Jimmy Lewthwaite

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Jimmy Lewthwaite (10 November 1920 - 23 December 2006), who was born in Cleator Moor, Cumberland, was a rugby league winger for Barrow and Great Britain.

[edit] Barrow

He achieved legendary status with Barrow, scoring a club record 351 tries and kicking 20 goals in exactly 500 appearances from 1943-57. He scored 50 tries in his final season, 1956-57, another club record. He retired after Barrow's Challenge Cup final defeat by Leeds in 1957, one of three Wembley appearances he made with the Cumbrian club during that decade.

He was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame when it was launched in 2001, alongside 1950s team-mates Phil Jackson and Willie Horne.

[edit] International

On the international front he travelled to Australasia with Great Britain in 1946 - the famous "Indomitables" tour, named after the vessel on which they sailed, HMS Indomitable. He top-scored with 25 tries on that tour despite not making the Test team. He also won one England cap.

[edit] Life

He was a natural athlete and represented Cumberland at rugby union and soccer as a schoolboy, as well as winning a medal in the All-England Schools Athletics competition at the age of 13. He moved to Woodley, near Reading, shortly before turning 15 to work at an aircraft factory but later relocated to Barrow to take up an apprenticeship at the town's shipyard. He continued to excel as a footballer and had trials with Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End before switching to rugby league with Barrow in 1943, making his first-team debut against St Helens in April that year.