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HENRY 'HARRY' VASSALL - REPTON'S RUGBY FOOTBALL PIONEER

Although 'association' is the football code with which Derbyshire enjoys the closest historical affinity, a number of significant 'rugby' personalities have lived in the county. Here Peter Seddon makes the acquaintance of the Repton schoolmaster Harry Vassall

The Repton School staff of 1907. Harry Vassall is front row second right. Click on the image for all the names

Harry Vassall lived at Repton, Derbyshire, from 1885 until his death in 1925. He was a master at Repton School.

He played five times for England at Rugby Union in the early 1880s, captaining the side on one occasion, and is considered one of the game's great early thinkers.

To him is generally attributed the credit for pioneering and developing the so-called 'open game' characterised by the more refined approach to attacking combination which in the 1880s and 1890s gradually supplanted the 'brute force' mentality hitherto favoured.

He was also a keen amateur antiquary and local historian who became something of an authority on the history of both Repton School and the village itself.

Henry 'Harry' Vassall was born in Tadcaster, Yorkshire, on 22 October 1860. He was eduacted at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and there gained his initial proficiency on the rugby field.

This ability he further developed on going up to Oxford in 1879, where he was an Exhibitioner at Hertford College.

He was in the University XV in both 1879-80 and 1880-81, and for the 1881-82 season he was made captain. The Oxford team at that time included a nucleus of players who were selected for England, and no game of significance was lost during Vassall's three year spell there.

Vassall made his full England debut at Blackheath in 1882 in the side's first ever international against Wales, marking the occasion by scoring a hat-trick of tries. He played five times in all and was captain once, but failed to add to his try tally.

During his time at Oxford he encouraged team-combination and open play and is credited with introducing the 'three' three-quarter formation into Rugby Union instead of the traditional 'two' three-quarter system.

He became a considerable authority on the game and a highly respected figure. From 1884 to 1894 he served as Honorary Treasurer of the Rugby Football Union.

As a schoolmaster he was both popular and highly regarded - that rare breed admired equally by pupils and staff alike.

He arrived at Repton School in 1885 and was at first Housemaster of Hall. He was appointed bursar in 1905 and was for many years Housemaster of Priory.

Apart from his general teaching duties he also took the Army class, became a self-appointed geology master, and founded the school's own fire brigade. In his holidays he pursued his interest as a yachtsman, sailing in Scotland and off the coast of Norway.

In 1905 he was appointed Secretary of the Old Reptonian Society and took it upon himself to research the early history of the school and its former pupils, thus becoming an unofficial expert on all matters Reptonian.

He also took a keen interest in archaeology and antiquities and was responsible for unearthing a Danish axe-head from the vicinity of the crypt which was considered a significant find.

Known to many generations of Reptonians as 'Jugs' (reason undocumented but possibly because of protruding ears) he was considered a great sport and a kindly figure, renowned for his booming laugh and geniality. In contrast to the more snooty Repton masters he was known to be totally at ease with the villagers and found time in particular to engage the local children - a party piece was to entertain the younger ones by setting off his gold repeater watch.

Writing in the school history in 1957, Bernard Thomas said of him:

'Joy was perhaps the keynote of his character. S. S. Jenkyns, who took over from him at the Priory in 1921, most fittingly compared him with one of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'ideal men', those who 'with laughter, song and shout....spin the great wheel of earth about'......'

Henry 'Harry' Vassall died on 5 January 1925 aged 64.

The 'pioneer of modern Rugby Union play' is buried in Repton at St. Wystan's, where his grave may be found close to the church, a few yards from that of the cricketer and all-round sportsman C. B. Fry.

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County:  Derbyshire

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