England’s lost captains

SIR – I was interested to read your article (February 10) on rugby players who fell in the First World War.

During my research into the 749 Marlborough boys who died in the Great War, I came across Lancelot Slocock, who played for England. What is intriguing in his case is that he served in the 1/10 Kings (Liverpool Scottish) Battalion, of which Noel Chavasse, VC and Bar, was doctor.

Slocock was killed on August 9 1916, the day on which Chavasse won his first VC, the citation for which relates how Chavasse buried two of the 10 officers from his battalion who died that day. I have often wondered whether Chavasse – an Olympic athlete and keen rugby player – did in fact bury the former England forward, who had also captained his country.

Sadly, Slocock has no known resting place, but he is honoured in perpetuity on the marvellous memorial to the missing at Thiepval.