Ronald 'Ronnie' William Poulton (later sometimes Poulton-Palmer) (12 September 1889 – 5 May 1915) was an English rugby union footballer, who captained . He was killed in the First World War during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Born in north Oxford, he was the son of Emily Palmer and her husband, the zoologist Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School, and Balliol College, Oxford.
Poulton played for Balliol College, Oxford University RFC, Harlequins and Liverpool F.C. Poulton is one of three men to score a hat-trick of tries in The Varsity Match – he scored five, still the individual record for the fixture, in 1909. He captained England during the 1913–14 unbeaten season (now what would be called a 'Grand Slam'), scoring four tries against France in 1914, in the last test match prior to the outbreak of World War I. Poulton was renowned for his elusiveness and glamorous style of play – "the very mention of swerving sends one's thoughts to the late Ronald Poulton, the swerver par excellence ... swerving and Poulton are almost synonymous terms".D. R. Gent in C. J. B. Marriott's Modern Rugby Football
Personal life Poulton was born on 12 September 1889 at Wykeham House, Oxford to Edward Bagnall Poulton and his wife Emily Palmer Poulton. His father Edward was Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford University, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He was born into a wealthy family, and brought up at Wykeham House, an impressive residence on Oxford's Banbury Road, with six servants. His siblings were Edward, Hilda, Margaret, all older, and his younger sister, Janet.
He was educated at Oxford Preparatory School ("OPS", now the Dragon School) from 1897 to 1903. The headmaster of OPS described Poulton as "the best all-round athlete who had ever been at the school". School records reveal that he scored 15 tries in one match against St Edward's Juniors. After OPS, he went to Rugby School from 1903 to 1908. There, he was in the rugby XV for four years, joint-captain with C. C. Watson for the last. He was also in the cricket XI in 1907 and 1908, and was the winner of the 'Athletic Cup' in his final three years.
He then went up to Oxford, where he studied at Balliol College from 1908 to 1911, and was in both the rugby XV and the hockey XI for the Varsity matches of 1909, 1910, and 1911. He joined the Oxford University Officers Training Corps in 1908 and resigned three years later, having been promoted to the rank of Cadet Colour Sergeant.
After Oxford, Poulton moved to Reading in 1912, where he joined his uncle, the Rt Hon George Palmer in the Huntley and Palmer biscuit company. There, he concerned himself with the welfare of the factory workers, and joined them in sporting pursuits, hoping to introduce the game of rugby to them. He moved again to Liverpool to train in engineering, and played for the Liverpool FC XV. After his uncle suddenly died on 8 October 1913, he inherited a fortune. He reportedly said: "What troubles me is the responsibility of how to use it for the best."
A condition of his inheritance was that he change his surname to Palmer, which he did by Royal Licence in 1914. His surname was never actually 'Poulton Palmer' (or even the hyphenated version 'Poulton-Palmer), although he was often later called this.
Rugby career
At Oxford, 1908 to 1911 Ronnie Poulton was one of the most able and most discussed rugby players in the history of the game. He followed in the steps of Adrian Stoop, who was one of the great innovators of rugby tactics, both at Oxford and Harlequins. Poulton was still at school when Stoop went up to Oxford and played in the Varsity matches of 1902, 1903, and, as captain, 1904. At Oxford, Stoop already applied an intelligent approach to improving the game with rigorous attention to detail, and new ideas about changing the direction of attack, and deliberately surprising the opponent's defence.
Stoop supposedly discovered Poulton, and introduced him into the Harlequins threequarter line for his debut first class match in 1908.
Poulton's reputation as a rugby player preceded him at Oxford, but he knew before he arrived at Balliol in October 1908 that it was going to be difficult to get into the Oxford side, whose back line was filled with exceptional players. The only vacancy was given to Colin Gilray, who was a little older and arrived from New Zealand with a strong reputation. In his first term, Poulton played several games for Oxford, at first on the wing but then at centre. The penultimate fixture before the Varsity Match of 1908, was against Blackheath on 28 November. Being so close to the game against Cambridge, it was something of a trials match, and Poulton had a bad game at right centre. So Harold Hodges, Oxford's captain, opted for the centre pairing of Vassall and Frank Tarr, which had proven itself in 1906 and 1907.
Although he had missed selection for the Varsity match, Poulton was called up to play at centre for England, alongside Frank Tarr, against France on 30 January 1909. As yet, France was not part of what was to become the Five Nations Championship, and was a relatively easy side to beat, England coming away with a 22–0 victory. Tarr scored two tries that day, but was dropped from the team, only playing once more for England in 1913. Poulton, however, was kept on to play the remaining Championship games against Ireland and Scotland.
