Lieutenant colonel Charles James Reidy (8 July 1912 — 15 July 2004) was a British Army officer, hammer thrower and Ireland international rugby union player.[1]
| Full name | Charles James Reidy | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 8 July 1912 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | London, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 15 July 2004 (aged 92) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Birmingham, England | ||||||||||||||||
| School | Stonyhurst College | ||||||||||||||||
| University | University of Cambridge | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Born in London, Reidy attended Stonyhurst College and was active in rugby union before the war, playing with his brothers for London Irish. He was capped once for Ireland, as a prop against Wales at Belfast in 1937.[2]
Reidy served with the 2nd Battalion of the London Irish Rifles, in Tunisia during World War II. On the night of 26 February 1943, Reidy was badly when a bomb exploded in his tench. The blast impact threw him from the trench and he was left permanently blind in one eye, also losing his sense of smell.[3]
A five-time national champion, Reidy took up hammer throw after the war and made the Ireland athletics team for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, but was unable to make the trip due to work commitments.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Sandhurst play rugby faster than sevens". Londonderry Sentinel. 11 April 1953.
- ^ "Wales Looks to Wooller To-day". Daily Mirror. 3 April 1937.
- ^ "Captain Charles Reidy- London Irishman wounded in Tunisia who changed athletics". Irish Brigade. 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Irishmen Absent". Belfast News-Letter. 25 July 1952.
External links
edit- Charles Reidy at ESPNscrum