The Master Showman

Dunbar Poole and the sport of kings

TALK ABOUT ICE SKATING. On April 27 last, I was up until two o'clock in the morning at the last fancy dress carnival of the season at the Streatham Rink, of which I was manager, in London. Without getting any sleep, I was bundled off in evening dress to catch the boat train for Calais. I boarded the Continental Express, and was in Toulon in time to sprint up the gangway of the Oronsay, bound for Sydney. I got here a few days ago on the Oronsay and was rushed straight to the Ice Palais by car. I've scarcely been out of the place since, except to snatch a few hours of sleep, for we had to have everything ready for last Friday night's opening".

— Dunbar Poole on the opening of the Ice Palais, The Referee, Sydney, June 16th 1938 [62]

THE ROYAL GLASGOW INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS in Sauchiehall Street was a well-established venue on the British art exhibition circuit in the 1890s, between the years Dunbar Poole decided to become an artist and before he came of age. The Institute inspired the Glasgow Boys during that time, the famous painters whose work featured prosaic scenes from in and around the city. In a 1938 interview with V C Davis, a writer with the renowned Sydney sporting newspaper, The Referee, Poole said he supplied the Institute with landscapes in oils.

"Disliking the long hair and bow-ties which spelled success," [62] he dropped-out and instead decided to buy himself "a straw mattress, a kit-bag, and a suit of oilskins in order to see the world from the tougher side." [62] He joined the crew of the windjammer Loch Garry, which had made many trips to Melbourne and Geelong under Captain James Horne. During a 62-year career at sea, the captain never once had a fire or lost a vessel under his care, and from 1885 he made the Loch Garry's owners fabulously rich bringing in more than £5,000 per trip to and from Britain. [63]

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1877, Dunbar Poole was the son of James Poole and Elizabeth Simpson who married at Edinburgh in Scotland on February 26th, 1869. At the time of his birth, his father was a stock and sharebroker, public accountant and secretary of the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway with an office in The Castle, off Castle Place in the commercial centre of Belfast. [68]

In 1899, at the age of 21, Poole sailed in Loch Garry for 112 days from Glasgow to Melbourne, Australia, [1, 4, 11, 18, 62] although some incorrectly place his arrival in 1903, four years later than his first immigration record. [1] In fact, he was quite young and his British ice experience could only have been a handful of years. His parents followed in February 1901 on SS Oruba. [18] They were both 42 years-old and accompanied by their daughter, Miss B Poole, aged 17. [30, 31] The family lived at 58 Milford Street in St Kilda in Melbourne in 1915 and his sister later moved to 86 Bayswater Road in Sydney.

Poole first learnt ice skating in Britain when a school friend was lent a pair of skates. They used one each in scooter fashion on a frozen pond, changing feet so each got practice. Then, one day his friend took ill and Poole "had the great privilege of using the two skates at once. My appetite for skating was whetted there and then and it has never since been sated". [62] He was probably also familiar with one or more of five different ball games on ice — most likely bandy — which had been played at Australia's first rinks in Adelaide and Melbourne between 1904 and 1906. He played in some of those games in both cities.

According to former state ice hockey secretary Syd Tange, [1] Poole introduced ice hockey to Australia, but this is not true. Similarly, he was not, as the national ice skating association believe, a member of the Adelaide Glaciarium syndicate. It was Henry Newman Reid, William Booker and Sir Colin Stewart. [52] Poole was an employee of Reid, as Reid's daughter Mirey has pointed out. Tange also credited Poole with introducing figure and speed skating to Australia, [1] but even this can well be disputed.

Professor John Charles Gerald Caldwell taught the first professional ice skating instruction in Australia. A manager and instructor at the Adelaide rink from its opening in September 1904, [50] Caldwell immigrated to Melbourne in 1882, lived at Langridge Street in Collingwood by 1886-7, [46, 47] and was "the Champion Roller Skater of Australia" by the time the Adelaide ice rink opened. [49]

In May 1904, Caldwell and "two accomplished lady rinkists" were employed as instructors by the Jubilee Exhibition (Roller) Skating Rink in Adelaide, managed by another champion roller skater, Frank Beyer, who also operated roller rinks at Richmond and St Kilda in Melbourne. The young women were probably Beyer's daughters, Hilda and Rubina, both accomplished skaters who instructed and exhibited interstate from a young age. Caldwell and Beyer had trained many of Australia's first ice skaters at the Exhibition Skating Rink in Adelaide, and in many Melbourne roller rinks, long before there was even ice.

