Clarence Hadfield D'Arcy - Early Life & Sport

Early Life & Sport

Darcy Clarence Hadfield was born at Awaroa Inlet, Tasman Bay,New Zealand, on 1 December 1889. He was the son of William Welby Hadfield, a farmer, and his wife, Martha Adele Ann Snow. After leaving Awaroa School at the age of 13, Hadfield worked on the family farm and learned the rudiments of carpentry and boatbuilding from his father, who was skilled in both crafts. As a schoolboy Hadfield would often help to row a 14 ft clinker dinghy across 35 miles of Tasman Bay for a day out in Nelson. That exercise stood him in good stead when he faced the world's best oarsmen years later.

In 1910 he moved to Auckland where he was employed at Charles Bailey's boat yard as a shipwright. He later worked at the same trade for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. From early childhood Hadfield had relied on rowing-boats as a means of transport and was easily persuaded by his employers at Bailey's boat yard to join the Waitemata Boating Club. It was soon obvious that he was a potential champion. In his first regatta, at Mercer during the1910–11 season, he was in the winning crew in the maiden fours event. This success was repeated at a regatta in Rotorua. In the 1911–12 season Hadfield and D. Pugh won the maiden double sculls at Mercer and the same event and the junior double sculls at Ngaruawahia.

However, it was as a single sculler that Hadfield was to achieve fame. His success in handicap events encouraged him to compete in championships, and in 1913 he won his first New Zealand title, the 1912–13 single sculls. Throughout the following season he was in outstanding form. In spite of the starts he had to concede in handicap events, he won all the races he entered as well as outclassing his opponents in championship events. He retained his New Zealand title in the single sculls for 1913–14 and 1914–15 before the championships went into recess for four years because of the First World War.