Who was... Alfred Clunies-Ross: the first non-white to play an international rugby match
Last March marked the 154th anniversary of the first international rugby match in history, which pitted the national teams of Scotland and England against each other in Edinburgh. I've previously spoken about some of those pioneers, such as the Scots Angus Buchanan and William Cross . This Sunday, I'm going to talk about another: Alfred Clunies-Ross, the first non-white player in the history of international rugby.
Indeed, Alfred Clunies-Ross was born in the Cocos Islands, which now belong to Australia, in 1851. His father belonged to a prestigious Scottish family, originating in the Shetland Islands, while his mother was from Surakarta, on the island of Java, Indonesia.
Alfred and his brothers were sent to Scotland as children to study. They attended Madras College in the beautiful town of St. Andrews, where he played cricket, football, and rugby. At the prestigious University of St. Andrews, Alfred began studying medicine.
It was then that he was called up to the Scotland national team that faced England at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, on March 27, 1871, along with two other teammates from St. Andrews. Scotland, who curiously wore brown that day, won the match 1–0.
In 1872, he left university and moved to London to work at St. George's Hospital, despite not yet having graduated. He didn't give up rugby: Clunies-Ross played for the hospital team and the famous (and much-missed) Wasps. He played for this team in particular from 1874 to 1880.
Clunies-Ross is known to have returned to his home island to practice medicine. There he married a cousin named Ellen and had five children. In 1888, Alfred Clunies-Ross is known to have gone to work in North Borneo. In his later years, it is reported that in 1901 he became seriously ill and moved to Singapore. Having not recovered from his illness, he returned to Cocos to recover in 1902, but died in 1903 , aged 51 or 52.
I hope you enjoyed the article. See you next week.
20minutos
