Father & Son, 1906

I love this card ! Father and son proudly posing for the photographer with their rugby jerseys and representative caps.

I can't identify the father's jersey nor the caps - "C.R.F.C. 1905-06" on the head, "C.R.F.C." and "1904-05" (only...) in hand. Only hint : the postcard comes from Gloucester... Your guess ?

The boy's kit is one of the very first England School's jersey. There is one at RFU Museum of Rugby at Twickenham, shown in their nice catalogue "Beauty and Power : A journey through the history of world rugby". Fine embroidery, indeed...

 

Wales first invited an English Schoolboys team in Cardiff in 1904, followed by a match in Leicester in 1905, while other Home Nations school sides developed much later. I like the idea that our boy was a member of England 1905 team in Leicester... I doubt that you could find replicas at this time...

There are larger pictures available on Flickr (postcard / jersey / catalogue)

Post-Sciptum : when my son (2007 WRC replica) and I (1906 replica) are wearing our French jerseys, we are far less classy... ;-)

(France v Ireland - Feb.2008 in Paris)

Edit March 22 : there are at leat three gentlemen (thank you AD and Akky) to suggest that C.R.F.C. could refer to Cheltenham R.F.C. Thanks a lot !

Edit Dec.12 : Nick Berkeley, Conservator of Gloucestershire Archives, is working on that story.. The boy was named 'Hugues' and was captain of Gloucester team at the time. Any additional info will be welcome !

Technorati Tags: rugby, postcard, England Schoolboy

Comments

[tristan]

i have a photograph of the 1905 england school boys squAD AND CAP ETC

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Wonderful! Would you like to share this photograph ? Ill be happy to publish it ([email protected]), or at least if you could try to check if this boy is on your photograph?