04 August 2017 New Zealand's Second Lieutenant Kaipara A member of the inaugural New Zealand Maori team of 1910, Autini Pitara Kaipara was described by his peers as an outstanding rugby footballer. Read More
04 August 2017 New Zealand's Second Lieutenant Kaipara A member of the inaugural New Zealand Maori team of 1910, Autini Pitara Kaipara was described by his peers as an outstanding rugby footballer. Read More
31 July 2017 Lest We Forget - Edgar Roberts Mobbs (England), 31/07/1917 Edgar Roberts Mobbs was born in Northampton. Although a promising sportsman, his early departure from school meant that he did not feature there in the 1st XV. He was soon playing rugby at club level though, first with Olney and then 234 times for Northampton, for whom he was captain from the 1907/08 season until 1913... Read More
31 July 2017 Lest We Forget - Arthur James Wilson (England), 31/07/1917 From 1900 he spent four years at Glenalmond College in Perthshire, where he became a prefect and was a regular member of the rugby XV and of the cricket XI in his final two years. Read More
28 July 2017 Passchendaele and the last moments of Edgar Mobbs, 31st July 1917 By capturing the village of Passchendaele, the British hoped to progress in the direction of the Belgian coast where the Allies might curtail the threat of the German U-boat. After long deliberation Prime Minister Lloyd George agreed Field Marshal Haig's plan and zero-hour was set for 3.50 am on the morning of the 31st July, after a fifteen-day four million shell bombardment. Read More
03 July 2017 Remembering Drewy Stoddart - ‘the most famous sportsman in Queen Victoria’s empire’ The man dubbed 'the most famous sportsman in Queen Victoria's empire' was born in County Durham in 1860. His sporting proficiency was quickly recognised and he became only the second man in history to captain England at both cricket and rugby. Read More
26 June 2017 Remembering George Nepia The New Zealand full-back was nineteen years old, and he was the only man in the side who played every match of the tour [NZ to UK, 1925]. Read More
17 June 2017 Lest We Forget – George Eric Burroughs Dobbs (England) 17/06/1917 George Eric Burroughs Dobbs was born in Co Kilkenny, near Castlecomer where his father Joseph owned a coal mine. Joseph had married Mary Augusta Harte in Dublin in 1878 and they had seven children, George being the 2nd of four boys. Read More
11 June 2017 Lest We Forget – John Edward Raphael (England) 11/06/1917 John Edward Raphael was born in Belgium and died in Belgium, though this did not prevent him becoming one of England's most accomplished sportsmen of his day, exemplified by the fact that at Oxford he won 14 Blues across four sports. Read More
07 June 2017 All Blacks at Messines Ridge, 1917 In the attack leading to the capture of the Messines ridge in West Flanders, Belgium, by the Allies between June 7th and 14th 1917, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force were to the fore. Read More
22 May 2017 A Rugby Pioneer: Lloyd McDermott This week we celebrate the 55th anniversary of Lloyd McDermott's international debut for the Wallabies, where he became one of the earliest Indigenous Australian to represent his country at international rugby Read More
15 May 2017 Lest We Forget - Lt. John George Will (Scotland), 25 March 1917 On 25th March 2017 The Old Merchant Taylor Society and Old Merchant Taylor Football Club gathered in the Memorial Garden at the School to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of John G. Read More
08 May 2017 The Life and Times of Herbert Fallas Herbert Fallas was born in Wakefield in November 1861. James Henry was his elder brother, whom he would later play alongside at Belle Vue. On the 1881 census, Herbert was described as an accountant clerk and three years later he was referred to as an accountant in newspaper reports. Read More