Why is there no real memorial to England's first black rugby star?

Following the decision to honour black footballer Jack Leslie with a statue at Home Park, Herald reader Bill Nicholson wants to see Jimmy Peters, the first black man to play for England, honoured in a similar way. Here he looks at the incrdible story of the Plymouth Albion player and issues a rallying call to rugby fans to join his campaign

- Bill Nicholson

JIMMY Peters was born in 1879, the first child of a black father and a white mother, in Salford. His early life saw him moving around with a zoo where his father George was a lion tamer with Cedric’s Menagerie. Tragically George was mauled to death by a lion.

Jimmy is said to have become a bareback horse rider with another circus but after breaking his arm and being unable to perform he was abandoned and left tied to a wagon where he was found by Lord and Lady Portman.

They came from one of the richest families in Britain in the late 19th Century and, in 1890, they sent him to Fegan’s Orphanage in London where, among other things, the boys were introduced to sport. Jimmy was luckily introduced to the game of Rugby Union and played against Blackheath FC before leaving the orphanage in September 1898.

He moved to Bristol and took up employment as a carpenter and was reunited with his family in the area of St Phillip’s Marsh, and soon began playing rugby for the city’s club.

Mark Hoskins, a Bristol rugby historian, said that Jimmy “was a quite athletic player, with a sharp, fast pass. He was a very good ball-handler”. Jimmy went on to represent Bristol no less than 35 times over two seasons but left the city for Plymouth in 1902. County Championship success followed with Devon in 1906 and he made his historic England debut for England RFU in an international against Scotland in March 1907. On the team sheet Jimmy was shown as “Darkie Peters”. England won 8-3 of course!