Walter Michael "Mike" Dickson (23 November 1884 – 26 September 1915) 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 ...

player, who represented Scotland, Blackheath and Oxford. He was killed in

World War I 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 ...

Early life

Dickson was born in

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

(present-day South Africa), the younger son of Caroline Dickson. He attended Diocesan College, SA, and

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

with a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

. At Oxford, he played in the Varsity XV of 1912 alongside Stephen Steyn,

Billy Geen William Purdon Geen (14 March 1891 – 31 July 1915) was a rugby union wing and centre, who represented Wales, and played club rugby for Oxford University and Newport and county rugby for Monmouthshire. He was also invited to play for the Bar ...

, Edward Fenwick Boyd,

Gerard Crole Captain Gerard Bruce Crole (7 June 1894 – 31 March 1965) was a British colonial administrator, who represented Scotland in international rugby union and cricket,Bath (2007), p. 104 and was also a World War I flying ace credited with five aeri ...

and

Eric Loudoun-Shand Eric Gordon Loudoun-Shand MC TD (born Eric Gordon Shand; 31 March 1893) was a Rugby Union international who played for Scotland and captained Oxford University's Rugby side in the 1919 Varsity Match. During what would have been the prime of hi ...

Rugby career

Dickson played four games for the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be less c ...

, against Cardiff on 26 December 1911, Newport, the following day, Penarth on 5 April 1912 and Cheltenham on 9 April. He scored four points in the match against Cheltenham. Dickson was first selected to play for Scotland in the Five Nations Championship match against France on 20 January 1912. The previous year, France had beaten Scotland 16–15 at Colombes. On this occasion, Scotland exacted a 'cruel revenge', winning the game 31–3 at Inverleith. Dickson was playing for London Scottish in 1912 when he was selected to play against the touring South Africans. Dickson was selected to play in the first game of 1913 on 1 January against France at the Parc des Princes. The French press wondered if the 16–15 victory of two years previous at Colombes would be repeated. 30,000 spectators turned out to watch the game. The French forwards were stronger in the scrum but Scotland's back line proved much faster and outperformed the French both in attack and defence. France scored the first try but Scotland quickly took the lead with a converted try, and a second, unconverted try consolidated the lead to 3–8 at half time. The French were unable to score again and the final result was 3–21 to the Scots. The match referee, Baxter, was impressed by the French pack but thought the French centres were responsible for the defeat, too slow to catch their opponents. Dickson was selected to play against Wales in 1913 but it was rumoured before the game that he would withdraw.

International appearances

Military service

Dickson returned to South Africa after university and worked as a surveyor. When the war broke out, he returned to the UK from Durban on the SS Norman arriving in London on 4 November 1914. He enlisted in the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

, and was commissioned second lieutenant (temporary) on 22 January 1915. He arrived in France in July 1915 and was killed in action at Loos on 26 September 1915. He is remembered on the

Loos Memorial The Loos Memorial is a World War I memorial forming the sides and rear of Dud Corner Cemetery, located near the commune of Loos-en-Gohelle, in the Pas-de-Calais département of France. The memorial lists 20,610 names of British and Commonwealth s ...

(Panel 125–127), Pas de Calais, France.

, his teammate at Oxford, said of Dickson, "He was one of the kindest and best fellows imaginable."

References

Bibliography

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External links

"An entire team wiped out by the Great War"
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'', 6 November 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickson, Walter 1884 births 1915 deaths Alumni of Rondebosch Boys' High School Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in World War I People from Rondebosch Rugby union players from Cape Town Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players South African rugby union players Rugby union fullbacks Barbarian F.C. players Blackheath F.C. players