Professor James Brewer joined Caldwell at the start of the first full season at Adelaide Glaciarium, early in 1905. Billed as the "Professional Champion Ice Skater of the World", Brewer at that time was an instructor at Prince's Skating Club at Knightsbridge in London [44, 45] which catered to the well-heeled and elite of British figure skaters from the time it opened in late-1896. With ice measuring 64m x 15.8m (210-ft by 52-ft), it also hosted ice hockey from early 1897, two years before Poole left for Australia.

Brewer was highly accomplished in both figures and speed skating and could skate 500m in 1 min 2 sec. On his arrival, the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported, Professor Brewer, who comes to Australia with excellent credentials ... proved that he is a skater whose equal has never been seen in Australia on an ice rink. [48] He could turn somersaults in the air while skating at full-speed, and he taught ice skating in Switzerland and Britain during the Australian off-seasons.

Although involved with the Adelaide rink during these first years, Poole was not a professional skating instructor, nor even the rink manager. He remained in Adelaide until sometime after February 1906 when elected to the Council of the South Australian Society of Arts to fill a vacancy caused by the death of artist C H Gooden. [53] But there is no record he held a professional organisational role for ice sports at Adelaide Glaciarium in any of the hundreds of contemporary newspaper references. Caldwell and Brewer professionally trained the first generation of homegrown Australian ice skaters, including the young Reids.

Although born in Ireland, Poole lived in Scotland as a boy with access to ample natural ice surfaces and skating clubs. The first skating club in the world began in Edinburgh in 1642 and continued on until 1966. Something similar was not established in London until 1830 and inventors tried for many years to produce artificial ice surfaces because whole seasons could go by without a good skating surface in bad weather.

However, aside from the experimental Real Ice Skating Palace at Glasgow in 1896, which was reportedly just a short-lived novelty, the first Scottish rink did not open until 1907 at Crossmyloof, near Glasgow, courtesy of Scottish Ice Rink Co. That was long after Poole had left and any indoor ice experience he gained, either as a skater or rink manager, could only have been in England or continental Europe. Only between the mid-1880s, when he was old enough to learn, and mid-1899, when he left for Australia. No doubt he was a good organiser and a proficient skater when he fell in with H Newman Reid and his ambitious experimental ice rink in Hindley Street, Adelaide. But he had not skated on ice or managed a rink for at least the six years he spent in Australia until the Adelaide rink opened in late-1904 when he was 28.

"Hockey on the ice" in Adelaide began in late-1904 using bandy or field hockey rules and equipment. A little later, Caldwell transitioned roller polo from the quad roller rinks to the small oval-shaped ice with its centrally located pole-support for the roof. This was a metre wide at the base and ruled-out most forms of organised team competition other than recreational novelties. The young Reids were also present in Adelaide: "three men who more than anybody else deserve the honour of 'Founders of Ice Hockey in Australia' were present at that meeting which marked the birth of the sport in this country; they were Mr H Newman Reid, himself, and his two sons Andy and Hal". [25] At the time, Reid's son Andy was 15, Hal was 13, and Leslie was 10. But it was recreational Bandy or field hockey on ice in Adelaide, not organised modern ice hockey, although the rules were formulated 27 years earlier in 1877.

Many years later, Poole said it was he who "rallied together two strong sides to put on Australia's first ice hockey match in the year of grace, 1904, when the nobility were chasing an ice hockey puck at Hengler's in London, where now stands the Palladium". [62] King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra and the Princess of Wales were indeed on hand for a match at Hengler's between an Internationals side and London on February 4th 1904, but the rink closed its doors soon after in Spring, well before the Adelaide rink opened in Australia on September 6th that year. A puck and ice hockey skates were not used until 1901 at Prince's, and it is now known the early games played in the few years before Poole left Britain were bandy, not modern ice hockey.

Caldwell and Brewer captained the first organised roller polo teams to play on ice in Adelaide. Poole played hockey on ice in July 1905, billed "England vs Australia", [54] the earliest known record of his participation in the early hockey on ice matches at Adelaide Glaciarium. Most official histories record the Adelaide rink closed after just one year of operation, however, it had operated successfully for the best part of three full seasons. It was not until late-April 1906 that Reid dissolved his Adelaide partnership to return home to Melbourne just before the opening of Melbourne Glaciarium.

