The Rugby Football Union will soon commence the erection of the Rose & Poppy Commemorative Gates at Twickenham Stadium to mark those from the Rugby Community who fell in the Great War.

Alongside the opening, a documentary has been commissioned to focus on the effect the War had on Rugby Union in England and how the Rugby community downed tools and supported the effort en-masse.

The documentary, made by Formidable Films, is the brainchild of Lewis Moody, the ex-Leicester Tigers, Bath Rugby & England World Cup Winner. Lewis has been incremental in getting the project commissioned and has been one of the main researchers on the project.

It was during this research, that he un-earthed the particularly fascinating story of Tynedale RFC in World War One. The picture at the head of the story is that of the 1914 Tynedale RFC 1st XV who won the Northumberland Senior Cup.

This story, which is detailed below, will play an integral part in the film, which will also focus on the members of the English Grand Slam Winning Team of 1914 who also perished.

During the visit last Saturday, Lewis and the Crew met players from the 1st XV as they departed for Harrogate, spoke with club stalwart Douglas Hamilton about the clubs history and the War effort & met with Dicky, Chris & Michael Hall at Barker House Farm to get a modern day comparison of local lads heading off to War.

Brian Tilley, ex-Hexham Courant Journalist, has written a book titled 'Tynedale in the Great War.' It is a fascinating insight which goes into detail about the Tynedale Boys who went to war. The following extract is taken from the book:

"Hexham-based Tynedale Rugby Club cancelled all fixtures until
further notice, as practically every first and second XV player from the club joined the colours on the outbreak of the war.

From those who volunteered, forty-nine past and present players gave their lives.

They were: William Adamson, William Alder, Benjamin Alexander,
Rollo E. Atkinson, John A. Bagnall, Ernest Batey, William Braidford,
Percy Braidford, John Brydon, Thomas Burn, Thomas W. Burn, Thomas Cathrae, William Coulson, William Elliott, John M. Emerson, Bertrand, D. Gibson, John Grierson, Noel F. Humpheys, William Jefferson, Stanley H. Kent, Drew Little, Frank O. Mail, Alexander Morrison, William M.B. Nanson, Fred Nevison, Norman Oxland, Arthur Patterson, Lionel D. Plummer, George Potts, Ryde Rayner, Michael Reed, Andrew G. Richardson, Charles N. Ridley, John W. Robinson, George S. Robinson, Jos. W. Robinson, John Robson, James Robson, William J. Robson, John R. Robson, Andrew Snowdon, Harry J. Spencer, William Summers, William R. Thew, Arthur Thompson, David T. Turner, Ernest Walton, George P. Walton and Isaac Whittaker.

For a small rugby club, this was a massive toll, and testament to the
loyalty of the men, both to the country and their comrades. The death toll included a number of the club’s finest players – as well as that of Sammy, the half-bred Border terrier who had become the mascot of the 1914 cup-winning team and had gone off to the war with them.

Of the fifteen players in that Tynedale team which had won the
Northumberland Senior Cup in 1914, five did not survive the war –
William and Percy Braidford, Fred Nevison, George Potts and George
Walton. The gallantry of those who served was rewarded by no fewer than thirty-five medals, including five Distinguish Service Orders, fourteen Military Crosses, two Distinguished Conduct Medals, and, notleast, the Croix de Guerre, Croix de Chevalier and Medaille Militaire awarded to Tynedale men as battle honours by the French.

Among the dead was Noel Forbes Humphreys, a Welsh rugby union
international who was part of the first official British and Irish Lions
squad that toured South Africa in 1910. He played for Tynedale RFC in what has been termed their golden years, the decade up to the outbreak of the war, when they won no fewer than fifteen trophies, including the Northumberland Senior Cup on three occasions and the Senior Shield four times in a row between 1909 and 1912.

Humphreys was a fly half of such talent he caught the eyes of the Lions’ selectors for the first official tour of the British Isles team to South Africa. Despite playing for the British team, he was never selected for Wales.

He was a captain in the Tank Corps (10th Battalion), and was
mentioned in despatches as well as being awarded the Military Cross. He was mortally wounded on 23 March 1918 and died three days later and is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery.

In January 1921 the club honoured the fallen by opening a new
pavilion at the north end of its Dene Park ground in Hexham as a
memorial to those who had lost their lives. The new building had been a former army hut, bought out of the proceeds of a subscription list launched the previous year and erected by voluntary labour.

At the opening ceremony, performed by the President of the Northumberland Rugby Union, Harry Welford, a brass tablet bearing the names of the forty-nine men who had given their lives, presented by the club president, George Gibson, was dedicated by the Rector of Hexham, the Rev. J.V.C. Farquhar.

The plaque is now displayed in the entrance hall of Tynedale RFC’s present clubhouse at Tynedale Park, Corbridge, alongside another commemorating the twenty-seven past and present players who died in the Second World War."

The documentary is expected to be released later in 2016.