William Hammersley

William Josiah Hammersley (born September 25, 1826, Ash, Surrey, England - died 1886) was a prominent sports journalist for Bell's Life in Victoria and later The Australasian (Victoria) was one of the four men credited with setting down the original rules of the Australian rules football.

He was a prominent cricketer, having played for Cambridge University Cricket Club, Surrey County Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club.

Hammersley migrated to Melbourne and upon his arrival to Australia, he became a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club and worked as a sports journalist.

He captained the first Victorian XI to visit Sydney for an intercolonial match in 1857 and was a right arm batter/bowler between 1847 and 1861.

He was a personal friend of fellow Cambridge cricketer Thomas Wentworth Wills and helped to give momentum to Wills calls to form a football club.

In 1959 he became a founding member of the Melbourne Football Club and involved in popularising the club's football code.

Hammersley is also believed by some to have been instrumental in introducing Victorian Rules to Sydney and in the early formation of the New South Wales Football Association.

He died on November 15, 1886 in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria.

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