Reginald Truscott Skrimshire (30 January 1878 – 20 September 1963) was a Welsh international

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 ...

forward who played club rugby for Newport and county rugby for Kent. He won three caps for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and was the only Welsh representative on the 1903 British Isles tour.

Career

Skrimshire was born in

Crickhowell Crickhowell (; cy, Crucywel , non-standard spelling ') is a town and community in southeastern Powys, Wales, near Abergavenny, and is in the historic county of Brecknockshire. Location The town lies on the River Usk, on the southern edge ...

in 1878, and educated at

Monmouth School Monmouth School for Boys is a public school (independent day and boarding school) for boys in Monmouth, Wales. The school was founded in 1614 with a bequest from William Jones, a successful merchant and trader. The School is run as a trust, t ...

. He became a civil engineer who worked mainly in Ceylon, Southern Africa and India. Employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office he built railways and bridges in the former British Empire, his most notable work being the railway from Johannesburg to the Victoria Falls, including the famous bridge over the falls. He died at Swan Dean Hospital in High Salvington, England in 1963.

Rugby career

After playing his early rugby with

Blaenavon Blaenavon ( cy, Blaenafon) is a town and community in Torfaen county borough, Wales, high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. Th ...

he moved to first class side Newport. He made his Newport debut against English side

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in 1897, and in his first season scored 16 tries in 24 matches, a good return for a centre. Skrimshire was regarded as a fast and agile runner who had a cool head and good positional ability, though he was noted as being greedy with the ball and needed to release more to his wing players. Skrimshire was first selected for Wales against England on 9 January 1899 at St Helens in front of a Welsh record crowd of 20,000.Godwin (1984), pg 55. Wales ran out comfortable winners and Skrimshire was back in the team for the Scotland game two months later. Although Wales lost the match against Scotland, he retained his place for the final game of the 1899 tournament against Ireland. Ireland won the a much disrupted game, caused by crowd trouble, and took the

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. It would be Skrimshire's last match for Wales. In 1903 Skrimshire was selected for Mark Morrison's

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

team to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Skrimshire was the only Welsh representative but integrated well and played in all but one of the 22 matches including all three tests against the South African team. Skrimshire was the only threequarter to have improved his reputation during the tourGriffiths (1987), 9:4. and scored an excellent try in the first test at Johannesburg. He finished the tour as the team's highest scorer and would later move to South Africa and played for

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International matches played

WalesSmith (1980), pg 471. * 1899 * 1899 * 1899 British Isles * 1903, 1903, 1903

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skrimshire, Reg 1878 births 1963 deaths Barbarian F.C. players Blackheath F.C. players Blaenavon RFC players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Newport RFC players People educated at Monmouth School for Boys Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Crickhowell Wales international rugby union players Welsh rugby union players Kent County RFU players