This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who served in, and survived, The Great War. If anyone has further information on the men concerned, I’d be most grateful if it could be added to the thread. Gareth Corbett, Leonard James played for England Internationals: 16 : 1921 F+ ; 1923 W+ I+ (1t) ; 1924 W+ I+ (1t) F+ S+ ; 1925 NZ- (1p) W+ I= S- F+ ; W+ (1t 1gm) I+ S- F- Leonard Corbett was born on 12 May 1897, in Bristol Played as a Centre for: Fairfield School, Bristol Saracens, Bristol, Gloucestershire. Captained England 4 times. Profession: General manager chocolate company/Superintendent Royal Ordnance Factory, Bridgend. War service: Served in the Army Service Corps in France 1915-1918. Remarks: Corbett was renowned for his great passing and catching ability. Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Correspondent on cricket and rugby for the Sunday Times. He died on 26 January 1983, in Taunton
A studio portrait of Len Corbett arguably the greatest player ever to appear for Bristol Football Club (rugby). He captained England but was refused time off from his job at Fry’s chocolate factory to tour South Africa with the British Isles team. After the war a Bristol United side was formed to provide rugby for returning servicemen and this led to the rebirth of Bristol in 1919. The County Ground was no longer available for home games so the Club rented a field at Radnor Road, Horfield although occasional matches were staged at the Bristol City and Bristol Rovers grounds. The Radnor Road seasons were good ones for the Club and a new crop of stars appeared. Reg Pickles, prolific try scorer Reg Quick and the great Len Corbett were the most prominent backs and amongst the forwards Mervyn Shaw and Sam Tucker (left), a perennial favourite with Bristolians , stood out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2054041223/in/set-7215760326 The famous Bristol Football Club 1920-21 team in the year the club moved to the Memorial Ground in Filton Avenue. These were the days when the club was one of the strongest in Britain and attracted huge crowds. The team included captain Reg Pickles with the ball, and internationals Len Corbett (seated fourth from left) and Sam Tucker (back row of players, fourth from left).
I think this is a lovely picture !! Len Corbett - Bristol's finest rugby player in his 80s at his cottage on Exmoor - not long before his death. Len Corbett was one of the finest centres that has played for England. He was capped 16 times and even captained his country. Len was accredited with selling the first dummy in the game.
Annie Again, thank you. So far, I haven't been able to find out what he did during the War, other than serving in the ASC. There Must be some information somewhere! Gareth
He has a medal card ...... I don't have Ancestry so can't pull it up .... but that may give some information !! Medal card of Corbett, Leonard J Army Service Corps M2/103633 Private Army Service Corps M2/103633 Private Date 1914-1920 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...asp?Edoc_Id=2101605&queryType=1&resultcount=5
Enlisted 5th June 1915 aged 19 ... embarked SS Munich Southampton 16/6/1915 disembarked Rouen 17/6/1915 posted to 365 Co ASC advanced HT Depot #2 I have some burnt records if you're interested !!
Len Corbett - Supervisor (1941 - 1945) of ROF 53, Bridgend - [with 32,000 workers, the largest factory in Britain during the 2nd war] Corbett’s story is a truly remarkable one. He was born in Bristol on May 12th 1897, and christened Leonard James. His father - James Corbett – came from Rotherham in Yorkshire, and worked as a railway clerk. His mother was a Bristol girl, Emma Mary (nee Vowles). Corbett went to school in Bristol, first to Sefton Park and then to Fairfield Secondary School. As soon as he was 18, in 1915, Corbett joined the Army Service Corps. The ASC was the vast organization that transported supplies such as food, equipment and ammunition to the front in Belgium and France. In the Great War the vast majority of this tonnage was brought from England by sea and then transported to where it was needed, using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways. The ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and so contributed significantly to the eventual victory. Corbett’s father worked for the railways – so did Corbett join the ASC because of that background? Perhaps he had got a job with the railways when he left school. Certainly the experience of being part of a huge organization dealing in among other things the efficient movement of armaments would be useful to Corbett at Bridgend. After the war Corbett returned to Bristol and worked for the largest employer in Bristol, Fry’s, the chocolate manufacturers, based then in Union Street. In 1921 Fry’s decided to move to a new site, Somerdale, at Keynsham. Presumably Corbett was involved in organising the factory move, which was not completed till 1935. The Somerdale factory employed 5000 people. If Corbett was a manager at Somerdale, then he would have gained valuable experience at managing a large workforce. In line with their Quaker beliefs, the owners (the Fry and Cadbury families) were interested in the welfare of their workers. The directors tried to encourage the spirit of “Happiness in Industry”: medical services, pension schemes and other welfare provisions were made available to employees. Playing fields and facilities for social activities such as amateur dramatics, music and photography were an integral part of the Somerdale plans. There was a vegetable garden providing supplies for the subsidised works canteen. Again, experience of this ethos would have been invaluable to Corbett at Bridgend – perhaps he was brought to the Arsenal partly because of his experience at organizing the provision of services and leisure time organizations to improve morale and hence