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When I was a young boy, I was thrilled to be able to meet a LION. I had of course been taken several times to see the four-legged variety at the now long forgotten Cape Town Zoo which my great grandfather’s friend, “The Colossus” CJR had first established many years before. But on this occasion, there were no less than three red shirted LIONS who visited my preparatory school in Rondebosch. As a young 10-year-old and fledgling rugby player I was one of the lucky few from the Under 11 team who managed to get up close. For that time they were physically enormous men and I was most impressed!

Years later I remember ogling the enormity of the height of Peter Stagg and the brilliant play of Barry John at Newlands. I will never forget the wizardry of the Welsh trio of Gareth Edwards, Phil Edwards and the long haired JPR at Newlands in 1974. I think I have been privileged to have been a match day spectator at every game the LIONS have played on the hallowed turf of this famous rugby stadium since 1962 now nearly 60 years ago.

South Africa and Cape Town in particular has been privileged to be currently hosting the touring British and Irish LIONS rugby team of 2021 and although many will be immensely saddened that no games will be played at their beloved “Newlands” rugby ground we are fortunate that three Test matches will still be played during this disastrous pandemic.

Now what has all this to do with medals and the Anglo Boer War?

About 25 years ago I attended a small Cape Town auction. After some negotiation with a colleague, we agreed to share the spoils on offer so to speak. He acquired a five medal Boer War group to a Lieutenant Colonel and I was fortunate enough to acquire the following medal:

Single - QSA two bars: CC, SA’01 (Capt. W.V. Simkins, D. of E. Own V.R.)

The reasoning for my determination to acquire this medal can best be explained by the following key points. In addition, the recipient was of course a serving Officer in the Dukes.

“Billy” Simkins - Mentioned in Despatches for leading the charge by the Dukes on the Boers during the action at Fabers Puts on 30 May 1900 where the Dukes’ Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Spence was killed. Prominent President of South African Rugby Board for many years. He was responsible for the initial purchase of the land and the subsequent establishment of the Newlands Rugby ground. Manager of the first South African Cricket Team to England.

For those of you who are inclined to read further his fuller story is as follows:

William Valancy Simkins was born in London, Middlesex on 16 January 1857 being baptised just a few days later on 22 January. He was one of the five children of Anthony Lacam Simkins (b 27 April 1814 - died in Cape Town 28 May 1895) and Belinda Isabella Blake Simkins. William married Adelaide Helen Dora Ford at Trinity Church in Cape Town on 12 August 1880 and they had no less than six children. Captain William Simkins died when still a relatively young man in Cape Town on 3 October 1919 and is remembered at St. Peters Church in Observatory in Cape Town. Incidentally he was the grandson of the Rev Anthony Mann Simkins and Eliza Simkins, his father’s younger brother being William Wallace Simkins who served as an Ensign and Adjutant with the Cape Mounted Riflemen during the early 1850’s and later as Chief Constable and Captain in Albany during the later Frontier War in 1878.

It is evident that soon after William arrived in Cape Town that he joined the Cape Colonial Service and that his interest in the Dukes commenced as early as 1878 as he is mentioned as attending a meeting which was convened under the chairmanship of Captain Henry Orpen with a view to joining a new Civil Service Company of the Dukes. William was promoted Captain on 1 January 1895. He resigned his commission on 9 July 1906 retaining permission to retain his rank as well as the continued right to wear the prescribed military uniform. The Queen’s South Africa Medal with the two bars Cape Colony and the date bar South Africa 1901 was the only medal which he was awarded. His name is not mentioned on the medal roll for the Cape of Good Hope Service medal nor was he awarded any long service medal or decoration which virtually certainly indicates that his total military service amounted to less than 20 years.

But now back to the GREAT GAME

Ivor Difford in his “History of South African Rugby Football” published a short biography of William which he worded as follows:

“No more versatile or popular all-round sportsman than the late William Valencie Simkins ever made his home beneath the shadow of Table Mountain. He arrived in Cape Town in 1876 and for 43 years until his death on October 3rd 1919, he was one of the best known and best loved figures in Western Province Rugby football, cricket and rowing circles.

He threw in his lot with the Hamilton R.F.C. on arrival and played for them regularly for many years, being Captain in 1881 and 1882. He represented the club on the W.P.R.F.U. committee from 1883 to 1887 and was President of the club from 1889 to 1913. In 1888 he became a vice-president of the W.P.R.F.U. and was president from 1889 to 1905 and a Trustee from 1906 to 1919. He was president of the S.A.R.F. Board for 23 years - 1889 to 1913. He was one of the founders of the Cape Town Cricket Club and a regular member of the first team until he reached the veteran stage.