Poole was still in Adelaide with Reid until around that time, and he was also credited with a key role setting-up Reid's Melbourne Ice Skating and Refrigeration Co in 1905, about one year before Reid left Adelaide. [64] The tenders for its construction, let by architects Usher and Kemp with Leon A Lambert, closed on October 2nd that year. [65] It seems likely Reid arranged the prospectus of his own company during 1905 before construction commenced, although Poole later told a newspaper he arrived in Melbourne "just in time to draw up the original prospectus of the Melbourne Glaciarium". [62]

In Melbourne at 29, Poole was a player in the first organised game of ice hockey in Australia between crew members from a visiting American warship and locals. James Brewer refereed the match. Poole later said he arranged it. [62] Next year, after Poole left for Sydney, a game took place in Melbourne against the touring Canadian Lacrosse Team. It was the first Australian ice hockey game on record to be played with a hockey puck and not a ball.

"Organising and launching ice rinks became a habit with Mr Poole," wrote V C Davis. "Packing the kit-bag for the third time, his restless feet led him to Sydney, and the chair of the General Management of Sydney's first ice rink". [62] The Sydney rink operated out of Melbourne for many years. James Thonemann, who played on the 1906 team with Poole, held a large financial interest in the rinks in both Melbourne and Sydney, although it is more plausible his sharebroker family were the syndicate investors. Managing Sydney Glaciarium became the focus of Poole's interest in Australia from its opening in 1907 until his retirement in 1931. In-between, he traveled on and off to Britain, Europe and North America. [1]

Skaters and hockey players from Melbourne visited Sydney for the opening that year led by James Thonemann. The first or second ice hockey match ever played in Sydney was organised as part of the opening celebrations, and it was advertised as "Hockey on Ice - Black Team versus White Team". The Black Team players were: J Douglas, H J Smith, Fred Reach, H Kelly, G E Boden and the White Team were Dunbar Poole, Oliver [Howard] Watts (bef. 1873–1942), [7] Duggan, C Part, Ramsay Salmon, and B Latimor. The referee was H Grille and the match result was White Team: 3 (D Poole: 2, R Salmon: 1) and Black Team: 2 (H J Smith: 1, G E Boden: 1). "Black versus White" matches continued at regular intervals in Sydney that year, mainly played at 10:15 pm, after the general skating sessions.

For the next six years, Poole mostly lived in Britain returning to Australia only for the Winter season at Sydney Glaciarium; four months of each year between May and September. His first known overseas trip after his arrival in Australia in 1899, was at the close of the 1908 season when he departed for London on November 26th, accompanied by local figure skater, Ramsay Salmon. The pair repeated this annually between 1908 and 1912, traveling as "professional skaters" in 1909 and 1910, then as tourists in 1911 and again in 1912. The 1910 trip was a holiday in Switzerland according to the Sydney magazine, The Theatre. [39] Both departed from Melbourne where their families lived, but by 1913 they had permanently moved to Sydney.

According to Syd Tange, Dunbar Poole taught Crown Prince Adolf skating and ice hockey, and became a close friend of the Swedish royal family. [1] As a result, he became a registered member of the Stockholm Figure Skating Club — Stockholms Allmanna Skridskoklubb — during one of his European visits which began in 1908. Through this club the Swedish government "invited" Poole to represent Sweden at the World Figure Skating Championships in Berlin, Germany, in 1911. Ulrich Salchow, the Swedish National Champion, won the event and another Swede, Richard Johansson, placed fifth. Poole competed for the Swedes again between February 16th to 17th, 1912 in Manchester, England, where Sweden's Harald Rooth placed fourth.

Poole finished sixth of six and seventh of seven — last in both events and representing Sweden, not Australia. [3] He had spent two-thirds of each year in Europe since 1908, and his travel records show he considered himself English, not Australian, which was commonplace in those years. His scores at Manchester improved by six points, about half those of other return competitors, but the gap between the gold medalist and he was a factor of five.

