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

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

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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 ...

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), 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. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

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

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

with a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

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

Stephen Steyn Lt. Stephanus Sebastian Leonard Steyn (10 November 1889 – 8 December 1917) was a Scottish-South African rugby union player and British Army officer who was killed in World War I.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p. 109. ( ...

Billy Geen William Purdon Geen (14 March 1891 – 31 July 1915) was a rugby union Rugby union positions#14. & 11. Wing, wing and Centre (rugby union), centre, who represented Wales national rugby union team, Wales, and played club rugby for Oxford Univer ...

, Edward Fenwick Boyd, Gerard Crole 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 is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

, 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 The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) is a light infantry company (military unit), company (designated as Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland) and was a line infantry regiment of the British Army tha ...

, 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 ...

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

, his teammate at Oxford, said of Dickson, "He was one of the kindest and best fellows imaginable." His is also listed in the names of the 133 rugby players who were killed in the Great War on the memorial at Fromelles in north France.

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), 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 ...

'', 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 Oxford University RFC players Alumni of Diocesan College, Cape Town