Ronald Poulton-Palmer

Ronald Poulton
Rugby union career

Poulton in 1911
Full name	Ronald William Poulton
Date of birth	(1889-09-12)12 September 1889
Place of birth	Headington, England
Date of death	4 May 1915(1915-05-04) (aged 25)
Place of death	Ploegsteert
School	Dragon School; Rugby School,
University	Balliol College, Oxford
Notable relative(s)	Edward Bagnall Poulton, father George William Palmer, uncle
Playing career
Position	Centre threequarter (sometimes wing threequarter)
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
	Oxford University RFC Harlequins Liverpool
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1909–1914	England	17	(28)

Ronald William Poulton (later sometimes Poulton Palmer) (12 September 1889 – 5 May 1915) was an English rugby union footballer, who captained England and was killed in The First World War.

Born in Headington, he was the son of Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, the zoologist and his wife Emily Palmer. He was educated at Dragon School, Rugby School, and Balliol College, Oxford.

Sporting career

Poulton played for Balliol College, Oxford University RFC, Harlequins and Liverpool F.C.^{[Note 1]} Poulton is one of three men to score a hat-trick of tries in the Varsity match – he scored five, still the individual record for the fixture, in 1909. He captained England during the 1913/4 unbeaten season (now what would be called a 'Grand Slam'), scoring four tries against France in 1914, in the last test match prior to the outbreak of World War I. Poulton was renowned for his elusiveness and glamorous style of play – "the very mention of swerving sends ones thoughts to the late Ronald Poulton, the swerver par excellence... swerving and Poulton are almost synonymous terms" (DR Gent in CJB Marriott's Modern Rugby Football).

He officially changed his surname to Palmer by Royal Licence as a condition of inheriting a fortune from his uncle George William Palmer of Huntley and Palmer biscuit company in 1914. His surname was never actually 'Poulton Palmer' (or even the hyphenated version 'Poulton-Palmer), although he was often later called this.

World War 1 service

Ronald Poulton-Palmer's grave

Poulton was commissioned into 1st/4th territorial battalion of The Royal Berkshire Regiment and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. On the morning of 5 May 1915, whilst supervising trench work from the top of a superior officer's newly repaired dugout, Poulton Palmer was killed by a sniper's bullet – to a man his platoon wept at their and the nation's loss. He was twenty-five years of age.

Ronald Poulton Palmer's grave is in Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, near Ploegsteert, Belgium.^[1] A memorial to him was erected at Balliol College, on the west wall of the Chapel passage.^[2]

Twenty six England international rugby players were killed in World War I of a total international toll of one hundred and thirty. One of the most notable was Poulton Palmer, who was considered by many contemporary observers as perhaps the greatest-ever attacking rugby union threequarter.

Notes

↑ Liverpool later merged with St. Helens RUFC to create Liverpool St Helens F.C..

References

Citations

↑ "Casualty Details: Poulton Palmer, Ronald William". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
↑ John Jones (1999). "Memorial inscriptions". Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts. Balliol College, Oxford. Retrieved 23 November 2010.

Bibliography

Starmer-Smith, Nigel (ed) Rugby - A Way of Life, An Illustrated History of Rugby (Lennard Books, 1986 ISBN 0-7126-2662-X)
Corsan, James For Poulton And England - The Life And Times Of An Edwardian Rugby Hero (Troubador Publishing Ltd/Matador, 2009 ISBN 978-1-84876-210-7)

External links

sportnetwork article
Ronnie Poulton-Palmer at Spartacus Educational

Sporting positions
Preceded by Norman Wodehouse	English National Rugby Union Captain 1914	Succeeded by Jenny Greenwood

