged 30), 2/3 Aust. A/A Regt.

Frank Paul Walshe – one Carlton game 1932; service no. VX32796, 2/2 Aust Heavy A/A Regt., enlisted Royal Park June 18, 1940, 2/23rd Battalion