St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future

Item

PH249

Object ID

PH249

Type

Photographs

Rights Holder

CIC

Provenance

T Aubrey Hill

Season

1928-1929

Description

Photographs x 7, B&W, various sizes. From Box Brownie camera. Swansea RFC on tour in South of France May 1929.

Info

At the end of the 1928-29 season the Swansea club organised a tour to the Armagna-Bigorre region in southern France. The photographs were taken by T Aubrey Hill, the Swansea wing, on his Box Brownie camera. Two matches were arranged with the Comité Armagnac-Bigorre Rugby, who oversaw the clubs within that region, which butted up to the Spanish border. The Sélection Armagnac-Bigorre was representative of the strongest clubs in the region, predominantly that of Tarbes, who were Regional Champions in 1929. The first match against the combined XV was played on Thursday 9th May 1929 at the Sarouilles ground, just to the west of and on the outskirts of Tarbes. Swansea won the match by 5-19. The second match against the combined XV took place in Auch a few miles north of Tarbes and Swansea again won, this time by 6-22 (6 tries & 2 conversions to 2 tries). This set of images (PH249 a-f) comprises photographs taken in Auch a few miles to the north of Tarbes. They all date from Saturday 11th May 1929, the day that Swansea beat an Armagnac-Biggore select XV for the second time in three days. Many of Hill's team mates can be recognised including Tom Day, Claud Davey, Rowe Harding (Swansea captain), Roy John and Dai Thomas.