production. During this period, Corbett proved to be an exceptionally talented sportsman. He was good enough to play cricket for Gloucestershire in nine county championship matches. A right-hand bat, he scored 373 runs at an average of 21, and with a highest score of 55. But his greatest ability was in Rugby. He played in the centre for his home town, Bristol, over 200 times, scoring 98 tries and 27 drop goals. He went on to win 16 caps for England between 1921 to 1927 including one match against the New Zealand tourists. He played four times against Wales, and was always on the winning side . In 1924 he was selected for the Lions tour of South Africa but he did not go, as his employers would not release him. His leadership qualities were shown when he was chosen to be captain of England for all four games in 1927. On his first selection for England Corbett received in the post a six inch square of cream flannel with the red rose of England. The player had to provide the rest of the kit. His family were too poor to buy a new white jersey, so his mother sewed the badge onto one of his father’s woollen vests. Unsurprisingly he commented that ‘I actually wore that for my international debut, feeling rather self conscious.’ As a player, Corbett was certainly innovative. The Cotham Park (Bristol) RFC website declares that he ‘was accredited with selling the first dummy in the game.’ Another source proclaims him ‘the inventor of the back flip.’ In the game against Wales in 1923 he caused a sensation by passing the ball between his legs to his wing, Smallwood, who promptly dropped the winning goal. According to WJT Collins (writing in ‘Rugby Recollections’ in 1948) ‘Corbett was a very clever runner, a beautiful drop kick, and his touch finding revealed the judgement of a master. Brains, brains, brains! He made as good use of his gifts as any English centre in my time. In some matches his individual genius and captaincy turned the scale in England’s favour.’ HJ Henley in ‘The Game Goes On’ (1936) draws a picture of Corbett as a man who could cope with pressure – another attribute that would be essential in managing the Arsenal: ‘Has there ever been a cooler player than Corbett? His sang-froid made his presence a joy. He would drop a goal with the nonchalance of a man lighting a cigarette. Nothing affected his air of icy detachment. In addition, his attitude of mind seemed to be reflected in his appearance. Just as nothing could affect his tranquillity, so nothing could ruffle his hair, or disarrange his raiment. His sleek brown head never had a lock astray. It suggested the ballroom rather than a football field. And although so busy a player inevitably got very muddy on a wet day, he never looked bedraggled as other men do.’ Another aspect of his character is revealed by an incident after a Pontypool – Bristol game. A player in the Bristol team recalled that after the match the players went to a local hotel for a meal, and found that there was a screen down the room, separating the two teams. Corbett was furious, and insisted that the screen was removed. After that, ‘The players had a marvelous evening mixing together.’ In the early months of the war Corbett was involved in the organization of four rugby matches designed to raise money for the Forces Welfare Fund to enable it to provide sports equipment for the armed services. He raised teams representing the West of England, and an Internationals XV. Some time in 1941, at the age of 44, Corbett was appointed Superintendent of the Arsenal. It may seem surprising that a manager from a chocolate factory should take over control of an armaments factory. In fact it was common government practice to take people with management skills in another area to direct armaments factories. The ordnance factory at Elstow in Bedfordshire was entirely supervised by experienced managers loaned to the Ministry of Supply by the firm of J Lyons & Co – perhaps better known for homely matters such as ice cream, hotels, tea shops, ‘Nippies’ and Swiss Rolls, rather than for the production of weapons of destruction. In 1942 Lewis Silkin, the chairman of the eleventh report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure expressed his astonishment at two matters concerning ROF superintendents. The first was that they were paid so little. The salary at that time was £1,500 pa: according to Silkin ‘a man responsible for the organization of more than 25,000 workers is worth £5,000 a year.’ Silkin was fulsome in his praise of ROF superintendents: ‘It is to their credit that in spite of this low remuneration, they are doing excellent work.’ The second aspect was their lack of independence. Apparently superintendents could not even appoint a shop manager without getting approval from Woolwich. As Silkin said, ‘A superintendent should be king in his own castle…and that is not the position today.’ When the Arsenal closed, Corbett was the obvious choice to oversee a smooth transfer to peaceful production as the manager of the new industrial estate on the Waterton site. On 1st October 1947 he became General Manager of the Wales and Monmouthshire Industrial Estates Company, controlling industrial estates and factories from Trefforest in the south to Wrexham and Anglesey in the north. In March 1956 he was appointed a director of the company. Geoffrey Percival in the official history of industrial estates in Wales describes Corbett as ‘a man of great force of character.’ He retired as General Manager in May 1962, and as a director in 1967, having served the industries of Wales in war and peace for over twenty-five years. Len Corbett was eventually awarded the OBE. He died on January 26th 1983 aged 85 in the hamlet of Horner on Exmoor, near Porlock. A fireman at the Arsenal gave an epitaph that would no doubt have pleased Corbett: ‘He was very fair too, he was a very fair man.’