English national rugby union team captains

To 1900	1871–1873: Frederick Stokes 1874: Alfred St. George Hamersley 1875: Henry Arnold Lawrence 1875–1876: Francis Luscombe 1877–Mar 1878: Edward Kewley Mar 1878: Murray Wyatt Marshall 1879: Frank Reginald Adams 1880–1881: Lennard Stokes Feb 1882: Charles Gurdon Mar 1882: A. N. Hornby Dec 1882–1885: Edward Temple Gurdon Jan–Feb 1886: Charles John Bruce Marriott Mar 1886: Edward Temple Gurdon 1887: Alan Rotherham 1889: Fred Bonsor Feb 1890: Andrew Stoddart Mar 1890: John Lawrence Hickson Mar 1890: Andrew Stoddart 1891–Jan 1892: Frederic Alderson Feb 1892: Sammy Woods Mar 1892: Frederic Alderson Jan 1893: Andrew Stoddart Feb 1893: Sammy Woods Mar 1893: Andrew Stoddart Jan–Feb 1894: Richard Lockwood Mar 1894: Ernest Taylor 1895: Sammy Woods 1896: Ernest Taylor Mar 1896: Frank Mitchell 1897: Ernest Taylor 1898: J. F. Byrne 1899: Arthur Rotherham

To the First World War	Jan 1900: Richard Cattell 1900: John Daniell Jan 1901: John Taylor Feb–Mar 1901: William Bunting Jan 1902: Harry Alexander Feb–Mar 1902: John Daniell Jan–Feb 1903: Bernard Oughtred Mar 1903: Toggie Kendall Jan 1904: Frank Moxon Stout Feb–Mar 1904: John Daniell Jan–Mar 1905: Frank Moxon Stout Dec 1905 - Dec 1906: Vincent Cartwright Jan 1907: Basil Alexander Hill Feb 1907: John Green Mar 1907: Ernest Roberts Jan 1908: Thomas Kelly Jan 1908: John Birkett Feb 1908: Curly Hammond Mar 1908: Lancelot Slocock Jan 1909: George Lyon Jan–Mar 1909: Robert Dibble Jan–Feb 1910: Adrian Stoop Mar 1910: Edgar Mobbs Mar 1910-Feb 1911: John Birkett Mar 1911: Anthony Henniker-Gotley Jan–Mar 1912: Robert Dibble Apr 1912–Mar 1913: Norman Wodehouse 1914: Ronald Poulton

To the Second World War	1920: J. E. Greenwood 1921: Dave Davies Jan 1922: Bruno Brown Feb 1922–1923: Dave Davies 1924–1926: Wavell Wakefield 1927: Leonard Corbett 1928–Feb 1929: Ronald Cove-Smith Mar 1929–Feb 1930: Joe Periton Feb 1930–Jan 1931: Sam Tucker Feb 1931: Peter Howard Mar 1931–Jan 1933: Carl Aarvold Feb–Mar 1933: Tony Novis 1934: Bernard Gadney Jan–Feb 1935: Douglas Kendrew Mar 1935–Mar 1936: Bernard Gadney 1937: Tuppy Owen-Smith Jan–Feb 1938: Peter Cranmer Mar 1938–Mar 1939: Henry Toft

