Record has referenced the sacrifice of these men by casting
their England roses into shadow. Further details of how the
painting was created can be found here.
Since hanging inside the West Stand the painting has been
observed by several thousand visitors taking part in a Twickenham Stadium tour.
This has given rise to several mysteries:
Why are two of the players not wearing the
rose? Alexander Sykes (second from the left, back-row) and
Francis Stone (second from right, back-row), although wearing white
jerseys, are not wearing England jerseys as identified by the red
rose. Stone is in fact wearing his London Counties jersey. The
England France game would be these two players first and only caps
for their country and they presumably wore whatever jersey were
available to them. They later took to the field in the same
jerseys.
What about Robert Pillman? Interestingly the
gentleman in the middle of the back-row, Robert Pillman, was also
making his England debut in this fixture and, although obscured, it
appears that his jersey did include a red-rose. Robert Pillman was
the brother of legendary English flanker Cherry Pillman who had
already earned 18 caps for England, so perhaps he borrowed his
brother's jersey? Tragically Robert was one of the six players who
would not return from the conflict, losing his life at Gallipoli in
1915.
Why are the players wearing different coloured
socks? At this time England players wore their club socks
whilst on international duty. This remained the case until the sock
was standardised in 1931. From this point on the England sock has
been navy blue with only a few recent exceptions. As the painting
is based on a black and white photograph it was a challenge for
Record to identify which club socks each player would have been
wearing.
