John Edward Raphael (30 April 1882 – 11 June 1917)''Encyclopedia Judaica'' was a Belgian-born sportsman who was capped nine times for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

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 it ...

and played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

with

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. He was a Barrister by profession and a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician.

Background

Raphael was Jewish, and the son of multi-millionaire financier Albert Raphael, who was part of a banking dynasty that in the 1920s rivalled the Rothschild family, John Raphael was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pr ...

. In January 2021, one of the eight pastoral Houses at Merchant Taylors' was re-named in his honour.

Rugby

Raphael won his first cap in 1902 when England took on Wales in the Home Nations Championship. A centre, winger or full-back, he also played in the 1905 and 1906 Championships as well as in Test matches against both France and New Zealand. The only points of his career came through a try which he scored in 1906 when playing Scotland. He captained the

1910 British Lions tour to Argentina The 1910 British Lions tour to Argentina was a rugby tour of Argentina made by a side made up of 16 English players and 3 Scots. The organisers of the tour named the team the "English Rugby Union team", but the host country advertised the tou ...

, which included the South American nation's inaugural Test match. Raphael authored a boo
Modern Rugby Football
which was published posthumously by his mother in 1918

Cricket

Raphael played his cricket as a specialist batsman and most of his appearances at first-class level were for either Surrey or

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He also played first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club, Gentlemen of England, London County and an England XI amongst others. Four of Raphael's five centuries were scored for Oxford University, including his career best score of 201 which he made against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, who had the bowling of Wilfred Rhodes at their disposal. It remains the only double hundred to be made by an Oxford cricketer against Yorkshire. His only century for Surrey came in the 1904 County Championship, which he captained his county for much of, scoring 111 against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

. A part-time bowler, his three first-class wickets were of Samuel Coe, Lord Dalmeny and Test cricketer John King.

Politics

Raphael was involved in politics as a supporter of the Liberal Party. He stood for the UK parliament as Liberal candidate for

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

at the

1909 Croydon by-election The 1909 Croydon by-election was held on 29 March 1909. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Liberal Unionist MP, H. O. Arnold-Forster. It was won by the Conservative candidate Robert Hermon-Hodge. References ...

. In a three-way contest he finished second.

Military

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Raphael served with the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United ...

as a Lieutenant and died of wounds in 1917 at the Battle of Messines, while fighting in the country of his birth. He is buried at

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. After Tyne Cot, it is the second largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces ...

near

Poperinge Poperinge (; french: Poperinghe, ； vls, Poperienge) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, Flemish Region, and has a history going back to medieval times. The municipality comprises the town of Popering ...

West Flanders West Flanders ( nl, West-Vlaanderen ; vls, West Vloandern; french: (Province de) Flandre-Occidentale ; german: Westflandern ) is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the No ...

, Belgium. Mrs Harriette Raphael, his mother, had her ashes buried next to his grave in 1929.
memorial to Raphael was erected by his mother
at

St Jude's Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb The Parish Church of St Jude-on-the-Hill (usually known simply as St Jude's), is the parish church of Hampstead Garden Suburb in north London. The suburb was founded in 1907 by Henrietta Barnett to be a model community where all classes of peopl ...

, to whom she bequeathed the family home on her death.

References

* ''

Encyclopedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langua ...