"THE PLAYING AREA WAS DEFINED by a circle of Russian warships frozen in for the winter. The ships served as grandstands filled with thousands of Russian 'Jack Tars' yelling themselves hoarse and singing sea chanties during the intervals between play". [62] Jack Tars were seamen and this ice hockey match at sea near Helsingfors (Helsinki) in the Gulf of Finland, took place during a trip Poole made across Northern Europe. He considered it his most extraordinary game and that was saying something, because among his tales were hockey games with the Crown Prince of Sweden and officers of the Swedish army.

Occasionally, he played in goal when the crown Princess of Sweden and her sister, then Princess Patricia of Connaught, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, played ice hockey with the ladies of the Court. [62] At St Moritz in Switzerland, he met and became firm friends with Prince Ferdinand Carl of Austria. He said he had a personal letter from him regretting that an invitation to stay with the Prince in the Austrian Tyrol would have to be postponed on account of the tragic assassination of his brother and sister-in-law in Sarajevo. Similarly, he said he once accompanied "the English tutor to the Tsar Alexis on several journeys fraught with danger" (sic; perhaps Alexei). [62]

Bandy had long been the big winter sport in Sweden, the game that Poole was first associated with in Adelaide in 1904. Some Bandy rules were still used in the 1908 games in Melbourne, when Canadian rules in Australia were first recorded. It was not until 1919 that Canadian ice hockey was mooted in Sweden, when Raoul Le Mat, a US movie director, visited with his friends, Thomas Cahill and Ernest Viberg. They met with Anton Johanson, chairman of the Swedish Football Association and a member of the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Viberg, a Swedish-American, explained how he had played ice hockey at Columbia University and how fast the popular sport was spreading through North America. Cahill, an American football chief, suggested Viberg put a team together and introduce ice hockey in Sweden. They attracted several bandy players interested in learning about the new sport. From there, the Swedish Football Association controlled Swedish ice hockey from 1920 until 1922 when it was officially founded. [14]

Poole returned to Melbourne from a British port in May 1910 and again in April 1912, the latter just before the summer Olympics in Stockholm opened by Crown Prince Adolf. [18] He returned to Sydney from Liverpool in 1909, 1910 and 1912. [4, 41] His first overseas visit was about ten years after he arrived in Australia, and he had not traveled overseas before the 1908 Melbourne games where the use of Canadian rules was first recorded. However, Poole was often out of the country, for personal reasons or holidays or figure skating trips, each year from November 1908 to 1913, the year before war broke and Goodall Cup ice hockey was suspended until 1921.

Figure skater, Ramsay Salmon, accompanied him on the first five trips until 1913 when Salmon married. [41] Trips to Britain, Europe and North America still required months of absence and contrary to what some say, Poole was away from Australia for six consecutive years, usually for the eight or nine months between September and May. He was overseas for most of the formative years of ice hockey in Australia.

Moreover, the unusual circumstances and the results of his two international competitions suggest his aims were different to most international competitors. Described in later years as a "top rink manager in Britain" and an "entertainment industry manager" in Australia, he was not a figure skating competitor, nor even a skating instructor, until after he had represented Sweden in 1911 and 1912.

SURROUNDED ON THREE SIDES by Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River, Drummoyne in Sydney's inner west has some of the city's best waterfront views. The brick Federation cottage at No 11 Tranmere Street was Poole's residence between 1913 and 1915, [42] and the place where his father, James, died in 1914. [30] Poole did not attend the ISU championships in Vienna in 1913, nor Helsinki the next year. After his appearances in the 1911 and 1912 Worlds figure skating events, he instead turned his attention to North America.

For years, European and North American figure skaters rarely competed against each other due to differences in skating styles. However, in 1914, pioneer figure skater George H Browne organized the first International Figure Skating Championships of America under the sponsorship of the ISUA. They were open to skaters from the United States and Canada, and contested according to the International Style, which Browne had introduced to the United States in the early 1900s. Louis Rubenstein of Montréal introduced the style to Canada at the same time. Minto Skating Club in Ottawa and the Earl Grey Skating Club of Montréal became founding members of the "Figure Skating Department" of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada, with Rubenstein as its first president. This was the predecessor organization to Skate Canada.

It was a landmark year and one of the spinoffs was the first official recognition of world figure skating as a distinctly separate sport to speed skating. Browne chose US National champion, Irving Brokaw, to showcase the International Style when he first introduced it to America in 1908, and Brokaw became the first American skater to qualify in the style, as well as an Olympic competitor. Only two other unofficial American championships followed Brokaw's 1906 win; one held in New York in 1907, won by Edward W Bassett; and one in Jersey City, NJ, in 1909, won by Arthur G Williams of Newark. These developments were largely the reason why there was such close contact and cooperation between clubs in the US and Canada during this era, until just after World War 1.

