John Griffith "Jumbo" Milton (1 May 1885 - 15 June 1915) was an 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...

 player for England

England national rugby union team

The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

.

Milton, who was born in South Africa, was the son of sportsman and politician William Henry Milton

William Henry Milton

Sir William Henry Milton was the 3rd Administrator of Mashonaland, played rugby for England and was South Africa's second cricket captain....

, originally an Englishman. After spending his early childhood in South Africa, he lived in Mashonaland

Mashonaland

Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. It is the home of the Shona people.Currently, Mashonaland is divided into three provinces, with a total population of about 3 million:* Mashonaland West* Mashonaland Central* Mashonaland East...

 briefly and was then sent to Bedford

Bedford

Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, to complete his schooling.

He played both cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 and rugby union for Bedford School

Bedford School

Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Modern School or Bedford High School or Old Bedford School in Bedford, TexasBedford School is an HMC independent school for boys located in the town of Bedford, England, United Kingdom...

, the two sports his father had excelled in.

While still a schoolboy, Milton was called into the England team for the 1904 Home Nations Championship

1904 Home Nations Championship

The 1904 Home Nations Championship was the twenty-second series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 9 January and 19 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.-Table:-Results:...

, aged just 18. He played in all three Tests, against Wales, Ireland and Scotland. Milton made another appearance Home Nations

Six Nations Championship

The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

, now representing the Camborne School of Mines, the following year against Scotland and played his fifth Test at Dublin in the 1907 series. He also played for invitational tourists the Barbarians

Barbarian F.C.

The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...

 during his time in Britain.

Having returned to South Africa, Milton was selected in PW Sherwell

Percy Sherwell

Percy William Sherwell was a South African cricketer who played in 13 Tests as a wicketkeeper from 1906 to 1911. He captained the side in every one of his 13 Tests...

's XI, which played a first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 match against Transvaal in 1913/14. He opened the bowling for his team and from 17 overs finished with 0/78. It wasn't until his second and final appearance, during the same summer, that he took a first-class wicket. On this occasion he was playing for a Transvaal XI, against the Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club

Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

. His only wicket was that of England Test batsman Jack Hearne, who missed a century when Milton bowled him for 96.