LIEUTENANT RONALD WILLIAM POULTON PALMER
ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT
5TH MAY 1915 AGE 25
BURIED: HYDE PARK CORNER (ROYAL BERKS) CEMETERY, HAINAUT, BELGIUM
"By the death of Lieutenant Poulton Palmer Rugby football has lost one of its most brilliant exponents. As a three-quarter back - he could play either in the centre or on the wing - his name will go down to posterity as probably the greatest player of all time."
The Times 8 May 1915
Poulton captained the English side during the 1913-14 season leading England to a 10-9 victory against the Welsh, 17-12 against the Irish, 16-15 against Scotland and 39-11 against the French. In all the close run games it was generally agreed that Poulton's contribution, both as player and Captain, had tipped the balance.
After his death it distressed his father that the newspapers concentrated on his sporting career. In the memoir Edward Poulton wrote of his son he was keen to point out that to Ronald rugby had only been a game. His main interest was Boys Clubs to which he had devoted much of his free time since his school days. Wherever he went, Rugby, Balliol, Manchester or Reading, he helped out at these clubs on a weekly basis. He believed firmly that by talking, teaching, playing and praying with these boys, who came from poor and disadvantaged families, he could help them break the cycle of poverty and deprivation which so reduced their chances in life. As a good sportsman he was greatly admired by the boys but he never overestimated the impact he was having on them. Describing one club evening he reported to his sister: "I think it was rather successful, and they were fairly quiet - that is to say they only whistled and talked and threw chairs about".
After Oxford Poulton went to work for his mother's uncle, G.W.Palmer, in the family biscuit business of Huntley and Palmer in Reading, as his heir. It was 1912, and when his uncle died in 1913 Ronald adopted the name Palmer as he promised his uncle he would. This is how he comes to be known as Ronald Poulton Palmer.
In 1912 he also joined the Territorials, the 4th Battalion the Royal Berkshire Regiment, believing that "in no other position could I so place myself that my training at Oxford [in the OTC] might be of use in a future war". And when the war broke out he volunteered for foreign service, even though his family felt strongly that his first duty was to the company. In response to his family he told them that although he considered war to be a ridiculous way for two countries to resolve their differences, he was a trained soldier, his country required his services and everyone should obey their own conscience. In a letter to his parents, who were in Australia when the war broke out, he put it rather less pompously: "You cannot realise in Australia what is happening here. Germany has to be smashed, i.e. I mean the military party, and everybody is volunteering. And those who are best trained are most wanted and so I should be a skunk to hold back".
After all the drama and excitement of mobilsation the battalion spent seven months in training and home defence in Chelmsford before embarking for France on 30 March 1915. Edward Poulton later expressed his regret at his inability to speak of anything personal on Ronald's last leave; he said had not wanted to cast a shadow over the occasion but was sure that his son "knew he was loved; he knew the fears we felt, speech was not needed to tell him this".
If Poulton's family hadn't felt able to speak to him his friends not only felt they could but did. William Dimbleby from the Reading Boys' Club wrote later, "His heart was not in it at all. He went solely from a sense of duty and as an example to others". And his landlady in Chelmsford claimed, "He didn't want to die, he had everything on earth ... he couldn't imagine anything better in heaven". One of his very best friends, William Temple, later Archbishop of Canterbury, recorded his last evening with Poulton in his diary. Poulton had said:
"I don't want to be killed yet; there is such a lot I wanted to do, or try anyhow." I asked if he felt sure he would be killed; "Oh yes" he said, "sure of it". I said nothing and again there was a long silence. Then he suddenly said, "Of course it's all right; but it's not what one would have chosen."
The 4th Battalion went into the trenches on 4 April. Poulton wrote home regularly, constantly referring to the danger from snipers. "The snipers are very good shots. We had three periscopes smashed, and yet they only show 3" by 3" over the parapet and the German trenches are quite 500 yards away". Not surprisingly his family were obsessed by the need for him to take care. On 29 April he wrote to reassure them, "Don't worry about me in this respect ... I am always thinking of it and keeping my head down". However, it was only six days later that they received the following telelgram: "Regret your son killed last night. Death instantaneous. Colonel Serocold."
In the early hours of 5 May Poulton had been superintending a working party when he was shot through the heart. A brother officer assured Poulton's parents, "I reached him the moment after he fell but he never spoke or moved again". His father was one of many who felt sure that the Germans had made a point of killing him, knowing what a huge blow this would be to British morale. However, reports suggest that Poulton was caught by an unfortunate ricocheting bullet.
Whatever the cause, his men were devastated. As Lieutenant Crutwell told Poulton's parents, "When I went round his old company as they stood to at dawn, almost every man was crying". He was buried in Ploegsteert Wood on the evening of 6 May in the presence of his whole company. Captain Sharpe reported the event to his wife, "I wept like a child ... as did many of us". The next night the Albert Road Lads' Club in Reading, of which Poulton had been president, recorded in its Log Book, "The saddest day the Club has known. We could not hold a club, no one felt like it".
Poulton's inscription comes from a letter written by a Balliol friend, Lieutenant Stephen Reiss, to Ronald's father. Reiss was killed on 13 October 1915.