Douglas Marsden-Jones CBE

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...

 (1893 – 5 January 1955) 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 rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 forward who played club rugby for Cardiff

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

 and London Welsh. Marsden-Jones was also a member of Ronald Cove-Smith

Ronald Cove-Smith

Dr Ronald Cove-Smith was a distinguished English physician and sportsman. He represented Old Merchant Taylors and King's College Hospital RFC...

's 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...

 team that toured South Africa in 1924

1924 British Lions tour to South Africa

The 1924 British Isles tour to South Africa was the tenth tour by a British Isles team and the fifth 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...

.

Rugby career

Marsden-Jones played just two games for Wales. The first was the opening game of the 1921 Five Nations Championship

1921 Five Nations Championship

The 1921 Five Nations Championship was the seventh series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship following the inclusion of France into the Home Nations Championship. Including the previous Home Nations Championships, this was the thirty-fourth series of the annual northern hemisphere rugby...

 against England on 15 January. Marsden-Jones was one of seven new caps to play under the captaincy of Jack Wetter

Jack Wetter

Jack Wetter DCM was a Welsh international rugby union player who played club rugby predominantly for Newport. He was captain for both his club and country and earned 10 caps for Wales....

 at Twickenham

Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...

, and after a string of serious injuries, Wales lost the game 18-3. His second game would take over three years, when he was selected to face the touring New Zealand team in 1924. It was another heavy defeat for the Welsh side and Marsden-Jones was not selected again.

In 1924 Marsden-Jones was selected to tour South Africa with the British Isles team and played in two tests.

He continued his rugby career by captaining London Welsh for several seasons.

Personal life

During the First World War he fought in the British Army, seving in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. In 1938 as Director of Factories he was seconded to mobilise a workforce of 30,000 to staff the Ordnance Factories throughout the country. In 1952 he was nominated for the CBE by Winston Churchill for this major contribution to the war effort. This was presented by the Queen in her New Years Honours list.