George Aldwyn Methuen Isherwood (1889-1974) was a rugby union international who was part of the first official British and Irish Lions team that toured South Africa in 1910.

Early life

George Aldwyn Methuen Isherwood was born on 3 February 1889 in Barton upon Irwell, Lancashire, England. He was the son of the stone and builder's merchant, Samuel G Isherwood and Annie Methuen (daughter of Scottish chemist Richard Methuen). He also had a younger sister Dorothy. For a time he lived on the Isle of Man whilst boarding at Ramsey Grammar School, but went on to attend Dulwich College in south London where he played both rugby and cricket for the school.

Rugby career

Isherwood went on to play for

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 played regularly for that county side in the 1909 season.Sporting Honours : Old Alleynians from the 1910 yearbook Page 245/395
Isherwood also played for Sale and was part of the 50th anniversary team that swept to an unprecedented season record of P 26, W 24, D 2. Although

P.H. Davies In chemistry, pH (), historically denoting "potential of hydrogen" (or "power of hydrogen"), is a scale used to specify the acidity or Base (chemistry), basicity of an aqueous solution. Acidic solutions (solutions with higher concentrations ...

is counted as Sale's first international (having been picked to play for England in 1927), it was Isherwood who was Sale's first representative in an international Test match, when he played in all three tests of the 1910 British tour to South Africa at scrum-half. Isherwood was selected for this first official tour (in that it was sanctioned and selected by the four Home Nations official governing bodies) and took part in twenty out of the twenty four matches played, including all three ‘Tests'. He was said to have played a useful and consistent game at half.Sporting Honours : Old Alleynians from the 1910 yearbook Page 395
Despite playing for the British team, he was never selected for England.

First World War

Isherwood fought in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

in the first world war, rising to the rank of captain. Amongst the theatres of wars in which he served were Egypt, in September 1914 and in Gallipoli in May 1915.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isherwood, George 1889 births 1974 deaths English rugby union players Rugby union scrum-halves Sale Sharks players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England People educated at Dulwich College English people of Scottish descent Rugby union players from Greater Manchester British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers