There are some inconsistencies about the true origins of the club. In the first history of The Harlequin Football Club of London, published in 1954, the author H.B.T. Wakelam wrote that our Harlequin Club was founded in August 1928 by seven men: C.J.A. Moses, D.Baker, G.A.Thomas, C.A.Davis, J.Stewart-Malir, D.J.S.Brewin and W.Taverner  in the bar of the now defunct London Tavern.  According to our research the first meeting of the proposed Overseas Rugby Club was held on the 7th September 1928 at the Amateur Sports Club, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. An extract of the Minutes of that meeting records.

Present:

• D.J.S.Brewin
  
• S.S.Brown
  
• J.Christopher
  
• C.A.Davis
  
• W.Marwood
  
• W.Matthew
  
• C.J.A.Moses
  
• W.B.H.Rae
  
• D.C.Sparks
  
• J.J.Stewart-Malir
  
• W.Taverner
  
• J.Taylor(snr)
  
• S.Weeks
  
• Members of the Victorian Rugby Union who attended the meeting were
  
  • M.G. (Bert) Penwill
    
  • R.Lane (Vice President)

The Meeting discussed the name of the new Club. Mr Stewart-Malir proposed the name "HARLEQUINS", a membership fee of one guinea and the players supplying their own jerseys.

The Harlequins name was selected because of its essentially “Britishness” or perhaps more accurately “Englishness”. The parent club of this now global family of clubs, which can be found on almost every continent, was formed in 1867 as the Hampstead Club and changed its name to the Harlequins in 1870. The change of name hints at the club’s early nomadic history where they found themselves playing home matches throughout London, even venturing as far to the east as Catford. Legend has it that the Harlequin name was decided under a Hampstead street light in the early hours of the morning after an evening of carousing. However, as H.B.T.Wakelam wrote in his 1953 history of the London Harlequins: “Real fact”-forever the bugbear of “romance”- must overtake that nice little story, and the unfortunate “real fact” was that the Hampstead Club had decided to change its name because of the change in the previous purely local membership rules. Not wanting to dispense with the H.F.C. monogram and the latin motto “Nunquam Dormio” - I never sleep -, the club made a master-stoke of a name change. But what is a Harlequin? It was originally derived from the French word “Hellequin” a devil in medieval legend. Shakespeare referred to a “Harlekin” as a mountebank or zany person. Perhaps, however, the Encyclopaedia Britannica best sums up a Harlequin as a person, who makes funny moves! This suited the London Club, which has prided itself on playing attractive, attacking rugby throughout its history. For us perhaps we just attracted funny guys!

There was no doubt that the Harlequin name suited us and we have benefited from it. Melbourne Harlequins have played for Harlequin clubs in London, Pretoria, Hobart, Hamilton NZ, and they have played for us. We have met Harlequin clubs from around the world in veterans’ tournaments. In July 2001 the Harlequin Gentlemen from London won our “Lions Tour” rugby tournament, and in October, 2003 Harlequin teams from Melbourne, Sydney and Hamilton NZ played in our World Cup Harlequin Challenge. But the original founder members were not to know that!

An extract of the first Minutes of The Harlequin Club, held at the Coffee Pot, Bank Place, Melbourne on 2nd November 1928 records.

The name HARLEQUIN CLUB was adopted.
The Harlequin Club shall have two sections, RUGBY and CRICKET

An extract of the First Annual Meeting of The Harlequin Club, held at the Hotel Windsor on the 13th February 1929 records,

Twenty three rules and regulations were drawn up and passed

1. The name of this club is THE HARLEQUIN CLUB
   

2. The objects for which this club is established are:
   

   • To establish, maintain and conduct a Club of a non-political and non-sectarian character
     

   • to facilitate sport and social intercourse amongst overseas Britishers resident in Victoria

3. Persons eligible to become Club members shall be persons born or domiciled in Great Britain or Ireland
   

4. The Club Colours shall be black, maroon, sage green and pale blue, quartered
   

There may be some uncertainty as to who the actual founders were, but there is no doubt they were men with drive, vision and the skills to achieve their objectives for the club. From the beginning it was well organised with the following structure,