The first official "International" American championships were held on March 20th 1914 in New Haven Connecticutt, two hours by train from New York City. Poole sailed to San Francisco from Sydney in September 1913, arriving on October 9th with four months to spare. It was his first visit to North America on record, and two years later, he departed Sydney late in 1915, again arriving in San Francisco. [41] However, there was a hiatus due to war from 1914 when Poole first visited, until the championships resumed in 1918 at St Nicholas Rink, New York. Poole arrived at San Francisco during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition when the city celebrated its rebirth after the 1906 earthquake.

Brokaw had introduced the first ice shows to North America at the New York Hippodrome in 1916 and late that year, in the season after Poole's second visit to America, Robert and Louise Jackson left Melbourne for New York. Robert had landed a contract as a professional instructor at the Ice Palace rink in Riverside Drive, Manhattan, and a season at the Hippodrome. It was there in 1917 that the Jacksons first worked with the American ice dancers, Charles and Lena Uksila, and they were probably still there for the figure skating championships in 1918. Arthur Held, the first professional instructor at Minto Skating Club, had also worked with Lena Uksila in New York in April 1917, and the Uksilas later coached skating and ice hockey at both Sydney and Melbourne in 1920 and 1923.

Poole had first learnt to skate in the "English style", which was rigid and formal compared to the International Style, and not recognised at all by the International Skating Union (ISU). He may have attended the third ISU World championships held in London in 1898, when many International skaters had begun to train there, but he left Britain the following year. The more limited surface area of the new indoor rinks all but forced English-style skaters to adopt the Continental-style methods, which were similar, but less difficult and graceful.

On his return to Australia, Poole attended at least two end-of-season carnivals at Melbourne Glaciarium. He exhibited fancy skating with Winifred Williams in 1915 and again in May 1918, billed as "an American expert who has been engaged by the management". Later at the closing carnival in August, he showcased International free skating "in which pirouetting on one and both feet was warmly applauded". The Argus newspaper noted the "particularly graceful skating by Messrs Dunbar Poole and Langley".

Langley had learnt from Brewer since 1904, and he also attended the 1911 world championships in Berlin although he did not compete. Langley will always be remembered as the driving force behind the National Ice Skating Association of Australia established in Melbourne that year, while Poole in Sydney championed the rival association in that state. Poole was in his mid- to late-30s and nearing retirement when he went to America, but it was in the European winters between 1909 and 1912, and the American winters between 1914 and 1916, that he developed the artistic skill of modern figure skating. On his second trip to America he was no longer a "professional skater" or "tourist", but an "artist". [41]

Poole was patron of the Sydney Glaciarium Ice Hockey Club when Jack Pike was both captain and president after the sport was slowly rebuilt from 1920 in the wake of war. The following year, Poole succeeded Pike as president and the patron was George Sydney Vernon Buzacott (1861 - 1929), a prominent stockbroker and foundation director of Sydney Ice Skating Rink Company Limited. Charles and Lena Uksila made their first visit to Australia that year, returning to Vancouver in October.

Poole's International figure skating experience no doubt assisted his appointment as the second figure skating coach at Minto Skating Club in Ottawa. The sport had grown in popularity in Canada during the decades following George Meagher's win in an open figure skating competition claimed as the world championship. In 1903, Lord Minto, Governor General of Canada from 1898 to 1904, presented the Minto prizes to encourage the development of skilful performance in figures.

The next year, the Lord and Countess founded the Minto Skating Club in Ottawa, which still operates today as competitive figure skating club. Lady Minto skated with George Meagher (1866–1930) who was a co-founder of the club. Lord Minto gave permission for the Earl of Minto coronet to be used as part of the Club crest. Indoor skating facilities were soon obtained at the Rideau Skating Rink on the corner of Waller and Theodore (now Laurier Avenue), one of the first indoor skating rinks in Canada, which had opened in January 1889. This was the rink used for ice hockey by the Waller Street School where Victorian-born Tommy Dunderdale played in 1904, and probably earlier since his arrival in Canada in 1894.

