St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future

PQ016

Stained wood commemorative plaque with gold lettering. Swansea RFC Rugby 1st XV Captains 1874-75 to 1981-82. Presented to the club by the SRFC Ladies' Committee, 1982.

Plaque

CIC

1874-1982

Stained wood commemorative plaque with gold lettering. Swansea RFC Rugby 1st XV Captains 1874-75 to 1981-82. The Swansea Rugby Team First Fifteen Captains are listed from 1874 to 1982, 1874 being the first full season during which Swansea played Rugby Union rules instead of Association Football rules. Recent research has found that the captain for the first season (under Association rules) was W R Randall. C C Chambers was captain during 1873-74. During 1878-79 A H Richardson was the 'elected' captain but did not play, C C Chambers skippering the team more often than any other player. Richardson again captained Swansea during 1880-81 though only playing 2 matches, F F Meager filling the post for the remainder. The 1883-84 season lists E S Richards as captain but G L Morris in fact held the post. Other names and dates are all correct. From the details we can see that two players: W J Bancroft and W J Trew each captained the First Fifteen for six seasons, which is a club record shared with Sam Kiley during the semi-professional era (see PQ17).