John plans a book of remembrance for ALL of rugby’s fallen in World War 1
Brendan Gallagher reports on the moves to write a definitive memorial about rugby’s war dead
Memo to all rugby club historians throughout Britain and indeed the world. Your sport needs you. Ambitious plans have been confirmed this week to create a data base listing every rugby player who gave his life in World War I.
These will be recorded in a massive book – or more likely books – of remembrance at Craonnelle near Aisne, where there were three major battles during the Great War. The site will be in the heart of the Chemin des Dames Battlefields on land owned by the Conseil Department.
Jean Pierre Rives, the former France captain who turned to sculpting and painting when he retired from the game, has been commissioned to create a suitable permanent memorial. Both that and the Book of Remembrance will be unveiled on September 17 next year but between then and now there is a stack of research and collating to be undertaken.
So far rugby has scarcely scratched the surface with our knowledge confined mainly to the higher profile Test players who lost their lives and a handful of the better-known clubs who have written their own histories and have fairly accurate record of members who made the ultimate sacrifice
We know for example that 132 Test players died from the four Home Unions, France and the three Southern Hemisphere giants New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. In addition to that four uncapped Lions tourists fell and Franc Gard who was capped by the USA before the War.
This part of the ultimate list has been faithfully recorded for a while but how many club stalwarts throughout the world should join those 137 elite players on the Roll of Honour? That’s the great
“This is a huge task and will take a while. The book will be updated constantly”
unknown. There are a few clues. We know for example, via Stephen Cooper’s research when penning the Final Whistle, that at least 108 Rosslyn Park members were killed during hostilities which is an eye-popping figure for a middle-sized London club. Not untypical, though. We know also that London Scottish lost 103 club members, Harlequins 63 and Richmond 59. In the North West Waterloo recorded 49 players lost in the War. 57 Oxbridge Rugby Blues lost their lives in World War I.
If these numbers are broadly representative, they will apply across the board to just about every club flourishing before the War in Britain and Ireland. The challenge now is that many of those clubs, the smaller ones, might not yet have researched their members War deeds. For the time being they are unrecorded, but the information will be out there somewhere, it just needs a dedicated club member to do the research. There are several other complications. A study of pre-War fixture lists suggests that as many as a third of the clubs playing rugby before World War I no longer exist. Indeed, many closed down straight after the War when such was the loss of life they simply found themselves with too few players. And then there are the schools. Once the hostilities proper got underway entire school XVs would enlist virtually en masse the moment their studies were over and head directly to the Western Front without playing any senior rugby. Entire teams were wiped out. “We are dealing with the known and the, as yet, unknown but we want to bring them together and form what amounts to ultimate roll of honour,” says project manager John Dennison, left, who is based in France. “As well as the many individual memorials that already exist there should be one for rugby in its entirety to acknowledge their valour, whether they be players of repute or humble club stalwarts.
“We will be scouring the world – clubs and universities – for this information.
“We appreciate this is a huge task and will take a while which is why the Book or Remembrance, housed near the memorial, will be updated constantly. The information will also be put on a data base where we will include many more details, and the stories behind their service, and all that will, of course, be accessible online.
“For the Remembrance Book we just need the basics. The players
name, date of birth, club, rank and service (army, navy, flying corps), place of death and date of death. I am trying to contract at many club secretaries as possible around the world but it will clearly be easier if they could contact me with their individual roll of honour.”
Information should be emailed to John on johndennison@francourt.org
As part of the project several rugby tournaments are being organised in the area. There was an U16s event at the Somme last month while the Vimy Centenary will be celebrated with a tournament on April 7-9 next year with representative youth teams from Scottish Exiles and Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Eastern Counties, East Midlands Rugby Unions taking their place alongside French selections from Pas de Calais, Nord, Aisne, Normandie and the Somme.
There will also be an U14 event staged on May 12-14 next year and a veterans competition on May 26-28, more details to follow.