Charles Stuart (rugby union)

Charles Douglas Stuart (18 May 1887 – 15 January 1982) was a Scotland international rugby union player.[1] He often added Junior to his name; to differentiate from his father who had a similar career path.

Charles Stuart
Birth nameCharles Douglas Stuart
Date of birth(1887-05-18)18 May 1887
Place of birthGlasgow, Scotland
Date of death15 January 1982(1982-01-15) (aged 94)
Place of deathGlasgow, Scotland
Rugby union career
Position(s) Forward
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
- Drumchapel RFC
Uddingston RFC
Clydesdale
London Scottish
West of Scotland
Rowans Engineers RFC
()
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
-
1911
Glasgow District
Blues Trial
()
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1909-11 Scotland 7 (3)

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Stuart began his rugby union career at Drumchapel RFC. He was a sporting all rounder excelling in not only rugby union but also football and cricket. As a young man in the Drumchapel side he was picked out - along with T. Inglis, C. L. Vermont and C. H. Stewart. - as starring in a match at Thirdpart against Hillhead HSFP 2XV.[2][3]

The football club Glasgow Rangers were interested in signing the young man. This did not please his rugby loving father who instead sorted a move to Uddingston RFC for the player.[4]

Stuart was later to move to Clydesdale and then London Scottish.[4]

He also played for West of Scotland.[1]

Provincial career

Stuart played for Glasgow District in the inter-city match against Edinburgh District.[5]

He played for the Blues Trial side against the Whites Trial side on 21 January 1911 while still with West of Scotland.[6]

International career

He was capped seven times for Scotland between 1909–11.[1][7]

Cricket career

He played cricket for Poloc. He was Poloc's first century maker and played cricket well into the 1920s.[4][8][9]

Engineering career

Stuart got a job as an Engineer with Rowans Engineering working in the oil industry. This was to curtail his international career. At the age of 23 he moved to Burma with Rowans.[4]

While at Rowans he organised a rugby side, Rowans Engineers RFC; run as an invitational side. The basis of the side were players from Uddingston, Clydesdale and West of Scotland.[10]

Stuart never forgot his first club Drumchapel - and for many years he took his invitational side back there; and the Drumchapel - Rowan Engineers match became the traditional preseason opening fixture for the Thirdpart side.[10]

Journalism career

Later in life Stuart followed in the footsteps of his father and became a sports journalist writing for the Glasgow Herald; concentrating on rugby union and cricket matches.[4]

Family

His father Charles Douglas Stuart Senior played for Royal HSFP; a forward of the famous Nat Watt's Lambs side.[11] Senior was also a journalist for the Glasgow Herald.[4] Like his son Charles junior he enjoyed rugby and cricket. He died in 1933 at the age of 73.[11]

His younger brother Ludovic Stuart was also capped for Scotland in the 1920s.[1]

Stuart Junior's 90th birthday lunch was attended by 8 of Scotland's union Presidents - 4 from the Scottish Rugby Union and 4 from the Scottish Cricket Union.[4]

References

Sources
  1. Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6)
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