He was President of the Western Province Cricket Union in 1902 and again from 1908 to 1911. He was also a fine oar and rowed in the Alfred’s Rowing Club champion six in the halcyon days of rowing on Table Bay. Western Province Rugby football owes more than the present generation will ever know or are likely to realize to a great contemporary triumvirate – all, alas! Now gone to their rest – W.V. Simkins, L.B. Smuts and J.G.B. Heyneman. Not the least of those three was dear old “Billy” Simkins. He was a “doer” not a talker, loved and respected by all, as much by visiting footballers and cricketers from overseas or other parts of South Africa as by those in the peninsula.

He was born in London “within Bow Bells” on January 16th 1857, and his death at a comparatively early age of 62 was early and as great a blow to every sportsman in the Cape Peninsula as it was to his family. In the early eighties Mr Simkins became a stock and share broker in partnership with the late Mr C.W. Adams, also a keen sportsman whose hobby was racing. The firm were for many years the leading brokers in Cape Town.”

As described in Difford’s short obituary it was however chiefly as a sportsman, and more specifically as a sports administrator, that William Valancy Simkins made his mark. Even today he is well remembered for the substantial sporting legacy and his immense contribution in fostering South African and particularly Western Province Sport.

On first arriving in Cape Town, he joined the Hamiltons Rugby Club in Sea Point which he captained a few years later during the 1881 and 1882 seasons. WVS was the prime mover in the establishment of the Western Province Rugby Union and chaired the first preliminary meeting in May 1883 and although there were a preponderance of Hamilton’s men from north of the city they elected RW Shepstone Giddy as the first President of the WPRFU with another Villagers man, Joey Milton, as vice-president. This newly established Union started the Grand Challenge competition in 1883 on a knock-out basis. It would seem that Simkins retained the captaincy of the Hamilton’s team for the first game which was played, and won, against Villages during the first round of the Grand Challenge Cup on 7 July 1883. Hamilton’s went on to win the Cup.

William Simkins’ served as one his club’s representative on the Union Board from 1883 to 1887. Elected Vice-President in 1888, then just 31 years of age, he was elected as the Union’s second President the following year and continued to serve in that capacity until 1905. On 14 July 1893 he was elected as the second President of the South African Rugby Football Board, and save for occasional temporary breaks he held this position for nearly 20 years until 19 March 1913. He was also a founder member of Cape Town Cricket Club, President of the Western Province Cricket Union and a keen member of the Alfred’s Rowing Club when rowing on Table Bay was a popular sport at the Cape. Through his zeal he became the leading figure in both Western Province Rugby and Cricket while still in his twenties and was rightly later described as “The Admirable Crichton of Western Province athletes at the turn of the century”. In 1894 he was the Manager of the first South African cricket team to tour England.

But back to rugby football. “Billy” Simkins as he was always known, together with former English international fullback Joey Milton who was soon to become Cecil John Rhodes’s Secretary (later Sir William, the Administrator of Southern Rhodesia), were largely instrumental in persuading the adoption of Rugby Rules at the Cape to replace “Gog’s Game” named as such after Canon Ogilvie who was then headmaster at Bishops. Also known as the Winchester game if differed from the game as developed by Rugby School. Early in 1876 it was decided that it would be expedient to form another club comprising residents of the southern suburbs and in response thereto a meeting was held in the Court House at Mowbray where some forty enthusiasts met on 31 May 1876 under the chairmanship of Charles Eustace Pillans another member of the Dukes who later achieved fame due to his influence in establishing the now acclaimed Botanical Gardens at Kirstenbosch. Although it was initially proposed that the club be named the Villager Club, the name of Western Province Club was carried by a large majority. Charles Pillans was elected Club Captain. The new club adopted the new Rugby Union rules and as these were considered by many to be unpopular the Jones brothers convened a further meeting at Stanmore, now part of my old Prep School, where a further new club named Villagers which was to continue playing the Winchester game was formed. In 1878 William Henry Milton arrived from the Old Country, and he, perhaps more than any other man, caused the adoption of Rugby Union rules and consequently doomed the hybrid Winchester game. Milton was supported Billy Simkins and Shepstone Giddy so effectively that by the end of 1878 the Winchester game was finally ousted from favour.
Hamilton’s adopted Rugby School’s rules in 1878 and the first match against Villagers under Rugby Union rules was played later that year.