Canadian figure skating championships were held there, although the first official Canadian championship took place in 1914 in Montréal. The Minto Skating Club later operated from Dey's Arena (3rd rink, 2nd Arena) also on Theodore Street (Laurier Avenue). From 1884, there were three different Dey's Arenas. Between them, they were home ice to the Ottowa Hockey Club (Ottawa Senators), and they hosted Stanley Cup challenges in 1903 to 1906, 1910, 1911 and the 1920 Stanley Cup Finals.

The Minto Club had engaged its first professional coach from Europe in 1911, identified only as "Mr Held" in Club history. This was almost certainly Arthur Held who opened a school figures performance at St Nicholas Rink in New York in April, 1917, in which Lena Uksila also performed. Dunbar Poole became a figure skating coach at Minto Skating Club sometime after Arthur Held, alternating between Ottawa and Sydney Glaciarium during the winters. [37]

Herbert Blatchly also visited Canada in 1920, about six months before Poole. Canadian-born Blatchly was captain of the first ice hockey team to play in Melbourne in 1906, in which Poole also played against the sailors of USS Baltmore. Blatchly arrived in Vancouver from July 17th, 1920 with his wife and two daughters, and lived in San Francisco before returning to Sydney via Vancouver in April 1921. [41] After immigrating to Québec in May 1881, Blatchly had moved to Toronto and first played organised hockey in the first leagues around Ottawa. Tommy Dunderdale had lived in Ottawa since 1894, and he first played organized ice hockey there with his Waller Street School team at the Rideau rink, which was used by the Minto Club for figure skating championships since 1904.

A few months later at a Committee Meeting of Sydney Ice Hockey Club, it was proposed "Mr Pike represent the clubs in conjunction with the Hon. Secretary of the Committee to hold a benefit night for Mr. Dunbar Poole...". It was August 11th 1921, and the gesture was no doubt in aid of Poole's departure for the Minto Rink. [1] He arrived in San Francisco for the third time on November 22nd 1921, but this time headed for Ottawa as "ice rink manager". Poole said it was "in this town that he received very valuable experience of first-class hockey". [62] Soon after he left Australia, the Sydney Ice Hockey Club became the New South Wales ice hockey and speed skating association, led by Leslie Reid and Norm Joseph.

Poole probably commenced at Minto Skating Club in the Winter of 1921–2, the year the Club moved to the new Rideau Rink on Waller Avenue where Dunderdale first played. [39] The Club later took it over, renaming it Minto Rink. Poole may have met his predecessor, Arthur Held, on one of two visits to America in 1913 and 1915, or Herbert Blatchly could have organised it with help from Robert Jackson, Jimmy Bendrodt and their expanding North American network. Poole's departure from Australia on this occasion coincided with the formation of the first national association of ice hockey and speed skating in Sydney in 1922-3.

In 1923, Poole's mother died in Sydney [30] and he returned to Australia from England. He was unanimously re-elected honourary treasurer and secretary of the NSW Ice Hockey Association in May. [59] He left and returned again in 1925, returning once in the intervening years, and in 1924 he was presiding for the second time over the newly formed NSW ice hockey association. [60] At the same time, he told the public he was still also in control of figure skating. [56] His contribution to New South Wales ice hockey during the Twenties was later acknowledged by Jimmy Brown, Australia's first ice hockey international.

In 1927, at the age of 50, he married Gladys Maria Waugh (née McKessar), aged 38, at Sydney, and they lived at Darlinghurst, Sydney's notorious red light district, immediately east of the CBD and Hyde Park. [43] Gladys was the only daughter of Maria and Alexander McKessar who had four children at Peterhead in Scotland before they migrated to Australia. [30] For the next five years, Poole spent more time in Australia than overseas.

In 1930, he was team manager of the successful New South Wales state ice hockey team that defeated Victoria in Melbourne. His association with Sydney Glaciarium ended in 1931 when he returned to London to briefly manage the Hammersmith Ice Drome. [57] The English ice show promoter Claude Langdon had converted part of the site of the Hammersmith Palais de Danse into an ice rink. It was the base for the original London Lions ice hockey team until 1933 when they moved to Wembley Arena as the Wembley Lions. By the 1932-33 skating season, he had become General Manager of Streatham Ice Arena, London, [34] which opened on February 26th, 1931; one of a spate of government-funded rinks in England at the time.

