Herbert James Michael Sayers (1 May 1911 — 6 December 1943) was an Irish international rugby union player.[1]
| Full name | Herbert James Michael Sayers | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1 May 1911 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Madras, India | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 6 December 1943 (aged 32) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Ampthill, England | ||||||||||||||||
| School | Stonyhurst College | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Born in Madras, Sayers was the only child of India-based civil servant Sir Frederick Sayers. He picked up rugby union as a schoolboy at Stonyhurst College in England and went on to attend Sandhurst.[2]
Sayers married the daughter of Woolworth chairman W. L. Stephenson, owner of the yacht Velsheda.[3]
A loose forward, Sayers played for Aldershot Services, the Army, Lansdowne, Richmond and Rosslyn Park. He represented Ireland during the late 1930s, debuting in their championship-winning 1935 Home Nations campaign as a wing-forward, a position he played exclusively aside from one match as a stand in wing three-quarter.[4]
Sayers was an army major, attached to the Canadian Artillery regiment during World War II, and died on active service as the passenger in a plane that crashed in Buckinghamshire on 6 December 1943, at the age of 32.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Mike Sayers Killed". Manchester Evening News. 9 December 1943.
- ^ McCrery, Nigel; Rowe, Michael (28 February 2018). Final Scrum. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 1473894522.
- ^ "Obituary". Belfast News-Letter. 10 December 1943.
- ^ "Death of Rugby International". Gloucestershire Echo. 9 December 1943.
- ^ "Herbert James Michael Sayers - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada". www.veterans.gc.ca. 20 February 2019.
External links
edit- Mike Sayers at ESPNscrum