Frank Handford was an English

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 played on four occasions for his country and was part of the first official

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team that toured South Africa in 1910.

Early life

Frank Gordon Handford was born in 1884 in Eccles,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, the son of Joseph Handford, a tea merchant who hailed from

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, and his second wife Annie Elizabeth Walker of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England whom he married in 1882. Frank had a number of older siblings from hisn father's first marriage. He lived in

Barton upon Irwell Barton upon Irwell (also known as Barton-on-Irwell or Barton) is a suburb of the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 12,462 in 2014. History Barton Old Hall, a brick-built house degraded to a farmhouse, was the sea ...

before he went to

The Leys School The Leys School is a co-educational independent school in Cambridge, England. It is a day and boarding school for about 574 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, and a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Histo ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

as a boarder. In 1906 he enrolled for an

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

course at the Aspatria Agricultural College, where after two years of theoretical and practical study he left with an award of the

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of the

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Rugby career

Handford played for Aspartria during the 1906/7/8 seasons and for Kersal Football Club (which would later become Altrincham Kersal RFC) in the 1908/09 season and was shown in the Fixture Card as Vice-Captain for the season. He later moved on to Manchester Football Club (later renamed Manchester Rugby Club). He was a stalwart of the Lancashire County side playing from 1906 through till the return season of 1918 after the Great War. During his period of study at the Aspatria Agricultural College he played

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 ...

for

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

County on four occasions. F G Handford

Handford made his Test debut for England vs Wales at Cardiff on 16 January 1909. He played in a further 3 matches for his country in that Five Nations championship. His last Test for England was a

Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy contested be ...

match against Scotland at Richmond on 20 March 1909. In 1910 he was selected for the first official

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tour to South Africa (in that it was sanctioned and selected by the four Home Nations official governing bodies). He played on all three tests.

First World War

He served in the

Cheshire Yeomanry The Cheshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment that can trace its history back to 1797 when Sir John Leicester of Tabley raised a county regiment of light cavalry in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France. Its lineage i ...

, Machine Gun Corps during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

rising to the rank of sergeant. ritish Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914–1920/ref>

Personal life

On 11 November 1915 Frank Handford married Mildred Honor Fiddy in Great Yarmouth. Perhaps due to his earlier Lions Tour in 1910, he is recorded as having emigrated to South Africa at some time after 1919.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handford, Frank 1884 births British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England British Army personnel of World War I British Yeomanry soldiers Cheshire Yeomanry soldiers England international rugby union players English rugby union players Machine Gun Corps soldiers Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Eccles, Greater Manchester Year of death unknown Military personnel from Manchester