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The last Five Nations before The Great War - Part Four

The banner image above shows the England team that played France on April 13th 1914, the last Five Nations match before the Great War in which six of its members would die, as our photo shows.

In the final part of our series for this Remembrance period, Peter Bloor now looks at the role each played in that final match, including debutant Robert Pillman, before remembering those last internationals players who died in combat.

Remembering the last internationals

April 1914, France 13 England 39: “England score freely after bad start”

While one Arthur, (Dingle), retained his place in the England team that played France another, Arthur Harrison, returned for his second cap. He had missed the previous game in which his namesake H.C. “Dreadnought” Harrison had kept his curiously flat forwards going against the Scottish eight, all of whom had “worked like Trojans and pumped themselves out by the end of the game.” Now “Dreadnought”, Arthur, Robert Pillman – a late replacement winning his only cap – and the other forwards faced a similar challenge, that of a fast Franch pack that tackled vigorously, albeit one that was rather too light. The English forwards never developed a set game and lacked cohesion but, after half-time, as the French forwards flagged, they won overwhelming possession, allowing Francis Oakeley and “Dave” Davies to open up the game and the backs to score six further tries.

“…the backs generally gave a fine display”

Francis had carried out his defensive duties – those for which he had been brought in against Ireland – and then, with his forwards on top, got the ball quickly away to stand-off “Dave” Davies. “We make a lot of the men whose names appear on the scoring record” C.A.L. had written in the Daily Express after the Scotland match, “…but if one were asked who made the English victory possible… the answer should be unhesitatingly ‘Oakeley and Davies’. They are great men those Service halves now that Davies realises how his gifts can be turned to making glorious openings for the men behind them” as he did now with long, well-judged passes.

With the forwards and Oakeley and Davies providing plenty of ball Ronald Poulton was able to reproduce the swerving runs that had so bewildered Wales, while next to him J.H.D. Watson also hit his form of a previous match, that against Scotland – as did Arthur Dingle, who dropped several passes, missed others and was slow to get into his stride.

Poulton scored four tries and Watson and Dingle one each as England won what was to be the last Five Nations match before the Great War 39-13. Six of the fifteen who achieved that win – a fifteen declared by ‘The French players and many of the spectators to be the best that had ever been sent over’ – would be killed before the tournament could be resumed in 1920.

Remembering the England players of 1914

Temporary Surgeon J.H.D. Watson was killed on October 15^th 1914 when H.M.S. Hawke was torpedoed in the North Sea and exploded. 

Lieutenant Francis Oakeley R.N. was lost in the North Sea aboard the submarine D2 for reasons that will never be known - perhaps enemy action, striking a mine, mechanical failure or simply bad weather. For official purposes his date of his death was recorded as 1^st December 1914. Francis, his twenty-four crew-mates, and Lieutenant-Commander Arthur Jameson (lost overboard on November 23^rd) are remembered on the Portsmouth and Plymouth Naval Memorials.

Lieutenant Ronald Poulton of the 1^st/4^th Royal Berkshire Regiment was either hit by a single random shot or sniped near Ploegsteert Wood in Belgium on May 5^th 1915. Ronald had inherited the Huntley and Palmers Biscuits fortune from his uncle on condition that he take his surname, hence he is remembered by the Commonwealth (then Imperial) War Graves Commission as Ronald Poulton Palmer. The personal inscription on his headstone reads “His was the joy that made people smile when they met him.”

Captain Arthur Dingle of the 6^th East Yorkshire Regiment was killed August 22nd 1915 during the Battle of Scimitar Hill, part of the Gallipoli campaign. Arthur’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Helles Memorial.

Captain Robert Pillman of the 10^th Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) died on July 9^th 1916 of a wound sustained while leading a night raid by eighteen men on German trenches near Armentières. Robert is buried in the Calvaire (Essex) Military Cemetery.

Lieutenant Alfred Maynard of the Howe Battalion, Royal Naval Division, was killed on November 13^th 1916 during the Battle of the Ancre. Alfred was 22 years old and had played against Wales, Ireland and Scotland in 1914. His body was never found and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.

Lieutenant Commander Arthur Harrison died on April 23^rd - St. George’s Day - 1918 while commanding a storming party from H.M.S. Vindictive during a naval raid on Zeebrugge. For this action Arthur was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Arthur is another whose body was never found and he is remembered on the Zeebrugge Memorial.

References

The quotes and other information in this article are taken from The Times, the Manchester Guardian, the Daily Express, the Daily News, the Westminster Gazette, the Evening Standard and the Sporting Life, 1914.

Commemoration details from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, unit War Diaries held by The National Archives and the Berkshire Chronicle of May 1915.

Images: Photographs Agence Rol, Source gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliothèque nationale de France, recruiting poster Imperial War Museum © IWM Art.IWM PST 7806, The King at the Cenotaph Wills, 1935