Frank Whitcombe

Frank William Whitcombe (29 May 1913 – 17 January 1958), also known by the nickname of "The Big Man", was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1930s and 1940s.

He played rugby union (RU) for Cardiff RFC, London Welsh RFC, Aldershot Services and Army Rugby Union, as a prop, i.e. number 1 or 3, and representative level rugby league (RL) for Great Britain (Heritage No. 175), Rugby League XIII, and Wales (Heritage No. 164), and at club level for Broughton Rangers and Bradford Northern (Heritage No. 638), as a, i.e. number 8 or 10, during the era of contested scrums.

Whitcombe was one of ten children growing up at 52 Wedmore Road in Grangetown.

His father Frederick William Whitcombe worked as a blacksmith's striker at the Dry docks His sport was as a prize fighter, bare-knuckle boxing, at Cardiff Docks known locally as Tiger Bay.

Times would be hard for Gertrude Whitcombe, Frank's mother, but she was a resourceful woman, for income the family firstly had her brother and Samuel & Emily Leonard as lodgers.

Mrs Whitcombe would send one of the children to the brewery for a jug of yeast, and would brew her own beer, the children would sell this to the neighbours, and she would also make sloe gin to sell in the autumn

Along with brother George Whitcombe, Frank attended Ninian Park council school in Cardiff.

On leaving school at 14 he worked for McNeil's The Coal and later as a van boy with the Great Western Railway.

Then after a period of unemployment on 17 January 1931 Whitcombe enlisted as a Sapper (number 1869154) in 38th Field Company, Royal Engineers as a motor driver.

On 25 July 1933, in Cardiff, Whitcombe married Doris May (née Bryan) who lived at 15 Sussex Street also in Grangetown.

Whitcombe's father-in-law, Alfie Bryan, was an amateur boxing trainer who worked in the gym with Jim Driscoll.

Whitcombe had a brief boxing career while in the army.

He won his first 11 bouts, but when he lost his twelfth he decided eleven good wins were not worth one good hiding.

On 23 February 1935, Whitcombe played on the winning Army team against Territorial Army at Taunton R.F.C. by 18 – 5.

A game used as a trial match for the upcoming inter services.

He then won his first cap on the winning Army Rugby Union team against the Royal Navy 11–8, on 2 March, in a famous victory with the Army team having only 13 players, due to injury for most of the match.

His fellow prop was the England captain Douglas Kendrew who was one of the players who had to leave the field injured after only 15 minutes.

Then on the losing side 3–6 to the Royal Air Force on 23 March at Twickenham in a game dominated by the RAF standoff Gus Walker, making the Inter-Services title of 1935 a Triple Tie.

While serving in the Army, Whitcombe reached the rank of lance corporal, very few non-commissioned officers made the Army side at this time.

Prior to turning professional, Whitcombe played at Twickenham in the final of the Middlesex Sevens on Saturday 27 April 1935 for London Welsh losing 3–10 to Harlequins.

The following week Whitcombe returned to Cardiff to play in the Welsh final trial

While playing rugby union for London Welsh RFC Whitcombe was selected to play for The Rest V Wales on 4 May 1935 in a special rugby union match arranged to benefit the King George V Silver Jubilee Trust at Cardiff Arms Park.

From a Welsh point of view this game served as a guide to discovering fresh talent for the next season.

The game particularly showed that there were some very good young forwards in Wales, including Whitcombe.

Some of the players who took part in this game went on to be rugby league greats.

On the Wales side that day playing at Stand off was a teenager from Swansea still attending Gowerton county school, one W T H "Willie" Davies, a future Lance Todd trophy winner and teammate of Whitcombe's at Bradford Northern and Great Britain.

Playing on the wing for Wales was Arthur Bassett of Aberavon, who would also become Whitcombe's teammate for Great Britain.

Despite the efforts of his brother George to persuade him otherwise, an earlier offer, in March 1935 from the Wigan Rugby League Club was turned down by Whitcombe.

When a second offer came on 18 September 1935 from the Broughton Rangers rugby league club, Whitcombe accepted.

This was an outstanding sporting unit, in his first year of service, 38th Field Company won the Athletic Challenge Cup, the Boxing cup and the Rugby cup.

This was the start of Whitcombe's rugby union playing career with the Army.

He had a sparkling career playing 27 times for the Army team and won two caps.

Bassett famously scored a hat-trick of tries in Great Britain's Ashes clinching victory over Australia at Brisbane in 1946.

In The Rest side with Whitcombe on the wing was Alan Edwards of Aberavon, also a future Bradford Northern and Wales teammate.

Edwards has the distinction of being one of only five players in the history of the game to win all six major rugby league cups in his career.

A quirk of fate here is Arthur Childs also played in the rest team with Whitcombe, a back row forward from Abertillery who also turned professional with the Halifax club.

Twenty nine years later Arthur's son, Rodney Childs, and Whitcombe's son, Frank Whitcombe Jr, were the two prop forwards for the North Eastern Counties side against Sir Wilson Whineray's 5th New Zealand All Blacks team on their tour of Britain in 1964

Wales defeated the Rest 13–5.

A special jersey was made for this game and given to the players afterwards.

All the proceeds from this match where donated to the Kings Silver Jubilee Trust Fund.