History 3 of 4

3. Presidents


The Club has always been honoured with distinguished Presidents, The first was Sir Rowland Hill who was President for 43 years, and probably the greatest administrator the game has produced. He was Honorary Secretary of the RFU from 1881 to 1904 and President of that body from 1904 to 1907. He was succeeded in 1929 as President of the Club by Sir Edward Crowe, who held that office until 1937.

For the next 29 years until 1966, our President was Commander W.J.A. Davies. The Commander was, with arguably only the recent exception of Jonny Wilkinson, the greatest stand-off to have played for England: he played 22 times, 11 as captain, when the side was unbeaten.

The Commander was followed as President by Sir Harvey Druitt for the next 7 years, and then Sir Louis Petch for the following 8 years until 1981. Both Sir Harvey and Sir Louis were Chairmen of the Civil Service Sports Council.

Mr. Martin Creasey was our President from 1981 until 1994. He joined the Club in 1935, his greatest contribution being as Hon.Secretary from 1947 to 1964, his term of office culminating in the very successful centenary celebrations. Only our present Hon.Secretary Nick Alway has served longer.

Mr Ray Allwood succeeded Martin in 1994 and stood down at the end of the 2006/7 season. Ray joined the Club in 1949 and has the unique distinction of having played rugby at the Club in five different decades, only retiring after the Veterans match in 1982. He is a past captain who served on the committee for 30 years. He was also Treasurer of the Civil Service Sports Council for 17 years and was awarded the ISO in the New Year’s Honours List in 1984.

Our current President is Mike, also known as “Henry”, Lee. A prop forward, he joined the club in 1960 and was Extra 1st XV captain in 1969 and 1st XV captain in 1971-72. He served as Fixture Secretary in the 1970s and as Chairman first from 1980-85. Remarkably he has also done some coaching and has a fine tactical awareness of what to do if a scrum is on the left. He is Mr Civil Service and the club’s principal sponsor. He was Chairman again from 1999-2007, a very successful period, and enjoys a very much hands on presidential role.