The Carlton team  – Round 8, Saturday, June 25, 1921. Walter Raleigh sits in the front row third form the left. Charlie Fisher, who married Walter’s sister Mary, is seated second from the right, just prior to what was his 100th senior appearance.

Frederick Raleigh had never before seen a Carlton game when he and his wife Claire fronted up to the old ground last week.

Yet the Canadian-born visitor carried a paternal kindred link with the club, as the great-grandson of the gloriously-named former Carlton footballer Timothy Walter (‘Wally’) Raleigh – and he’d flown half way around the world to learn more about him.

It’s more than 100 years now since Wally wore the No.18 (now on the back of Sam Walsh) into 32 senior appearances for the old dark Navy Blues through seasons 1920 and ’21 – and given Wally’s local origins as a local inner-city boy recruited to Carlton after a six-game stint with arch-rival Collingwood), Frederick’s Canadian connection doesn’t seem to tally.

But it can be sourced to a wartime twist of fate.

The story goes that Wally’s Melbourne-born son, also named Frederick, enlisted with the Army at 16, but after being caught lying about his age was discharged - only to join the Navy where a posting took him to Winnipeg.

Claire and Frederick Raleigh flank Sam Walsh’s locker featuring the No.18 once worn by Frederick’s great grandfather Walter Raleigh.

“My grandfather met my grandmother in Winnipeg,” Frederick said, “and when the war ended she relocated to Melbourne with him.

“They married then returned to Canada, where they settled for good.”

The tyranny of distance meant that Frederick’s family connection with Wally and the great Australian game was all but forgotten. To quote Frederick: “I was told about where he (Wally) played when I was young, but it didn’t register with me because I didn’t watch the sport”.

Frederick’s mother completed a solo visit to ‘Oz’ in 2007, so when Frederick and his wife began planning their own trip, his Mum shared a trove of clan-centric information, including the relevant addresses of neighbouring Carlton houses where the Raleighs once lived.

That pleased Frederick no end. As he said: “I wanted some history. I wanted to find my origins”.

Frederick’s and Claire’s Australian odyssey has doubled as a motorhome adventure. On initially landing in Sydney, they took a connecting flight to Hamilton Island, then onto Brisbane to commandeer the first of several campervans. Over the past six weeks, four vans have ferried them north to Rockhampton and back down the coast, covering almost 4000 kilometres, and a fifth motorhome bound for Adelaide and the Barossa Valley awaits.

“We don’t like scheduling,” said Frederick of the freedom of movement. “If we see something we like we stay (and) if we see something we don’t like we just move.

“Almost everyone we’ve talked to have said ‘We’ve been to Canada’, and the local hospitality has been really impressive. My mother had warned ‘If you don’t want to have an hour’s conversation with an Australian, don’t ask a question’ and she’s absolutely right.”

Frederick and Claire were knocking them down in a Brisbane pub when they saw the Lions and Fremantle battle it out in the big one on the big screen. Frederick had spent his entire sporting life hitting a hockey puck, having found American football to be slow, stilted and generally dull. But as he watched Brisbane complete its post-Wharfie Time rout, the switch was well and truly flicked.

“I said to my wife ‘This is awesome’," Frederick said. “I just didn’t realize the level of energy in the sport. It’s next level.”

Just prior to their Carlton pilgrimage, Frederick and Claire paid their respects at Wally’s grave in Fawkner Cemetery, where he was laid to rest in October 1960. At the home of the Blues, they both walked the turf Wally once trod when he was chasing the leather for the only team old Carlton knows.

By then, Wally had served with the Western Frontier Force and had served his King and country in Egypt, France and England.

On his repatriation to Australia in 1919, Wally saw the light and vacated Victoria Park for Royal Parade, almost certainly on the sayso of his brother-in-law the dual Carlton Premiership player Charlie Fisher. Wally’s 32-game tenure with the Blues would end with the heartbreaking Grand Final loss in 1921, and he followed Fisher to neighbouring VFA outfit Brunswick.

In 1925, as resident playing coach, ‘Sir Walter’ led the Wickers to a VFA Premiership. He then retired, only to pull the boots back on at various intervals through each of the next four seasons - and he even did so as late as 1933 when the club was financially skint and bereft of football talent.

One hundred years on, Frederick Raleigh stood on the very ground where his great-grandfather once played. Asked what Carlton means to him now, Frederick was plain and simple in his response.

“It’s pretty big. It’s pretty cool,” he said. “If I’d known in advance I’d have literally flown down here to see Carlton play finals.”

Frederick and Claire will soon head home to Vancouver Island with a new team to support and a longer family history to absorb. But they aren’t done yet. Beyond their Adelaide sojourn, they’ll take in more of Melbourne for a few more days and once home they’ll be sure to follow old Wally’s Blues from afar.