To the Professional Era	Jan–Feb 1947: Joe Mycock Mar–Apr 1947: Jack Heaton Jan 1948: Edward Scott Jan 1948: Tommy Kemp Feb–Mar 1948: Edward Scott Mar 1948: Bob Weighill Jan–Feb 1949: Nim Hall Feb 1949-Mar 1950: Ivor Preece Jan 1951: Vic Roberts Feb–Mar 1951: John Kendall-Carpenter Jan 1952-Mar 1953: Nim Hall 1954: Bob Stirling Jan–Feb 1955: Nim Hall Feb–Mar 1955: Peter Dalton Young Jan 1956–Mar 1958: Eric Evans 1959: Jeffrey Butterfield 1960–1962: Dickie Jeeps Jan–Mar 1963: Richard Sharp May–Jun 1963: Mike Weston Jan–Feb 1964: John Willcox Feb–Mar 1964: Ron Jacobs 1965: David Perry 1966: Budge Rogers Jan 1967: Richard Sharp Feb–Nov 1967: Philip Judd Jan–Feb 1968: Colin McFadyean Feb–Mar 1968: Mike Weston Feb 1969: Dick Greenwood Feb–Apr 1969: Budge Rogers Dec 1969-Mar 1970: Bob Hiller Apr 1970: Bob Taylor Jan 1971: Tony Bucknall Feb 1971: John Spencer Feb 1971: Bob Hiller Mar–Apr 1971: John Spencer Jan–Feb 1972: Bob Hiller Feb–Mar 1972: Peter Dixon Jun 1972–Mar 1974: John Pullin Jan–Feb 1975: Fran Cotton Mar–May 1975: Tony Neary May 1975: John Pullin Jan–Mar 1976: Tony Neary 1977: Roger Uttley 1978: Bill Beaumont Feb 1979: Roger Uttley Feb 1979–Jan 1982: Bill Beaumont Feb 1982–Feb 1983: Steve Smith Mar 1983: John Scott Nov 1983–Mar 1984: Peter Wheeler Jun 1984: John Scott Nov 1984: Nigel Melville 1985: Paul Dodge 1986: Nigel Melville Feb–Mar 1987: Richard Hill Apr 1987–Feb 1988: Mike Harrison Mar 1988: Nigel Melville Apr–Jun 1988: John Orwin Jun 1988: Richard Harding Nov 1988-Mar 1989: Will Carling May 1989: Rob Andrew Nov 1989–May 1995: Will Carling May 1995: Rob Andrew Jun 1995: Will Carling

To the Present Day	Nov 1995-Mar 1996: Will Carling Nov 1996: Phil de Glanville Dec 1996: Jason Leonard Feb–Jul 1997: Phil de Glanville Nov 1997–Apr 1998: Lawrence Dallaglio Jun 1998: Tony Diprose Jun–Jul 1998: Matt Dawson Nov 1998: Martin Johnson Nov 1998–Apr 1999: Lawrence Dallaglio Jun–Oct 1999: Martin Johnson Feb–Apr 2000: Matt Dawson Jun 2000–Apr 2001: Martin Johnson Jun 2001: Kyran Bracken Oct 2001: Matt Dawson Nov 2001: Neil Back Nov 2001–Mar 2002: Martin Johnson Mar–Apr 2002: Neil Back Jun 2002: Phil Vickery Nov 2002–Feb 2003: Martin Johnson Mar 2003: Jonny Wilkinson Mar–Jun 2003: Martin Johnson Aug 2003: Jason Leonard Aug 2003: Dorian West Sep–Oct 2003: Martin Johnson Nov 2003: Phil Vickery Nov 2003: Martin Johnson Feb–Jun 2004: Lawrence Dallaglio Nov 2004-Feb 2005: Jason Robinson Mar 2005-Mar 2006: Martin Corry Jun 2006: Patrick Sanderson Nov 2006: Martin Corry Feb 2007: Phil Vickery Mar 2007: Mike Catt May 2007: Jason Robinson Jun 2007: Jonny Wilkinson Aug 2007: Phil Vickery Aug 2007: Mike Catt Aug–Sep 2007: Phil Vickery Sep 2007: Martin Corry Oct 2007–Feb 2008: Phil Vickery Feb 2008: Steve Borthwick Feb-Mar 2008: Phil Vickery Jun 2008–Mar 2010: Steve Borthwick Mar 2010–Nov 2010: Lewis Moody Nov 2010: Nick Easter Nov 2010: Lewis Moody Feb 2011: Mike Tindall Aug 2011: Lewis Moody Aug 2011–Sep 2011: Mike Tindall Sep 2011: Lewis Moody^[n1] Sep 2011: Simon Shaw^[n1] Oct 2011: Lewis Moody Feb–Jun 2012: Chris Robshaw Jun 2012: Dylan Hartley Nov 2012–Mar 2013: Chris Robshaw Jun 2013: Tom Wood Nov 2013–Oct 2015: Chris Robshaw Feb 2016– : Dylan Hartley

^[n1] Lewis Moody was substituted in the England vs Georgia match on 18 September 2011, and Simon Shaw was confirmed as captain for the remainder of the match.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, December 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.