• Harlequin Club
  • President                 Dr. R.H.Morrison
  • Vice-President            C.E.Davies
  • Hon. General Secretary    J.J.Stewart-Malir
  • Hon. Treasurer            C.E.Rowe
  • Committee                
    •                     D.J.Baker
    •                     A.D.Gale
    •                     S.Grist
• Cricket
  • Captain                   D.J.Baker
  • Vice Captain              G.A.Thomas
  • Hon. Secretary            D.Shubert
• Golf
  • Hon.Secretary             S.Grist
• Rugby Union
  • Captain                   C.J.A.Moses
  • Hon. Secretary            J.J.Stewart-Malir
    

Charles Moses, who was certainly one of the founders, was the first club captain and represented Victoria on the rugby field for many years. He was also famous in the wider world when he became General Manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. At the 50th anniversary celebrations, which were interestingly held in 1979 rather than 1978, he (by then Sir Charles Moses) recounted how he and John Stewart-Malir, while playing for the St Kilda Club, thought that the United Kingdom community should have its own rugby club. The precedent for this was set in Victorian rugby by the Kiwi Club, which catered exclusively for the New Zealanders resident in the State. David Baker, who was another of the men behind the founding of the club, managed a back room at the famous Windsor Hotel, and his room became a regular meeting place for the club. Harlequins and hotels have had a great attraction for each other throughout the history of the club not just as customers but also as licencees. Today Rick Gilbert and Graeme Rennie run very successful hotels in the City. Both were very well patronised by Lions supporters during the 2001 Lions tour and Rugby World Cup fanatics in 2003.

Another foundation member Darrel Brewin was not only very effective on the rugby pitch representing Victoria from 1929-1933 and administratively within the club, but was also a great leader in the cricket section of the club. Indeed, the club's first success took place on the cricket field rather than the rugby pitch. On the 7th March 1929 the Melbourne Harlequins played the Sydney Bohemians at cricket at the St. Kilda Ground. We must have had some clout because the Melbourne Harlequins comprised five club members plus six members of the MCC party in Australia for the Ashes (including Jack Hobbs, Patsy Hendren and Maurice Laylands) and the Sydney Bohemians comprised seven Harlequins and five members of the Australian team (including; Arthur Mailey, C. Park and J.L.Ellis). The match was played to raise funds for the Legacy Club’s “Distress Fund for Workless Returned Soldiers”. It was all in a good cause, and everyone enjoyed the occasion. Cricket was initially stronger in the club than rugby, probably because cricket was a better-organised and more popular sport in Melbourne then. The cricket section of the club even had a larger committee than rugby and a fixtures book. They played 20 matches and practised at the Old Scotch Ground in Batman Avenue, now the Melbourne Tennis Centre.

This hosting of an international team less than six months after the club's founding was to start a tradition of entertaining touring teams from all parts of the world, which has contributed to the club ethos and continues to this day.

With the excitement of the cricket behind it, it was time for the rugby season to begin, and in 1929 with our first rugby season to start, a new member joined the club who was to make a huge impression on and off the field and whose contribution and input has perhaps been the most important in the club's history. R.S. (Ron) Bolton came from Ireland where he was a first class oarsman,representing Ireland against the Australian Olympic Team in 1924. His son Peter, born in 1945, went on to be an outstanding player (Wallaby trialist, and 99 game Victoria representative) and President of The Harlequin Club.  Family dynasties have been a feature and strength of the club, and H.G. (Bert) Penwill, the VRU Vice-President and observer at that famous first meeting on 7th September 1928 joined the club, and his son Max, grandson John and great-grandsons Tony (who played for Australia Colts) and Nigel also played for the club and Victoria with great distinction. H.G. (Bert) Penwill was initially a member of the Melbourne Rugby Union Club and joined Harlequins to spread the game of rugby in Victoria. He later returned to the Melbourne Club and went on to serve as President for many years. His grandson, John, claims Bert left us because he did not appreciate the behaviour of certain Harlequins. Our research has been unable to discover either the nature of this behaviour or the names of the miscreants, but we assume it was not too terrible since subsequent generations of Penwills have embraced the club.

