Those who were at the OPS with Ronald Poulton will never forget the match we played (in 1902) against St. Edward’s School Oxford Juniors, in which he scored fifteen tries. Even then, aged 13, he was finding his way through opposition defences with a “regular rugby swerve”, as one member of our staff commented.

One of his more recent opponents is reported to have said, ‘How can anyone stop him when his head goes one way, his arms another, and his legs keep straight on?’ How indeed!

Now in France with the Royal Berkshire Regiment, he and his men are making their way towards the front line, marching from Cassel to Winnezeele (on the Ypres road). Here they were billeted for the night.

Thursday 1^st April. “The farms were found to be very comfortable, especially the one inhabited by my Platoon. The woman in charge supplied them with eggs, milk etc very cheaply and the barn they slept in had plenty of clean straw. They had a pond to wash in and a field to play football in so they were all right… I lived in the pub and was quite comfortable though the room and bed were very dirty.”

We look forward to hearing more news from Ronnie over the coming days.