Herbert James Michael Sayers (1 May 1911 — 6 December 1943) was an Irish international
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
player.
Born in Madras, Sayers was the only child of India-based civil servant Sir Frederick Sayers. He picked up rugby union as a schoolboy at
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College or Stonyhurst is a co-educational Catholic Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing education for boarding school, boarding and day school, day pupils, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition. It is ...
in England and went on to attend Sandhurst.
Sayers married the daughter of
Woolworth chairman W. L. Stephenson, owner of the yacht
Velsheda.
A loose forward, Sayers played for Aldershot Services, the Army, Lansdowne, Richmond and Rosslyn Park. He represented
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
during the late 1930s, debuting in their championship-winning
1935 Home Nations campaign as a wing-forward, a position he played exclusively aside from one match as a stand in wing three-quarter.
Sayers was an army major, attached to the
Canadian Artillery regiment during World War II, and died on active service as the passenger in a plane that crashed in Buckinghamshire on 6 December 1943, at the age of 32.
See also
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List of Ireland national rugby union players
List of Ireland national rugby union players is a list of men who have played for the Ireland national rugby union team.
Note the list only includes men who have played in a Test match (which includes those who played against the 1888–89 New Z ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayers, Mike
1911 births
1943 deaths
Irish rugby union players
Ireland international rugby union players
Rugby union wing-forwards
Sportspeople from Chennai
People educated at Stonyhurst College
Aldershot Services rugby union players
Army rugby union players
Lansdowne Football Club players
Richmond F.C. players
Rosslyn Park F.C. players
Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery officers
Canadian Army personnel of World War II
Canadian military personnel killed in World War II
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in England