The first rugby season in 1929 must be considered a success, despite losing  the first match against Navy and most others of that first season. Three Harlequins, Charles Moses, Ron Bolton and Darrel Brewin were selected to represent Victoria. 

The club records do not provide any results for the 1929 season except for the loss in the opening match against Navy and the sole photographs show a match against the Geelong Club played in Geelong with the team travelling in a furniture van. We are not aware of the significance of the van, but the journey in 1929 must have been quite an undertaking. Research into the post-war period has found that a Harlequin ran a laundry business and often ferried players to matches in his van amongst the weekend's washing! Presumably one of the players in 1929 owned a removal company and he would have been a very popular member of the club.

The social side of the club was progressing very well, so well in fact that an Extraordinary General Meeting was held at the Coffee Pot, Bank Place on the 18th November 1929 at which the following amendment was made to the constitution of the club:

Rule 2) The Club be primarily a Sporting Club and that the social activities be subsidiary to the sporting activities

Fortunately the club has not taken that amendment too seriously and the social side has remained a very important aspect of the club. Nevertheless it took a further 26 years for us to win a First Grade Premiership, so the members did not take that far-sighted change too much to heart!

By 1930 the club had grown enough to run a second team. More importantly, on 10th September 1930 it opened the first official Harlequin club rooms in Renmartin House, St. James Place, Melbourne. The rooms were on the third floor of a wool warehouse and the rent was 15 shillings ($1.50) per week. This was excellent timing, for the club was the official host to the touring British Lions Team at the clubrooms on 16th September. The Lions played one Test in Australia, which they won 6 points to 5, as part of their major tour to New Zealand. Lions’ tours in those days were much more sociable than now and the Wallabies and the Lions were in Melbourne as visitors, not playing opponents. The Test Match was played in Sydney. The few facts recorded for posterity about hospitality show that our captain, Charles Moses, won the beer drinking competition, beating the then undefeated champion of the last Wallaby Tour to Great Britain and France, and our President, Dr. R. Morrison gave a most spirited rendition of “She Was Poor, But She Was Honest”. As a social event we can be proud that we won the most important contest and continued the tradition of entertaining visiting overseas teams. For the clubrooms the timing was later not so fortunate. The depression of the early thirties was so pervasive, that many Harlequins were without jobs, and the premises had to be given up. This is the official reason, but correspondence from David Sparkes, one of the original members, let the cat out of the bag. Evidently many firkins of ale were bought for the reception and they had to be hoisted from outside the rooms to the third floor. During the reception and subsequent turns the fine merino bales stored on the second floor were stained by Carlton beer or similar, and the club was promptly evicted! It was only some 30 years later that the question of clubrooms was finally and satisfactorily settled.

That second year in the competition saw the members continue to enjoy their rugby in the English tradition, that is all matches were friendlies, and there was no formal competition with finals. This was almost certainly due to the fact that there were few teams with varying states of organisation and playing memberships. We were mildly optimistic for the 1931 season, but this optimism proved to be entirely misplaced. The first team managed to win four of its eight games, but the second team had to forfeit more than half its games due to a shortage of numbers. This was not the full extent of the misery, as the Annual Report of the club for 1931 recorded;

Owing to the Secretary’s apparent lack of interest in the progress and activities of the club, the committee was compelled to ask for his resignation, which after a considerable delay was accepted. The first team, which averaged 12 stone and 26 years, did not do itself justice. Players were slack in attending training nights, and the appearance of a Harlequin at the changing rooms on Tuesday or Thursday evenings was generally greeted with loud applause from members of other clubs.

Perhaps the greatest indictment of the year was the absence of social activities due to the Harlequins failure to pay subs.

Tragedy also struck when one of its most popular players, Ewan Lloyd,  was killed when a seaplane propeller hit him at the St. Kilda Marina in November 1931. If things looked dismal in general in 1931 then the date 22nd August, 1931 must have a specific relevance, because on that date we beat Air Force and we did not have another victory for almost three years.

