Ronald Poulton-Palmer

Ronald Poulton

Poulton in 1911
Full name	Ronald William Poulton
Date of birth	12 September 1889
Place of birth	Headington, England
Date of death	4 May 1915 (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
Rugby union career
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.

See also

• List of England rugby union footballers killed in the World Wars

Notes

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

References

Citations

1. "Casualty Details: Poulton Palmer, Ronald William". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
2. 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