Old Rugbeian Olympians
Old Rugbeian (OR) Olympians
Nine Old Rugbeians have represented Great Britain in the Olympics, including four medallists: two gold and two silvers. Chris Brasher (School House 1942 - 46) won a gold medal in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne for the 3000m steeplechase. As well as co-founding the London Marathon, Brasher also acted as pacemaker for Roger Bannister in the first sub-four-minute mile.
Chris Brasher setting the pace for Roger Banister's record-breaking
sub-four minute mile at Oxford, 1954
Lt Col Douglas ("Duggie") Stewart (School Field 1927 - 31) competed in the Three Day Event team in the London games of 1948 and in 1952 he rode at Helsinki, where his three-man show jumping team won gold: Britain's only gold of the games. As a serving soldier he had less than two weeks off for the entire event, which didn't leave him time to stay for the closing award ceremony.
Lt Col "Duggie" Stewart and the successful
British Team from Helsinki, 1952
James Hamilton (Bradley 1914-18) won the silver medal in the Men's coxed eights in the 1926 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam whilst Keith Hudson Preston ( Michell 1915 -19) and Col Thomas Vivian Somers (Bradley 1922 - 27) were both sailors in the Great Britain team in Helsinki, 1952.
Four Old Rugbeians have represented Great Britain at Hockey. Michael Moore Walford (Michell 1929-1934), was an extremely talented sportsman who won a silver medal with the Great Britain Hockey team in London 1948. Walford who was a triple Oxford Blue – Cricket, Rugby and Hockey - was one of only 13 olympians to also play first-class cricket: he represented Somerset between 1946 and 1953, averaging 40.9 with the bat in his 52 matches for the county.
Michael Moore Walford (right) wearing his trademark Harlequins cap with Mandy Mitchell-Innes playing for Somerset
Niel Livingstone (Sheriff 1952-58) played hockey in Rome, 1960. The team narrowly missed a bronze medal, losing in the 68th minute of extra time (it was 112 degrees!) to Spain in the third-fourth play-off. In the same team was John Neill (School House1948-52) who was the first British player to achieve 50 caps. Neill went on to play in the 1964 Tokyo games and was captain of Great Britain at Mexico in 1968 where he played alongside fellow OR Bruce Trentham (School Field 1960-64).
Bruce Trentham (third from the left in the back row) and John Neill (fourth from the left in the front row) with the Great Britain Hockey team in Mexico, 1968.
Other Old Rugbeians with distinguished sporting careers include, Ronald Poulton-Palmer who captained England during the 1913-14 Grand Slam season, scoring four tries against France in 1914. He was killed in action a year later.
Notable also are the Old Rugbeians who excelled in sport while at the School but went on to achieve in other fields. For example, poet Rupert Brooke captained the XV; MP and Judge Thomas Hughes author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, excelled in sport rather than scholarship, captaining the cricket XI in 1840 and playing at Lords. Tim Grandage won Rugby's famous Crick Run, the oldest formal running race in the world, in 1975 and 1976. Tim now runs a charity, Future Hope, helping street children in Calcutta. He has taught them how to play rugby football and they have been to England to play in the Rosslyn Park National Schools Sevens. One of the children supported by Future Hope in Calcutta started at Rugby School on a bursary in 2008.
