Les Carr, the nine-game Carlton footballer who made way for the captain Ern Henfry in the premiership season of 1947, has died at the age of 82.
 
Wearing the No.34 later worn by the Carlton premiership players Ian Robertson and Alex Marcou and now Nick Duigan, Les was born and bred in Bacchus Marsh and schooled at CBC Parade, as was his brother Jack, the 1957 Stawell Gift winner.
 
On the eve of his first senior appearance in July of ’47, Carr earned the following headline and article in The Argus;
 

"BEST SINCE WHELAN"

Many good footballers have come from Bacchus Marsh, and Carlton are happy about the form of Les Carr, centre man, who is doing so well with the seconds that he has been placed among the emergencies for tomorrow. Aged only 18 years, Carr is thickset, has good disposal, and knows the game. At his home town he is, they say "the best since Whelan".
 

Les made his senior debut for Carlton in the 12th round of 1947 against Melbourne at the MCG. He was named 19th man, sharing the bench with Allan Greeenshields on a day Ken Baxter booted four goals in the Blues’ narrow five-point win. An extraordinary post script to proceedings was that as the MCG was out of bounds for football for long periods during the Second World War, only four Carlton players had graced the "hallowed turf" in senior football prior to the Melbourne match - Baxter, George Bailey, Vin Brown and Jack Bennett.
 
“Les and I were in the Carlton team at the same time. It was a hard team to break into back then and I was 19th man something like 13 times through '47,” Greenshields said today.
 
“Les was a good little player. He wasn’t very big, but he was a handy rover, a good mover and a good kid.”
 
Les made way for Henfry when the latter overcame injury in the lead-up to the 1947 second semi-final against Essendon. His time at Princes Park would prove all too brief, as Jack Carr explained in a In a recent interview.

“My brother Les played about a dozen games for Carlton in ’47, but unfortunately when they got Ern Henfry across from Western Australia and made him captain that was it for him,” Jack said.

“Les was a good player, and three of our cousins played League footy - Jack Skinner played about 40 games for Carlton, “Billy” Jones played in two losing Grand Finals for Collingwood and Marshall Younger played 50-odd games for South Melbourne.”

Les never lost his love for his club. His second wife of 29 years, Betty, remembered that Les was a Life Member of the Carlton Past Players Association “and he used to come down to the games a lot”.

“He was good mates with that other chap from Bacchus Marsh, ‘Soapy’ Vallence, as well as Max Howell,” Betty said. “He was also friendly with Jack Bennett, Bert Deacon and Ron Hines.
 
“He used to tell a story to me that when he played in those early days they had to pay for their own boots, and that when they won the flag they had to pay for their own beer barrel . . . it was a bit different then.”
 
Though he suffered a stroke almost 12 years ago, which crippled the right side of his body, Les completed six months of rehabilitation in Wangaratta Hospital, returned to his home in a wheelchair and later regained his feet with the aid of a walker. For eight years he and Betty made many road trips to Queensland and as Betty said “up until two years ago we did that . . . we were good travellers”.
 
Les died in a nursing home in Yarrawonga where he had lived for the past 18 months. At his recent funeral, navy and white flowers draped his coffin, and the Carlton theme song was played.