Bob Lulham
Robert John Lulham was an Australian rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An Australia international and New South Wales state representative three-quarter back, he played in Sydney for the Balmain club, with whom he won the 1947 NSWRFL Premiership.
Born on Tuesday 2 November 1926, into a family of three boys, he had two brothers. A quick-paced, Lulham came to Sydney from Newcastle and in his first season in the NSWRFL premiership represented New South Wales in all matches. In the 1947 NSWRFL season he was also the League's top try-scorer, breaking the record for most tries in a debut season with 28 and most tries in a season for Balmain Tigers in the club's history. At the end of the season he played in Balmain's grand final win. At the end of the following season he was selected to tour Europe with the 1948–49 Kangaroos, making his debut in the Third Test against Great Britain before going on to play two Tests against France.
In 1953, Lulham was in the headlines after his mother-in-law, Veronica Mabel Monty, with whom he was having a sexual relationship, was charged with attempting to poison him with thallium. At the time Monty was living with her daughter and son-in-law following separation from her husband. In the end, the verdict was 'not guilty'. However, Judith Lulham divorced him over his admission during the trial of "intimacies" with Monty. Lulham never played football again.
Lulham died at his home in Tenterfield, New South Wales on Christmas Eve, 1986, at the age of 60. He was buried at the Tenterfield Cemetery.