In 1932 the Victorian Rugby Union had created a newly structured competition  with First and Second Grades and points and a finals series of matches in which the top four teams competed. The First Grade clubs were: Eastern Suburbs, Geelong, Footscray, Harlequins, Melbourne, Navy, St.Kilda, and University.

Second Grade clubs were: Eastern Suburbs, Geelong, Harlequins, Melbourne, St.Kilda and University.

Geelong, Footscray and Navy had their own grounds, but the remaining Melbourne clubs played on several pitches in Middle Park, which have now been turned into a golf range and children's playground.

Eastern Suburbs were to metamorphosise into Kiwis then Kiwi-Hawthorne and finally Boorandara, while Navy disappeared with the relocation of Navy Squadrons interstate, and St. Kilda drifted into oblivion.

By this time we were using the facilities of The Mercantile Rowing Club for training and social activities. For training this meant a warm-up run along the towpath before formal rugby training on the lawns behind the clubhouse. As the bye-laws forbade the kicking of balls, the use of studded boots, and there were no pitch markings the training sessions were at best rudimentary and unfortunately poorly attended. Despite the famous motion passed at the 1930 Annual General Meeting the emphasis of the players was more social than athletic. The connection with Mercantile came through Ron Bolton an excellent oarsman and Secretary of that club.

1933 was another significant year for the club. At the fifth Annual General Meeting on the 17th March the constitution was amended to allow members from outside Great Britain and Ireland to join the club as full members. As an issue it had already appeared on the table at the end of the first season in 1929 when Ramsay Brewin, Australian born son of Darrel Brewin, wanted to play for the club. We had got around this issue for a few years by giving him (and others) non-voting rights while allowing him to play. It was an important change that made us more inclusive and gave us the potential of many more eligible players. Our miserable results on the playing field were certainly a cause of this change. Nevertheless, the British/Irish orientation of the Harlequins remained very influential particularly in the administration of the club. Not surprisingly this change was not overwhelmingly accepted, and it led to the resignation of an important Harlequin figure, John Stewart-Malir. It was he, who, with Charles Moses had come up with the idea of our club, who had suggested the name Harlequins and who was our first Hon. Secretary. He had also persuaded Dr. R.H.Morrison to be our first President. Dr. Morrison was a former Scottish international, which gave our newly formed club credibility. John Stewart-Malir was probably our first (but not last) oddball/character. A Scotsman, he had served as a British Cavalry Officer in India before arriving in Melbourne via Western Australia with his Australian wife. He is remembered fondly and sadly as a man rather susceptible to the attractions of alcohol, but proud and passionate in the development of the Harlequins as a completely British outfit. He was an enthusiastic and tireless player of moderate ability, who left a strong impression on the club despite his relatively short-term membership. At the outbreak of the Second World War he quickly enlisted, served with courage and distinction in the Middle East until his death during the campaigns against Rommel’s armies.

Another change, though less significant, was the election of the first President of the Rugby Section of the club. The first incumbent was an interesting man, Eustace (Beau) Havre who entered one of his jumpers in the steeplechase at Flemington for Gentlemen Riders. It was recorded in the club's Annual Report, that;

Your President Beau Havre riding "Harlequin", although winning easily, fell in the straight twenty yards from the finish. In true Harlequin spirit he declared, "it is not the winning that counts but the taking part".

Such events as this contributed to the feeling amongst some other the clubs that the Harlequins were stuck-up, elitist and considered themselves generally superior. Even today that feeling of superiority, particularly amongst the older members, still exists. As a club, we would argue we try to maintain the positive traditions of rugby such as good fellowship, good sportsmanship, respect of the referee with the need to run a professional and successful organisation where members can enjoy each other’s company.

