Scottish Rugby Internationalists Who Fell

Lieutenant Cecil Halliday Abercrombie, Royal Navy, born at Mozufferpore, India, on 12 September 1886, was the son of Walter D Abercrombie, Indian Police, and Kate E Abercrombie. In cricket, he was a right hand bat and right hand medium pace bowler. In 1912 he hit 37 and 100 for the Royal Navy v Army at Lord’s. He played for Hampshire Cricket Club in 1913, scoring 126 and 39 in his debut against Oxford University, 144 v Worcestershire and 165 v Essex when Hampshire followed on 317 behind; in a stand with George Brown (140) he put on 325 for the seventh wicket. In first class matches that year he scored 936 runs with an average of 35.92. Between 1910 and 1913, he played six times for Scotland (won 2, lost 4). He was lost with HMS Defence on 31 May 1916, age 29, and is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. His widow was Cecily Joan Abercrombie (nee Baker) of 22 Cottesmore Gardens, Kensington, London. (The following is from "The Rugby Roll of Honour" by E H D Sewell, published in 1919) Lieutenant Cecil Halliday Abercrombie, Royal Navy, was born at Mozufferpore, India, on 12 September 1886, and fell in action on HMS Defence at the Battle of Jutland, on May 31, 1916, aged 29. He was educated at Allan House, Guildford, at Berkhamsted School, and on HMS Britannia. He was in the 1st XI and XV, both at school and of the Britannia, and on the training ship won for his Term the High Jump, Long Jump, Racquets, Fives, and Swimming, thus early his versatility proving the shadow of the coming event. In 1902 he passed out of Britannia, and on Hyacinth was one of the party which landed for the capture of the Mullah's stronghold at Illig in 1904. He received the general East African medal with clasp for his services in Somaliland. At the outbreak of war he was on the Mediterranean station, and returned early in 1915. As for his prowess at Rugby football I feel I cannot do better than give verbatim the following appreciation of it from the pen of one who was aware of it first-hand. "Abercrombie's forward play can best be described as that of a dashing player 'full of beans'. His personality was that of a breezy sailor with an abundant energy, and this was characteristic of his play. He was always doing something. © Alistair McEwen 2014 "If he was not in the centre of every scrum, he intended to be there. Possessed of splendid physique, great speed and height, and a good pair of hands, he was, needless to say, a fine touch player, but his forte was getting among the opposing backs, as he seldom or ever made a mistake in a hard low tackle. He was a splendid place kick, and could place a very long ball, and is credited with some good performances in this important part of the game. Abercrombie was a typical Rugby player. During the game he put every ounce of energy he had in his composition into play, and gave his opponents as hard a time as possible, taking and giving knocks with entire impartiality. The moment the game was over, be the result a win or a loss, his opponents were sportsmen and friends, for whom he could not do enough. Rugby football is a great and a true sport, and it is men like Abercrombie who main- tain its traditions." A sentiment which will be instantly echoed by everyone who understands the game at all, or who knew Abercrombie. We write sometimes as regards cricket of such and such a player as being just the type one would like to take boys to see, the idea being, of course, that the imitative powers in the young may have full scope on the most suitable subject. Well, the same might have been said of Abercrombie in Rugby football. He, and Basil Maclear, Ronny Poulton, Freddy Turner, Lewis Robertson, Oakeley, "Toggie" Kendall, Mobbs, Noel Slocock, Frank Tarr, John Raphael, and Ronny Lagden were all of the same mould, glorious models for all youngsters. No plaster saints any of them, thank Heaven! but straight, clean, and very hard, true Britons. Abercrombie's very vitality alone was worth travel to witness. Some called him a "winger" and when he was not chosen for Scotland, though playing just as well as ever, they used to say: "Oh yes, of course he wings, and Scotland won't play any but solid scrummagers" as though MacEwan, Monteith, and "Darkie" Sivright had always been first down and last up! That Abercrombie possessed no little aplomb, a little incident which it is easy to write now after the event cost Scotland that much debated French match at Colombes, Paris, in 1911, tends to prove. Things were getting rather desperate towards the end of the game, and after a long spell near the French line, Abercrombie at last got over the line with the ball, but in an endeavour to get nearer the posts he ran back again over the goal-line, owing to the presence of opponents in in-goal, and was there tackled and downed, another scrum close to the line being the net result of his ill-chosen manoeuvre. He thereupon claimed a try where he had crossed the goal-line! But A. O. Jones had recollections of a law of the game which requires the player to place his hand on the ball in the opponents' in- goal or on the goal-line, and the game proceeded. To Abercrombie's temporary disgust, but if anybody knew he was on a bad case, he did. He was in all respects a delightful player to watch, and must have been a most charming man in whose company to play. A fine free cricketer of the sort which plays the game in the spirit in which its laws were meant to be read and interpreted, he was invaluable to Hampshire, and might have played, had he had the opportunity, for England one day. The last time I saw him was, I think, in 1914 choosing a bat in Philip Need's room at Lord's, and he knew what he wanted and meant to have. Naval officers who were familiar with him have penned the following words in letters, these extracts from which I have been greatly privileged in being allowed to use. No man could wish for a more graceful tribute than that of the fellow-officer who wrote that he felt quite sure the last gun-firing on Defence was Abercrombie's. Men do not invent such feelings, and when they express them we know they are writing the straight truth. Of the glorious action of Defence writes one who witnessed it from a battleship: © Alistair McEwen 2014 "They drew the fire of several enemy ships upon themselves, which should have been concentrated on the Battle Fleet, and undoubtedly their sacrifice enabled our ships to return the fire unmolested and saved many lives that might otherwise have been lost. Their death was such a gallant one, that nobody could wish for anything different or more glorious, and their action was witnessed by the whole Fleet with intense admiration and sympathy, as they could not possibly stand such a hell of fire, and yet they were still firing away themselves right up to the very last. In those few full minutes there was sufficient heroic duty to fill an ordinary lifetime, and I feel certain he would not have wished otherwise. He was such a good friend and such a delightful shipmate that his loss will, indeed, be mourned throughout the Service, where he was particularly well known and appreciated." One of his late Captains wrote, "You and I are in a position to realize to the full the loss that the country has sustained by the death of your husband. I feel perfectly sure that it was his gun that was being fought when the ship gave her final plunge - directly I heard of it, I felt it". Another wrote, "It will comfort you to know that the spirit displayed by those gallant fellows in Defence, added materially to the confusion of the Germans. The Fleet is very proud of them, and nothing I have ever read in history can surpass their deliberate and magnificent sacrifice". And yet another, "I can honestly say that I should have been more content being killed beside him than anywhere else". A brother officer wrote, "From the first day I met him he always inspired me with the profoundest respect, and I felt instinctively he was a man above the average, and the finest type that Britain produces. He was a man, take him for all in all, we shall not look upon his like again". A friend who had often played cricket against him wrote, "The action, indeed, is itself typical of him, for many is the time on the cricket field, when odds looked black for his side, I have seen him come in and go baldheaded for the bowling, his sole idea being his side first, himself last, get the runs or get out. He was not only a fine officer, but a great example of a British gentleman, and a sportsman through and through, no matter what the penalty was. Nothing could have made him miss that fight. We, in the other service, are so full of the gallant action, that our feelings are those of pride that we belong to the same race as Abercrombie and the others who went with him.

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