CWGC/RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION

[Guest]

  I have 2 local casualties for Wanstead, here in the east of London who had some distinction in life playing Rugby Union-  Corporal Hugh Morton, 1/14 London-London Scottish, who played for Leytonstone (now Wanstead) and Middlesex-and  Lt. Sydney Dove, 8 RWK- for Eastern Counties and Harlequins.

    There appears to be a new partnership between CWGC/RFU this year, whereby CWGC is RFU's chosen military charity-and hence some attention given to rugby players killed in the war- However,CWGC doesn't say much,nor does RFU. Would any Forum member who likes playing with funny-shaped balls (You know what I mean!!) have any further information on what is going on re. stuff on WW1 rugby casualties?  So far,only a write-up for Ronnie Poulton Palmer.

    Would any Forum member know if Middlesex RFU has a war memorial of any sort?  Or whether the Quins have one at The Stoop-I have given up phoning as the club seems to concentrate so much on flogging kit and tickets in the modern game that actually getting a real human to answer a telephone seems beneath their dignity nowadays.

 

[Don Regiano]

Go to the RFU's website: http://www.englandrugby.com/

 

Searching on "world war 1" (without the quotes) will bring a lot of results.  There have several articles over recent years in its magazine "Touchline" which can also be accessed on-line.

 

I don't know anything about Middlesex rugby but you could always try http://middlesexrugby.com/

 

Reg

[Guest]

   Reg-  Thank you- "Touchline" was unknown to me-until now!

[Aneurin]

You could try the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham, who might be able to help.

http://www.englandrugby.com/twickenham/world-rugby-museum/world-rugby-museum-contact-us/

However, they are moving to new accommodation at the stadium at present so their records may not be available for a while.

 

Their blog has a lot of articles on WW1 rugby casualties, though these are mostly about international players: https://worldrugbymuseumblog.wordpress.com/

 

A very detailed history (795 pages!) of the Harlequins has recently been published. This lists their war dead but only those who played for the First XV. Sydney Dove is not named. He might be mentioned in the text somewhere though. It's "Harlequins: The First 150 Years" by Nick Cross.

Contact details:  http://www.harlequinstatsandinfo.co.uk/

 

The Bath Chronicle 2 September 1916 says he played for Kingswood School (Bath) and was reserve fullback for the Harlequins.

 

Gwyn

[Moonraker]

Ronald Poulton Palmer

 

was honoured today at the Army v Navy match at Twickenham.

 

(is surname is variously recorded as Poulton, Poulton Palmer and Poulton-Palmer.)

 

James Corsan, author of a biography of Poulton, says in a letter in today's Daily Telegraph that he suspects that the last words attributed to him are apocryphal, and states that all the accounts he has seen testify that upon being hit he gasped "Oh" and never spoke again.

 

Moonraker

[thetrenchrat22]

The CWGC website shows that soil from twickenham was taken to his grave and soil from his grave to twickenham

[Moonraker]

More details in my link to the CWGC website in post 5.

 

Moonraker