During his time there, he was team manager of the Streatham Redskins in 1934–5, when they won the British National League Championship, and again in 1935–6 and 1937–8. [36] He became a life governor of the Royal Free Hospital for his charity work at Streatham. [57] The rink closed in 2011 after 81 years, England's second oldest rink after Queens, built the year before in 1930. [32]

Poole and his wife, who was also a skater, returned to Australia in June 1938 as General Manager of Sydney's second rink, the Ice Palais. [55] He had been absent for six years [55] in which time Reg Leafe (1897–1953) managed the rink. [2, 40] On his return in 1938, he said publicly he had trained the last three World's Champion Professional Skaters. [55]

Sydney’s second ice rink opened in 1938 in the Hall of Industries at the Sydney Showgrounds, Moore Park. The brainchild of Canadian-born Jimmy Bendrodt, [17] the Ice Palais boasted an International standard ice floor of 61m by 30m. [2] Poole had returned at the age of 59 to manage it until it closed in 1941 when the building was requisitioned for the war effort. Some say Poole was manager when the Ice Palais re-opened in 1948, [1] but he was over 70 years-old by then, and McKnight has written that it re-opened with Charlie Fisher as manager. [2]

The opening featured Canadian figure-skating and ice-hockey stars, including the Canadian Bears ice hockey team from Kenora, Canada, which Bendrodt promoted as amateurs. However, the NSW Administration thought otherwise, and it was prohibited from playing for a time, until its potential for promoting local hockey was eventually recognised. At the end of the 1938 season, the Canadians finally played a team considered the Australian National team at that time.

A long-awaited Bears vs St George clash took place at the Ice Palais in Sydney on September 14th, 1938. After the match, a letter sent by the Ice Palais management to St George captain, Jimmy Brown, inferred Tom Coulter was a "dirty" player, and a breakaway group formed posing "the first threat to Australian controlling bodies". Coulter was on a business trip to Australia and his brother Art who played for the Chicago Black Hawks was among the best defensemen in the NHL. Tom had also played with the Black Hawks and was also an accredited referee. [66]

After Streatham, Poole reportedly managed a rink in Ayr Scotland [57]. The Ayr Ice Rink was the first in that city, opening in 1939 after Poole returned to Britain from Sydney. He said he intended to manage the newly opened Murrayfield Rink in Edinburgh, but war intervened. [57] He retired to Australia when he attended the re-opening of the Ice Palais at the Sydney Showgrounds on May 8th, 1948.

Dunbar Poole died in June 1954 at the age of 78, at his home in Merimbula (Eden) in New South Wales. [1, 30] Eden, at Twofold Bay on the NSW coast, is known as the 'halfway point between Melbourne and Sydney'. On the available evidence, he was a 'proficient' skater, never a national or International champion and the first games he played in Australia were not, according to the record, modern ice hockey.

In 1933, he became a Life Member of the New South Wales Ice Hockey Association. When Jim Barnett, the former State and Glebe goalkeeper, became a life member in 1937, there were a total of four other life members, in this order: E J Kendall, D Poole, N P Joseph and C V Kerr. [61] Jim Kendall and Jim Barnett are no longer listed by the state association.

The association maintains Poole took an active role as a player, administrator and selector during his years as manager of the Sydney Glaciarium in ice hockey, figure skating and speed skating. The association also acknowledged the part he played in forming the NSW Soccer Association (now Football NSW). John Walter Fletcher (1847 – 1918) founded the first association in New South Wales in 1882, when Poole was six. It was known as the South British Football Association, although some sources refer to it as the New South Wales English Football Association. In 1898, the year before Poole arrived in Australia, it became the NSW British Football Association.

Poole once said he was "chairman of the first meeting called to introduce the round ball game late South Australia and played in the first Australian interstate soccer match between Western Australia and South Australia". He reportedly also "played soccer for Australia against A O Foster's cricket team". [67]

One of twenty-two inaugural inductees to Ice Skating Australia's Hall of Fame in August 2004, Dunbar Poole helped with the first ice rink in Sydney, and he probably organised events and helped train entry-level skaters in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, but not as a professional skating instructor. He played on the first Australian ice hockey team in 1906, won a Goodall Cup in 1911 as a player, and another as a Team Manager in 1930. He competed in two World Figure Skating Championships representing Sweden, and contributed in a significant way to ice hockey and rink management in New South Wales following his experiences with the game at a high-level in Canada and Britain.