Remembrance Sunday is one of the most important days of the year, as the nation recalls and honours and memory of those who gave so much in two bitter periods o the last century. Included among those who made the ultimate sacrifice are 16 Welsh international rugby players.
Many more club players around the country also perished. It may be a long time ago, but they will never be forgotten.
And when you stand for the two minute silence at 11.00am on Armistice Day this year bear in mind there is a Welsh rugby link to the tribute to the fallen heroes of the two Great Wars and other conflicts around the world.
The idea for the silent vigil was suggested to King George V by universally acclaimed South African writer, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. His suggestion, made on 27 October, 1919, was to honour the dead of World War I, one of whom was his son, Percy Nugent Fitzpatrick.
King George decreed on 7 November, 1919, “that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities … so that in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead.”
The war had formally come to an end on 11 November, 1918, and almost a year on Sir Percy was thanked for his suggestion for the silence by Lord Stamfordham, the King’s Private Secretary.
Dear Sir Percy,
The King, who learns that you are shortly to leave for South Africa, desires me to assure you that he ever gratefully remembers that the idea of the Two Minute Pause on Armistice Day was due to your initiation, a suggestion readily adopted and carried out with heartfelt sympathy throughout the Empire.
Stamfordham
Nugent Fitzpatrick had died on 14 December, 1917, when he was struck by a “stray 4-inch shell while driving to railhead in the battery car.” Alongside him in the car was Lieutenant Phil Waller, also of the 71st (Transvaal) Siege Battery, who had accepted a lift from him from the front line on his way home for some much needed leave.
Phil Waller
Born in Bath, but was raised in Llanelli, Waller attended the Carmarthen Intermediate School and showed early promise as a forward. He made his first-class debut for Newport against London Welsh on 30 March, 1907, two months after he had turned 18.
He went on to make a further 78 appearances in Black & Amber over the next three years and in the 1908/09 season he played against the first Australian tourists three times in the space of four weeks. He played for Somerset against the Wallabies in Taunton in an 8-0 defeat on 28 November, 1908, made his Wales debut against the tourists at Cardiff Arms Park on 12 December, winning 9-6, and then played for Newport against them at Rodney Parade on 19 December, losing 5-3.
His Wales debut came a month before his 20th birthday and he went on to play in six consecutive internationals, ending up on the winning side every time in the middle of Wales’ record run of 11 straight victories. He helped Wales secure their second Grand Slam in 1909 and made his final outing in a Welsh jersey at St Helen’s, Swansea, on New Year’s Day, 1910, in a 49-14 win over the French.
But while his Welsh international career came to an abrupt halt before he was 21, he won a place on the 1910 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa and faced the Springboks in all three Tests. He was one of seven Newport players on that tour, a reflection of the superb season the club had just enjoyed.
Waller figured in 34 of the 39 matches during the season, only two of which were lost, both by a single point, and made his final appearance for the club in the defeat to Neath on the last day of the season. His club form earned Waller a call-up for the Lions and he was joined by clubmates Tom Smyth, Stan Williams, Jack Jones, Mel Baker, Harry Jarman and Reg Plummer on the trek around South Africa.
He played in 23 of the 24 games and was praised as one of the most consistent forwards on the tour. The Lions lost the first Test 14-10 at the Wanderers Ground, Johannesburg, but hit back to level the series in Port Elizabeth 8-3. The final Test was lost 21-5 in Cape Town.
Waller obviously enjoyed South Africa because he decided to stay there, joining the Wanderers club in Johannesburg and then enlisting in the South African Heavy Artillery Regiment. He fitted in some more ‘international’ rugby in March, 1916, when he was in the South African Heavy Artillery team that beat a New Zealand Army team 7-0 at the Queen’s Club, London, earning him the distinction of beating international sides from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in his career.
Back on the front line at the Western Front in France he became the 12th of the 13 Welsh international players to lose their lives in WW1 on 14 December, 1917. It was a day of double tragedy for the 71st (SA) Siege Battery at Beaumetz-lès-Cambrai (20 kilometres south west of Cambrai) with Major Fitzpatrick also dying. The two comrades were buried next to each other in the Red Cross Corner Cemetery at Beugny.
LEST WE FORGET
WELSH RUGBY UNION ROLL OF HONOUR FOR WW1
– in order of death
Eng Cpt. Charles Taylor, Royal Navy (HMS Tiger)
Died: 24/01/1915, Dogger Bank
Age: 51
Caps: 9
Club: London Welsh
2nd Lt. Billy Geen, Kings Royal Rifle Corps
Died: 31/07/1915, Hooge
Age: 24
Caps: 3
Club: Newport
Sgt. Louis Phillips, Royal Fusiliers
Died: 14/03/1916, Cuinchy
Age: 38
Caps: 4
Club: Newport
Sgt. Major Dick Thomas, South Wales Borderers
Died: 07/07/1916, Mametz Wood
Age: 32
Caps: 4
Club: Mountain Ash
Cpt Johnnie Williams, Welsh Regiment
Died: 12/07/1916, Corbie
Age: 34
Caps: 17
Club: Cardiff
Sgt. David Watts, Kings, Shropshire Light Infantry
Died: 14/07/1916, Bazentein Ridge
Age: 30
Caps: 4
Club: Maesteg
Cpt. Charlie Pritchard, South Wales Borderers
Died: 14/08/1916, Chocques
Age: 33
Caps: 14
Club: Newport
2nd Lt. Horace Thomas, Rifle Brigade
Died: 03/09/1916, Ancle
Age: 26
Caps: 2
Club: Swansea
Lt Col. Richard Garnons-Williams, Royal Fusiliers
Died: 27/09/1916, Loos
Age: 59
Caps: 1
Club: Newport
Lt. Brinley Lewis, Royal Field Artillery
Died: 02/04/1917, Boesingle
Age: 26
Caps: 2
Club: Swansea
Pte. Dai Westacott, Gloucestershire Regiment
Died: 28/08/1917, Wieltje
Age: 35
Caps: 1
Club: Cardiff
Lt. Phil Waller, Royal Garrison Artillery
Died: 14/12/1917, Beaumetz-Les-Cabine
Age: 28
Caps: 6
Club: Newport
Lt. Fred Perrett, Welsh Guards
Died: 01/12/1918, Bolounge
Age: 27
Caps: 5
Club: Neath
ROLL OF HONOUR FOR WW2
Sq Ldr. Cecil Evans, RAF
Died: 24/12/1941, northern France
Age: 32
Caps: 1
Club: Cardiff
Lt. John Evans, The Parachute Regiment
Died: 08/03/1943, Tunisia
Age: 32
Caps: 1
Club: Newport
Mjr. Maurice Turnbull, Welsh Guards
Died: 05/08/1944, near Montchamp
Age: 38
Cap: 5
Club: Cardiff