In 1887 the Western Province Rugby Football Union started to look for suitable headquarters as playing on the Green Point and Rondebosch Commons was not particularly satisfactory. Cricket had obtained a ground from the local breweries in Newlands and rugby looked for a dedicated playing venue. The leading two men behind this idea were both from Hamiltons – CWP Douglas de Fenzi, secretary to the WPRFU, and Billy Simkins. They asked cricket if they could share the ground, but were turned down and so rugby went in search of its own ground. Shepstone Giddy, Billy Simkins and Frank Robb of the Woodstock Club identified a piece of ground opposite the cricket ground. It was then leased from the Breweries for £50 for the first year and £100 for each subsequent year. This was how Newlands became the first home of Western Province rugby in 1890.

WVS, the recipient of this QSA medal, served as Manager of the first representative Western Province rugby team which won the South African Rugby Board’s first provincial tournament held in Kimberley in 1889. During this tournament he was also given the honour of acting as the referee in the second match when the Griqua team beat Transvaal 4 points to 3. The following year he was the first referee to supervise a rugby match on the Newlands Ground on 31 May 1890. This was surely an honour which he was afforded with some justification. In those days the referee was a gentleman who sat on the touch-line and was referred to if there was a dispute. The captains would decide right and wrong. If they could not agree they would refer to the umpires, of whom there were two, one attached to each side. If the umpires could not agree they referred the matter to the referee. The Rugby Union eventually bought the ground at Newlands for £2 500 in 1894. In all of this finance was a problem, and the man who saw to it was Billy Simkins. He was the man of finance. His father, who died in Cape Town in 1895, was an accountant and as Billy Simkins was a leading stockbroker and a member of the first Board of Directors of the then Cape Town Stock Exchange, he was able to negotiate and ensure that the final purchase of the ground was secured.

I have lived just a stone’s throw from Newlands, the internationally famous home ground of South African rugby, for more than 60 years. As an ardent enthusiast of the game of rugby I retained rather privileged seating tickets which my parents acquired before I was born and I have watched and enjoyed the vast majority of international and important rugby matches which have been played there since I first watched the All Blacks play the Springboks in 1960.

As a season ticket holder, the group of regular spectators seated nearby became well known to one another and on more than one occasion this rather special medal accompanied me to watch an important game and I was able to share his story with those who sat close to me. I am sure that this old veteran would have approved and like me would have been saddened when it was announced that the Newlands rugby ground would be sold and that the new home for rugby in Cape Town would be transferred to the new stadium built in Green Point for the Soccer World Cup in 2010.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic spectator restrictions, I won’t be attending this Saturday’s match in person but I will certainly keenly follow the match on television.

I am sure that if Billy Simkins were still alive, he would look back with pride at the rugby tradition which he helped establish and foster at the far off tip of Africa. Let’s hope that this upcoming Saturday’s series decider for the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour and the umpteenth clash between these two test teams provides a thrilling spectacle for all enthusiasts of the GREAT GAME.

RobM

Thank You Rob.....

Great research...... The funny thing is I just watched a movie about Boer prisoners who were forced to form a Rugby team and to play against the British on St. Helena.... Called "Blood and Glory"..... I understand that the name of the team as "The Springbok's..... I know it is not your team but I thought the movie was quite good.....

Your research added more....

Mike

That is a really fascinating article, Rob, that combines in one two of your great interests.

You must have been very happy with that negotiation all those years ago. Did you know WVS's story at the time?

Although I never had season tickets on the Grandstand - mine were amonst "the common man" on the railway stand - but at least I am closer to the stadium!!!! A great loss to South Africa & the rugby world. & a mighty fine medal & story. Did I lend you this?

My son shares a bronze South African Rowing Doubles medal with an Olympian! Rondeboch boys sent two coaches, a oarsman, waterpolo & a sevens player to Tokyo.So the fine tradtion you were part of continues.

Rob,
What a great history of the SA rugby union and Newlands Stadium, particularly timely with the third and crucial test fast approaching! All being finely poised!
Looking forward to Friday 6th August, tickets will become available for Wales v South Africa for the autumn tests in the UK........it goes on....
All the best,
Steve