St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future

PH060

Photograph, B&W, mounted and titled. Portrait image. Dimensions: w15 1/2" x h19 3/4" (w40cm x h50.5cm)

Photograph

CIC

1924-1939

This is a photograph of Swansea RFC Hon. Secretary R S (Robert Sydney) "Bert" Palmer. Born in Glamorganshire in 1893 he was a forward with the Swansea team in the immediate post war years and finished playing at the end of the 1919-20 season. Bert Palmer became Hon. Setretary of the Swansea Cricket & Football Club in 1926, a post he held until the outbreak of war in 1939 and the cessation of club rugby at St Helen's for the duration. The image indicates that Palmer was Hon. secretary from 1924 but he may have been Assist. or Vice Hon. Sec. then as W H Evans held the post. However, Palmer became active again at the club when a committee was formed in march 1941 to facilitate wartime rugby at St Helen's. this comprised of services based teams and the 'gates' went to charities helping the war effort. Many peacetime capped players from both rugby union and rugby league played in these games at St Helen's. Bert Palmer was Vice-Chairman of this wartime Swansea RFC Committee. After the war he became a Life Vice-President of the club until his death in 1955. Palmer's tenure of office as Hon. scretary included Swansea's famous victory over the third All Blacks on 28th September 1935, the first club side ever to have defeated New Zealand. Bert Palmer was the elder brother of his Swansea team mate Frank Cyril Palmer, who won three caps on the wing for Wales (1922).

photograph, portrait, r s palmer, bert palmer, 1926, 1939, 1955,