Alfred Clunies-Ross (c.1851 – 28 February 1903) was a
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
international who represented
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
in the
first international rugby match in 1871.
Clunies-Ross, a
Cocos Malay
Cocos Malay is a post-creolized variety of Malay, spoken by the Cocos Malays of Home Island, Christmas Island, and those originally from the Cocos Islands currently living in Sabah.
Cocos Malay derives from the Malay trade languages of the 19 ...
from a Scots family, was the first non-white
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
international player.
Early life
Alfred was born around 1851 in the
Cocos Islands
)
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. Of mixed
Indo
Indo may refer to:
* Indo-, a prefix indicating India or the Indian Subcontinent
* Indonesia, a country in Asia
** INDO LINES, callsign of Indonesian Airlines
** Indo people, people of mixed European and Indonesian ancestry
** Indo cuisine, fusion ...
origin, the son of John George Clunies-Ross and S'pia Dupong from
Surakarta
Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoh ...
, his father was second ruler-proprietor of the
Cocos Islands
)
, anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''"
, song_type =
, song =
, image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
, map_caption = ...
, referred to by the press as the King of those islands. His elder brother George became the third ruler-proprietor of the islands. The Clunies-Ross family had originated in the
Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
and both Alfred and his brothers had been sent to Scotland for education. Alfred attended
Madras College
Madras College, often referred to as Madras, is a Scottish comprehensive secondary school located in St Andrews, Fife. It educates over 1,400 pupils aged between 11 and 18 and was founded in 1833 by the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell.
History
Madras ...
. There he excelled at sport. In a report found in the "St Andrews Gazette" of a cricket match played between St Andrews University and Madras College in March 1864 (in which Madras were victorious by 21 runs), the following is written about Alfred: "the very clever hitting and fielding of Affie Ross, a lively and smart little fellow, to all appearances not yet reached his teens". Another reference is made of his playing a football fixture on 9 January 1869 at the Baxter Park, Dundee against Aberdeen University. His brother Alex was also in the team, and Alfred is referred to at this point as Alf Ross. He went on to study medicine in Edinburgh.
Rugby union career
Alfred played for the University of St Andrews and such was his prowess he was selected to play in the
first international rugby match in 1871 between Scotland and England. This was played on 27 March 1871 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh and won by Scotland. After he moved to London, he was at St George's Hospital until 1873 and subsequently played for the
London Wasps
Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...
from 1874 to 1880.
Career and personal life
Alfred left St Andrews University for London in around 1872, before graduating. Although he then worked at St George's Hospital in London in 1873 he still did not attain a medical degree, as confirmed in 1885 when E.W. Birch in his government report wrote of Alfred: "He was a medical student but did not graduate." Birch went on: "He lives at the Cocos and is the doctor of the place. He is a bachelor, an exceedingly well-informed man, talks well on most subjects, and is very popular with the natives. He is an excellent carpenter." Alfred later married his cousin Ellen at Cocos in 1886 and they had 5 children, among whom were Ellen and Cosmo
.
[University of St Andrew's - Rugby Club alumni](_blank)
/ref> In 1888 it is known that Alfred went to work in North Borneo. Of his later years, it is known that in 1901 he became seriously ill and moved to Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. Having not recovered from the illness he returned to Cocos to recuperate in 1902 but died in 1903.
See also
* James Robertson (rugby union, born 1854)
James George Robertson (c.1854 – February 1900) was a Scottish rugby union player. He is the first black rugby union player in the world.
The Scottish sports historian Andy Mitchell, who researched Robertson's life, stated: "It is intriguing ...
- the first known black rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
player. He played for Royal HSFP
Royal High School Former Pupils was a former Edinburgh rugby union club; but the club was re-formed as Barnton RFC and is now known as Royal High RFC.
Royal HSFP was a founder member of the Scottish Rugby Union, the second oldest national gove ...
and Edinburgh District in the early 1870s.
* Andrew Watson (footballer, born 1856)
Andrew Watson (24 May 1856 – 8 March 1921) was a Scottish footballer who is widely considered to be the first black person to play association football at international level. He played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Arthur ...
- the first black person to play association football. Watson played for Maxwell, Parkgrove, and Queens Park before being capped for Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the t ...
.
* Robert Walker (Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers footballer)
Robert Walker was a Scottish footballer who was one of the first black players of the sport. He played in the late 1870s for Parkgrove (alongside fellow black player Andrew Watson) and between 1875-1877 for Third Lanark (with whom he was a run ...
, another black player to play association football alongside Watson at Parkgrove.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clunies-Ross, Alfred
1851 births
1903 deaths
Scottish rugby union players
Scotland international rugby union players
Rugby union fullbacks
People educated at Madras College
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews RFC players
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
People from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands