Lest we forget, Lest we forget

With today being Armistice Day and with the Ireland team for the match against Australia due to be announced I thought it would be appropriate to have a look at the rugby players who lost their lives during the two world wars.

I couldn’t find any figures for the number of rugby players killed during the two wars but given that entire clubs enlisted en masse it’s likely to be high.

There are, however figures available for International Players killed during the conflict. With the limited number of players that rise to international level these figures are an indication of the huge number of past players that made the ultimate sacrifice, each with their own story.

Country	WW1	WW2
Scotland	30	15
England	27	14
France	23	8
New Zealand	12	2
Australia	9	10
Ireland	9	7
Wales	11	3
South Africa	4	0
Germany	0	16

Here are some who represented the teams playing this Sunday at Croke Park.

Robert Alexander.

Played for Ireland 11 times. Played for the Barbarians 1935/6. Outstanding member of Ireland’s pack who toured with the 1938 Lions in South Africa. An Ireland cricketer to boot, his last game for Ireland was in 1942 when he captained Ireland in a friendly against the British Army, it was to be his last game. Alexander was killed during the Allied landings on Sicily serving for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, he had risen to the rank of captain.

Blair Swannell.

Twice a British Lions tourist (1899 & 1904) and capped in all four Tests in 1904, this rugged Northampton forward emigrated to Australia immediately after that tour and was capped by his new country within 12 months on a tour to New Zealand in 1905. He died leading a ferocious charge by Australian forces at Gallipoli in August 1915, he was shot whilst kneeling showing others how to aim better. He was awarded the military cross. It has been estimated that 5,000 Australian rugby players ultimately went on active war service between 1914 and 1918. This figure represents about 98 per cent of the playing numbers in the game, outside of the schools, in 1914. Many of these players never returned to Australia.

However it wouldn’t be Ireland without a certain amount of irony and confusion as in the death of Francis “Chicken” Henry Browning, President of the Irish Rugby Football Union clubs since 1912 and who became the The Irish Rugby Union Football Corps Lieutenant-Col.

The Irish Rugby Football Corps (Ireland had been home national rugby champions 1914) had been established just two weeks after World War One had been declared, as part of the Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps.

It was organised on a similar bases to the English and Scottish Football, Sporting “Pals” Battalions. Frank Browning, President Irish Rugby Football Union clubs, became the driving forces behind the Corps issuing a circular to Dublin Rugby Clubs in 1914 encouraging members to join up.

Almost 200 enlisted at Lansdowne Road, in D company of the 7th Battalion of the Dublin Fusiliers, those older or “unfit” were sent to Dublin to establish a “home guard”.

Both groups would come to a unhappy end. For those who were declared “fit” and enlisted ended up in the “hell” that was Gallipoli and those that remained behind, literally walked into the Easter Rising.

On the day of the rising 24th April 1916, the Irish Rugby Union Football Corps headed by Browning had returned to Dublin from a route march and drill practice with drums beating and standards held a loft and marched straight into the maelstrom that was the Rising, totally unaware of the momentous events that were unfurling around them. The Corps in civilian clothes with arm-bands were carrying rifles but not ammunition; in the ensuing encounter with the “Rebels” seven members of the Corps were wounded, four fatally. Browning was shot in Haddington Road, (Beggars Bush) and died of his wounds two days later 26th April 1916.

Francis Henry Browning is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, South Dublin. A headstone was erected by the Irish Rugby Football Union Volunteer Corps in memory of “an honourable comrade and true and distinguished sportsman.”

Different days indeed and next time at Ravenhill take a bit of time to read the inscription on the Memorial Clock.

THE TUMULT AND THE SHOUTING DIES, THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS DEPART
STILL STANDS THINE ANCIENT SACRIFICE, AND HUMBLE AND CONTRITE HEART
LORD GOD OF HOSTS BE WITH US YET, LEST WE FORGET LEST WE FORGET
ERECTED IN MEMORY OF THE IRISH RUGBY FOOTBALL PLAYERS
WHO ANSWERED THE CALL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918
ERECTED IN MEMORY OF THE IRISH RUGBY FOOTBALL PLAYERS
WHO ANSWERED THE CALL IN THE GREAT WAR 1939 – 1945

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Sources.

Talking Rugby: Timely tribute paid to rugby’s fallen heroes. By Brendan Gallagher
Rugby at War: RugbyFootballHistory.com
Hayes Peoples History: Irish Rugby – Don’t Mention The 1916 Uprising