St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future
Item
OT183
Object ID
OT183
Type
Rights Holder
Other
Provenance
Swansea RFC
Season
Description
A colour print of a scene from the rugby match Wales v England at St Helen's, Swansea on 5th January 1895 in the 'Home Nations' championship. The image is printed on heavy card. There is considerable colour fading to yellow from exposure to UV light. Also a noticeable crease mark across the top left corner and a significant tear at the top centre and bottom centre. There is significant 'foxing' to the image, especially noticeable on the 'sky' segment of the image. A white band across the base names the subject: "England v Wales 5th January 1895, at Swansea" and beneath: "Thomson scores the first try for England". Above the title and located directly beneath their location in the image are the names of several of the players. Dimensions: w820" x h14" (w50.7cm x h35.7cm).
Info
This illustration produced by the Bristol based company of E. S. & A. Robinson Ltd, is a representation of a scene from the Wales versus England rugby international staged at the St Helen's ground, Swansea on Saturday 5th January 1895. Founded in 1844 by Elisha Smith Robinson, they were a very successful printers and paper and packaging company. They also developed a lithographic press facility for superior production of their wares. This also enabled them to produce novelty items such as the one featured here.
The image, which was produced mainly to appeal to an English customer, is a rather fanciful depiction of W B Thomson scoring England's first try of the match. He is depicted flying past a despairing tackle by Swansea's Billy Bancroft (full-back). Some other players in the image are marked out by their names beneath the player, at the base of the image. They include Wales players Owen Badger (Llanelli), Wales captain: Arthur Gould (Newport), W J Bancroft (Swansea) and Tom Pearson (Cardiff). The England players named are: S M J Woods (Wellington), H Ward (Bradford), F A Leslie Jones (Richmond), E M Baker (Moseley) and W B Thomson (Blackheath). The referee: Mr J Aikman Smith of Scotland is also named as is the location of the 25 yard touch flag.
The match was the twelfth encounter between the two teams, England having won ten and Wales with a draw in 1887 and a win in 1890 to their credit. It was the sixth Welsh international to have been played at St Helen's and the third time that England had been played there following Wales' first international on home soil in 1882 and another fixture at St Helen's in 1885. Swansea RFC had two representatives in the Welsh team: Billy Bancroft winning his 16th of 33 consecutive caps at full-back and forward Tom Jackson earning his only Welsh cap this day. England emerged winners by 14 - 6 in a match more evenly fought than the previous encounters between the two sides in Swansea. You can read a match report by selecting the newspaper cutting NC028 on this website.
This image was in storage at St Helen's for many years and only recently rediscovered when preparation for building work was being done. An enhanced version of the image can also be viewed on this page.
The image, which was produced mainly to appeal to an English customer, is a rather fanciful depiction of W B Thomson scoring England's first try of the match. He is depicted flying past a despairing tackle by Swansea's Billy Bancroft (full-back). Some other players in the image are marked out by their names beneath the player, at the base of the image. They include Wales players Owen Badger (Llanelli), Wales captain: Arthur Gould (Newport), W J Bancroft (Swansea) and Tom Pearson (Cardiff). The England players named are: S M J Woods (Wellington), H Ward (Bradford), F A Leslie Jones (Richmond), E M Baker (Moseley) and W B Thomson (Blackheath). The referee: Mr J Aikman Smith of Scotland is also named as is the location of the 25 yard touch flag.
The match was the twelfth encounter between the two teams, England having won ten and Wales with a draw in 1887 and a win in 1890 to their credit. It was the sixth Welsh international to have been played at St Helen's and the third time that England had been played there following Wales' first international on home soil in 1882 and another fixture at St Helen's in 1885. Swansea RFC had two representatives in the Welsh team: Billy Bancroft winning his 16th of 33 consecutive caps at full-back and forward Tom Jackson earning his only Welsh cap this day. England emerged winners by 14 - 6 in a match more evenly fought than the previous encounters between the two sides in Swansea. You can read a match report by selecting the newspaper cutting NC028 on this website.
This image was in storage at St Helen's for many years and only recently rediscovered when preparation for building work was being done. An enhanced version of the image can also be viewed on this page.
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