Charles Backhouse

Full Name: Charles Roger Backhouse
Date of Birth: 1871, Emerald.
Date of Death: August 5, 1925 , East Melbourne
Debut:
Last Game:

RICHMOND SENIORS
Years: 1891- 1905
Games: ~221
Goals: ~43

HONOURS
Richmond captain 1893.
1902 Premiership player.
Life Member 1904.
Richmond Committee 1894, 1900, 1902

BIOGRAPHY
Richmond's greatest player in their VFA era. He was the first Richmond player ever to 150 games, and then 200 games in a 15 year career of astonishing longevity.
As a centreman, his total of approximately 221 senior games was a club record which stood for 18 years until Vic Thorp overtook the mark in 1923.
Upon his death in 1925, aged 54, The Argus (7/8/1925) wrote "Richmond supporters were grieved yesterday to learn of the death of their old centre player, Charles Backhouse. More than 25 years ago he was a champion centre-man with an ability for
turning that was quite uncanny. He was a popular player, who played hard but fair as I heard it described. He played in the old players match last year, and it was good to see the hearty way the veterans treated him."
The players wore black arm bands in his memory.
In 1940, 35 years after he retired and 15 years after his death, The Australian Newspaper called him "one of the best centreman in the game" in their memories of the Richmond Football Club.
In 2002, he was the first player ever inducted into the Richmond Football Club Hall of Fame.

His two brothers George (1897-1901) and William (1891) also played Senior games for Richmond