Fortunately the above took everyone’s mind away from the major activity of the club, namely playing rugby. As referred to earlier in 1932 and 1933 the first team lost all its matches, despite having 6 Victorian representatives, while the second team lost 12 of 15 in 1933. In 1934 the first team at least managed 4 wins and 12 losses. In 1935 it was back to just 2 wins from 14 games. In 1936 the appointment of Wallaby David Cowper (Father of the great Test cricketer Bob Cowper) as player coach improved our win/loss ratio to 6/11. A highlight of the season was our first ever win against traditional rivals Melbourne. We were struggling in 1936 to remain in the First Division, and a miserable 1937 season with just 2 wins (with our second win against Melbourne one of them) and 16 losses, led to relegation to the Second Division for 1938. The V.R.U. competition was rather confusing then (just as it is now) because our second team continued to play in the Reserve Grade of First Division, despite winning the Reserve Grade minor and major Premierships! Meanwhile our first team played in the First Grade of Second Division. The captain of the second team, Bill Jordan was a strong personality and had not allowed any of his players to be promoted to the senior side during the season.  There is no doubt the relegation would have been avoided if the younger second team players had been promoted. This situation was to repeat itself in the late 60’s early 70’s where ex-first team players in Mike Plumbridge’s fourth team, where ex-first team players refused to play for the second or third teams.

For 1939 the club set itself the target of gaining promotion back into First Division/First Grade. The season was a very successful one for the club as this extract from the 1939 Annual Report attests; 

1939 proved to be a most successful year for the club, in that the First XV succeeded in accomplishing that which it had set out to do, namely winning the Premiership of the 2nd Division; so convincingly that the Rugby Union will have no hesitation in restoring us to the 1st Division in 1940. The First XV's tally for the season was as follows:-

Played 18, Won 16, Lost 1, Tied 1, Points For 334, Points Against 49

After a weak start, which was entirely due to the fact that we had great difficulty in fielding a complete team, the Second XV finished strongly, notching 5 wins and keeping clear of the bottom of the list. It is to be hoped that the occasions last year in which discreditably small XV's turned out will not be repeated. Not only is this exceedingly disappointing to new and regular players, but nothing more detracts from the club's prestige.

It is to be regretted that the last two or three rounds were played under the direct shadow of war, when many players were perhaps thinking more of Danzig than Rugby. No doubt this season we shall have difficulties in raising sufficient playing members as more and more of them will be playing their part in a sterner struggle than that of the rugger ground. We hope that the team spirit they have learnt in the latter sphere will not prove valueless to them in the new task they set themselves."

The 1939 team contained some new faces who might have formed the base for a stronger club football regime. Hayden James, our Captain, was a former Welsh representative, who joined during the 1938 season. Donald Strang, who was to have a major impact on the club after the Second World War, also first put on his boots in 1939 Those well known stalwarts, Ron Bolton and T.McNiff , however, had retired at the end of the 1938 season.

Those words in the 1939 Annual Report about possible difficulties in putting teams on the pitch turned out to be very accurate. In the V.R.U. Competition the First and Second Divisions were merged, but the competition was abandoned after 9 rounds. Harlequins won 5, lost 2, and 2 were walk-overs. There were just not enough players, because so many enlisted. The following Harlequins enlisted during 1940.

• Royal Australian Navy
  • C.Baldwin
  • H.Baldwin
  • V.Halstead
  • F.Hillier
  • C.Johnson
• Australian Infantry Forces
  • J.Baldwin
  • D.Brewin
  • F.Bird
  • C.Greenhill
  • W.Rule
  • D.Taylor
  • E.Vance
• Royal Australian Airforce
  
  • P.Brewin
  • R.(Ramsay) Brewin
  • J.Couzans
  • J.Hyam
  • F.Keck
  • F.Mitchell
  • H.Scott
  • G.Vance

Of those 21 Harlequins, 10 made the ultimate sacrifice.

With so many members enlisting and the abandonment of the competition the club went into virtual hibernation until 1947. In 12 years since its founding The Harlequin Club had developed a strong administration, established its basic ethos and had attracted a membership of talented and resourceful men. Playing conditions were very basic and, as mentioned earlier, most games were played at Elsternwick Park and Middle Park. The changing rooms had at best cold-water taps and players often did not change after playing. The after match socialising took place in pubs and the players were desperate to get to the bar as soon as possible after the match to get in some "serious drinking" before the six o'clock closing.

The playing record was very disappointing considering the number of representative players but it would prove to be the spur to greater achievements after the War.