The following season, George Cunningham, who later captained , was Oxford's skipper, and he selected Poulton in place of Vassall for the Varsity match. Cunningham had the same threequarter line as the previous year at his disposal, and it was only shortly before the match that he opted for Poulton over Vassall. Vassall, for his part, was considered one of the world's best centres, and had made his mark in the previous three Varsity games, beginning in 1906, his fresher year, and in 1908 had played both for England against Ireland, and for the Anglo-Welsh touring side against New Zealand. In earlier matches, Poulton had played at centre with Gilray on the wing, but for the Varsity Match of 1909, they reversed places. The match came to be known as "Poulton's Match": within a brilliant performance by the Oxford backline, his contribution was notable, and his tally of five tries in the Varsity Match remains unrivalled.
Poulton received only one cap for England in 1910, in the first international rugby match to be played at Twickenham, on 15 January 1910 against Wales. Ben Gronow kicked off and sent the ball directly to Adrian Stoop, England's captain and flyhalf. In a break with orthodox play, which required him to kick the ball back into touch, Stoop began an angled run from the right side towards the far left corner. He then passed the ball to Bert Solomon at centre, and from there it moved on quickly to John Birkett and then Poulton on the left wing. Poulton was out of space and put in a kick towards the posts, and after England regathered the ball, Dai Gent, at scrumhalf, sent the ball towards Fred Chapman on the right wing, who on receiving it scored in the corner. England dominated the first half to lead 11–3 at half time, and Wales were only managed to close the score with one try to 11–6.
For the Varsity Match of 1910, a 9,000-strong crowd turned up at Queen's, mostly to watch Poulton play. That year he was at left centre, with Geen on the wing. Cambridge started strong but a try by Bryn Lewis was disallowed in the opening minutes and, moments later, Poulton ran through the Cambridge defence, drew the fullback and passed to Geen to dive in at the corner for a try. With Turner's conversion, Oxford led 5–0. A similar passage of play again saw Poulton put Geen through for another try, but the latter dropped the ball after crossing the line while trying to get closer to the posts. Geen did get a second try, from another Poulton break, but Cambridge, meanwhile, scored two tries and were leading 15–13 at the break. Another Cambridge try early in the second half gave them a five-point lead, but an injury to a winger reduced them to 14 men. Poulton capitalised on it: he scored from a dummy pass to Geen; and ran in a solo try after receiving a pass from flyhalf Freddie Knott. The end score was 23–18 to Oxford.
Following this performance, Geen and Poulton, who together were considered the scoring force of the Oxford team, were both selected to play for England in the second trial match against The North in Leeds. Although Geen scored a try in the game, he was outshone by Poulton, "the only man who was adding to his reputation, and [played] a really brilliant game." For the third and final trial, England versus The Rest on 7 January 1911, Geen was dropped, while Poulton was kept on. Poulton, for his part, was only picked to play for England in one test match in 1911, against Scotland on 18 March.
Poulton captained Oxford in his last term, in the autumn of 1911. In the run up to the 1911 Varsity Match, the Poulton–Geen partnership was a constant threat to opposition teams. Ten days before the game, Oxford beat London Scottish 39–3, Poulton twice putting Geen in the clear, with the latter ending the day with four tries in total. Cambridge, nevertheless, were favourites to win on 12 December, but Poulton led Oxford to victory, in front of a crowd of 10,000. Poulton, however, after scoring the first try of the match in the opening moments, suffered a hamstring injury approaching half time, and his replacement Eric Thomas, a forward, lacked the speed and skills to combine effectively with Geen. Nevertheless, Geen came close to scoring, but, as he had done in the previous year's match, he dropped the ball over the tryline. He was to repeat the error the following year.
1912 to 1914 Moving to Liverpool, Poulton played for Liverpool Football Club (which later merged with St Helen's RUFC to form Liverpool St Helens FC) under the captaincy of Freddie Turner, a former Oxford teammate, and captain of Scotland. The team also included Dickie Lloyd, Ireland's flyhalf and captain, so that the club had in the 1913–14 season three international rugby captains of the same era. The club lost 57 members in the First World War, including both Turner and Poulton.
Poulton played three games for England in 1912, against Wales on 20 January, Ireland on 10 February, and Scotland on 16 March. His next international game was on 4 January 1913 at Twickenham against a touring side from South Africa, in which he scored the only try by any of the international teams to face the tourists of 1912–13. E.H.D. Sewell recounts how England might have scored a further try in the game. Poulton, playing at left centre, cut through the midfield and swerved to the right, leaving the South African fullback Gerhard Morkel standing, and would have scored, had it not been for E.E. McHardy's tackle. Cyril Lowe, England's right wing was criticised by the press for not following up, but Poulton placed the blame on his left wing, V.M.H. Coates. Sewell, who thought that Poulton was better suited to play on the wing than in the centre, considered that Poulton's elusiveness had made it impossible for the wings to keep up with him.
Two weeks later, on 18 January, the Welsh hosted the English at Cardiff. England had not won in Wales since 1895. Norman Wodehouse, England's captain, was confident of victory until the morning of the match when it was raining, and the first half of the match, played in wind and rain, ended without a score. In the second half, Poulton having found 'a small green patch in a sea of mud', kicked a dropgoal to open the scoring. England then scored two tries, one initiated by Poulton, to win the match 0–12.