THE qualities which make a man vital on a sports field are also those which will single him out on a field of battle. Martin Wade tells of the Gwent sportsmen who fought in the First World War.

COURAGE, fitness, bravery, leadership are as useful to a XV as to a company and sportsmen from across the county served with distinction during the Great War.

Monmouthshire’s player soldiers came from all walks of life. Men like John Evans, groom to Lord Tredegar’s horses and Richard Garnons Williams, who played for both Oxford and Cambridge universities. Those who played rugby did so shoulder-to-shoulder with men from all walks of life, as was always the way in Wales – and as they would in the trenches.

13 Welsh international rugby players were killed during the First World War, and such was the pre-eminence of the Black and Ambers in the Welsh game at the time, six of them were Newport players.

'Johnnie' Lewis Williams too shone on the field. A Newport player between 1899-1903, he captained Wales and was part of three Welsh Triple Crown winning sides and scored 17 tries in 17 games. He was captain too in the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division and was one of the 4,000 killed or wounded taking Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme.

Son of a founder of Newport rugby club and captain for three seasons, Charles Mayrick Pritchard was part of the Black and Ambers team which narrowly lost 3-6 to the All Blacks in 1905. He won one of his 14 caps later that year, helping Wales beat the New Zealanders, when his aggression was said to have "knocked 'em down like nine pins."

Pritchard served as a captain with the South Wales Borderers, but within two months of arriving on the Western Front was fatally wounded in a raid on enemy trenches aimed at capturing prisoners. “Have they got the Hun?” he asked as he was carried away on a stretcher. “Yes,” he was told. “Then I have done my bit,” he’s reported to have said. These would be his last words before he died of his wounds the next day on 14 August 1916.

One of Wales's first rugby international players, Richard Garnons Williams’ first and only cap came in 1881 and the career soldier was 58 by the time war broke out in 1914.

Williams played, who played for Newport, Brecon and both Oxford and Cambridge as well as Wales, joined the Royal Fusiliers in 1885. He left the army, became a reservist but rejoined the regular army after the outbreak war. He was posted to his original regiment, the Royal Fusiliers as a major in September 1914, but was killed a year later while leading his battalion at the Battle of Loos.

Other Wales and Newport players who fell in action included William 'Billie' Purdon Geen, star of the side which beat the Springboks in 1912, who died at Ypres on 31 July, 1915, aged 24. Another South African connection was through Phillip Dudley Waller. He won six Welsh caps and three for the 1910 British Lions in South Africa, where he stayed after the tour. Joining the South African Heavy Artillery Regiment, he was killed in shellfire at Arras on 14 December, 1917, aged 28. Louis ‘Lou’ Augustus Phillips who helped Wales win the Triple Crown in 1900 was killed in the Battle of Cambrai on 14 March, 1916, aged 38.

Ben Uzzell, while not working as a fruiterer, was a true all-rounder, playing rugby for Newport and Pontypool and was Welsh 440yds champion in 1912 and won the English 220yd hurdle title in 1913. He served in France and killed in action France and was killed on 25 September 1918 while serving with the New Zealand army.

Newport Athletic Club stalwart, Richard Brinley Stokes was known as "a wonderfully fit man", but was initially rejected by the army because of his flat feet. He eventually joined The Monmouthshire Regiment in 1917. Transferred to the Cheshire Regiment he was killed in Glencourse Wood during the third battle of Ypres.

Some survived, but only just. Newport player, groom and chauffeur to Lord Tredegar, John Evans endured over two years’ brutal captivity at the hands of the Turks.

As someone who worked with horses, it was natural that he joined a cavalry regiment, the Royal Gloucester Hussars Yeomanry.

While serving near the Suez Canal, he was captured by Turkish troops in 1916. He survived a terrible two years and seven months as a Pow, including a 200-mile march across the desert to Beersheba, in present day Israel, from where they were taken by train through Syria and then to Turkey. There they worked as forced labour where prisoners were often brutally beaten or as Evans himself was, punched and whipped for talking to another prisoner.

Although he played for the Newport first team only three times between 1911 and 1914, he was “considered one of the fastest three-quarters in Wales”. His time in captivity seemed to have taken its toll and although he continued to play sport after the war he was reported to have "lost a lot of his former dash”.

Another survivor was Thomas Pearson. The resident engineer at Alexandra Docks, he played for Newport between 1895-1904 and won 13 caps for Wales, leading the national team once. A talented all-rounder, he represented Wales in squash, tennis, golf and hockey and was captain of the Welsh hockey squad, while playing for Newport Hockey Club.

His service career saw him attain the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery and he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and later the Companion of Bath.

Other high honours were won by Newport players.

Captain of the team which defeated the Springboks was Walter John Martin. Paired with Tommy Vile, he formed an 'outstanding halfback combination'. He joined the Newport Athletic Club Platoon of the South Wales Borderers and reached the rank of Company-Sergeant-Major. Martin was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for Gallantry for obtaining "very valuable information at great personal risk", even carrying a wounded man to safety under heavy shell fire.

Jack Wetter, a key player in the defeat of the Springboks in 1912, captained both Wales and Newport. During his wartime service he too won the DCM and when he died in 1967, his coffin was carried by six former Newport captains.

The sacrifices made by many of these sportsmen from Monmouthshire is remembered at Rodney Parade in Newport. The names of those lying in faraway fields who would pound their own fields no more are recorded on the stadium’s memorial gates still.