Bill Clement (rugby player)
Encyclopedia
William Harries "Bill" Clement OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

 TD (9 April 1915–10 February 2007) was a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international wing who played club rugby for Llanelli
Llanelli RFC
Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...

 and was capped six times for Wales
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

. Clement was described as a staunch tackler with speed and a good turn of pace; and after his appearance for the British Isles
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 was seen as the best defensive wing of the decade. In his later career he would become Secretary of the Welsh Rugby Union
Welsh Rugby Union
The Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales, recognised by the International Rugby Board.The union's patron is Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandson Prince William of Wales became the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union as of February 2007.-History:The roots of the...

.

He served as an infantry officer in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 during the Second World War, and was decorated during the Normandy Campaign
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...

, and twice wounded.

Rugby playing career

Clement was selected to the Wales team while playing for Llanelli, the team he would captain during the 1938/39 season. On October 22, 1935 he was part of the Llanelli team that faced the touring New Zealand national team
1935-36 New Zealand rugby union tour of the British Isles and Canada
-Matches:-Three-Quarters:* N. Ball * H.M. Brown * G.F. Hart * N.A. Mitchell * C.J. Oliver -Five-eighths:* J.L. Griffiths * T.H.C. Caughey * J.R. Page...

.

In 1937 Clement was selected to represent the Welsh team as part of the 1937 Home Nations Championship
1937 Home Nations Championship
The 1937 Home Nations Championship was the thirty-third series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Five Nations, and prior to that, the Home Nations, this was the fiftieth series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Six matches...

 under the captaincy of Claude Davey
Claude Davey
Claude Davey was a Wales international rugby union player who played club rugby for several teams, most notably Sale and Swansea. He was awarded 23 caps for Wales and captained his country eight times...

. It was a terrible campaign for Wales and Clement as the team lost all three matches; though Clement showed his team playing skills when he unselfishly set up a try for Wilf Wooller in the opening game against England.

The selectors kept faith with Clement, and he returned for the entirety of the 1938 campaign
1938 Home Nations Championship
The 1938 Home Nations Championship was the thirty-fourth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Five Nations, and prior to that, the Home Nations, this was the fifty-first series of the northern hemisphere rugby union championship. Six...

, this time with Cliff Jones
Cliff Jones (rugby player)
Clifford 'Cliff' William Jones OBE was a Welsh international rugby union fly-half who played club rugby for many teams but is most associated with Cardiff and Cambridge University...

 leading the team. Wales beat England in the opening game and just lost to Scotland three weeks later at Murrayfield. In the final game of the tournament Clement scored his first and only international points when he scored a try
Try
A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

 at St Helens
St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground
St. Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground is a spectator venue in Swansea, Wales. It is used for both rugby and cricket.It is owned and operated by the City and County of Swansea council and is also used to host the local annual Guy Fawkes night fireworks display.-History:Since the ground opened in...

 against Ireland. In 1938 Clement was chosen to represent the British Isles
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 in their the 1938 tour
1938 British Lions tour to South Africa
The 1938 British Isles tour to South Africa was the fourteenth tour by a British Isles team and the sixth to South Africa. The tour is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950....

 of South Africa. This would be his last rugby campaign as a knee injury sustained in 1938 ended his playing career.

Military career

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Clement was commissioned into the 4th Battalion of the Welch Regiment
Welch Regiment
The Welch Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1969.-History:It was formed as the Welsh Regiment during the Childers Reforms of 1881, by the amalgamation of the 41st Regiment of Foot and the 69th Regiment of Foot...

. He was injured in action twice, the first time was during the Battle for Caen
Battle for Caen
The Battle for Caen from June-August 1944 was a battle between Allied and German forces during the Battle of Normandy....

, during the action for which he was awarded the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....

 (MC). On 23 July 1944, Clement, now a war substantive captain and temporary major, was part of a raid on enemy positions around Le Bon Repos, near Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....

. Clement was in command of one of two companies of the Welch Regiment involved in the operation, but as they advanced down a 900-yard slope toward the objective, he and his men came under heavy fire and Clement was injured in his leg. They suffered high levels of casualties, one of Clement's platoons was all but wiped out, with just four survivors. Casualties with this platoon included one of just two other officers who had started the attack with Clement. He managed to rally his troops and engaged the enemy in close-quarter combat, killing at least 30. When ordered to withdraw, Clement remained until his wounded had been recovered, and only then returned to the rendezvous, where he finally agreed to receive medical treatment. For his actions in this encounter he was awarded the Military Cross on 21 December 1944. In 1945 he was wounded in action in the Netherlands, again while in charge of his company of the 4th Battalion.

Clement remained in the Territorial Army after the war, holding the rank of captain and honorary major. He was awarded the Territorial Efficiency Decoration for his long service on 29 April 1955, and finally left the army when he reached the age limit for service, on 9 April 1965.

Later life

After the end of the war, Clement returned to Wales, becoming an accountant in Llanishen
Llanishen
Llanishen is a district in the north of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Llanishen is well-known as the home of the 'Tax Offices', the tallest buildings in north Cardiff and a landmark for miles around...

. He returned to rugby in 1955 when he was chosen from 83 applicants to take over the roll of Secretary of the WRU after Eric Evans
Eric Evans (Welsh Rugby Union)
William Eric Evans was a Welsh rugby player and the secretary of the Welsh Rugby Union from 1948–1955....

 became terminally ill. One of his first duties was to solve the problem of a home international against Scotland in 1956, when the pitch at the Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

 was entirely frozen. Clements arranged for a team of men to keep brazier
Brazier
A brazier is a container for fire, generally taking the form of an upright standing or hanging metal bowl or box. Used for holding burning coal as well as fires, a brazier allows for a source of light, heat, or cooking...

s burning on the pitch overnight in an identical solution to the same problem that effected the same pitch in 1893.

He was secretary throughout the Second Golden Age of Welsh rugby and along with treasurer Ken Harris is remembered for overseeing the rebuilding of the old Cardiff Arms Park. On his retirement in 1981 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to rugby.
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