War hero who played for Lions and Australia to be honoured after Telegraph article

Telegraph

24-04-2025

Blair Swannell, the former Lions and Australia player, will have a player of the match award named in his honour after Telegraph Sport highlighted his relatives' campaign to have his remarkable achievements recognised.
A war hero from WWI, Swannell is one of just two players to have represented both the Lions and Australia and won a record six Test matches for the Lions.
Last October, Telegraph Sport interviewed Blair's great-nephew, Robert Swannell, who highlighted not just his rugby feats but his military service in both the Buckinghamshire squadron of the Imperial Yeomanry in the Boer War and in the Australian Infantry in WWI, in which he was killed.
Robert said that it would be a 'travesty' for Blair not to be acknowledged in this summer's series. And now Telegraph Sport understands that the British and Irish Lions and Rugby Australia have agreed that the Blair Swannell Player of the Match will be presented following the tourists' match against an Invitational Australia and New Zealand side on July 12 at the Adelaide Oval in the final game before the Test series against the Wallabies begins.
Blair Swannell was born in the Buckinghamshire village of Weston Underwood in 1875 and started playing his junior rugby for Olney before joining Northampton in 1896, where he went on to make 116 appearances, mainly as a No 8. He was called up for the British Isles tour of Australia in 1899 and would become the first Northampton player to represent the tourists when he made his debut in the second Test victory in Brisbane and would also play in the third and fourth Test victories.
By playing in three further Test victories in the 1904 Lions tour, Swannell's record of six Test wins is only matched by Froude Hancock (1891 and 1896).
Following the 1904 tour, Swannell remained in Australia, teaching and coaching at St Joseph's College. He ended up representing the Wallabies in a 1905 match against New Zealand in Dunedin having started playing for Sydney District, Northern Suburbs, and New South Wales.
Swannell could have played even more matches in his career were it not for his wanderlust which took him to such varied locations such as the USA, Canada, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, often in search of gold.
Having fought in the Boer War, he did not hesitate to sign up for service again in 1914 when WWI broke out, enlisting in the Australian army, aged 39. On the first day of the Gallipoli campaign, Swannell, who had been promoted to Major, was killed while leading his men. He is buried there in Baby 700 Cemetery.
Tom Roberts, the only other player to have represented both the Lions and Wallabies, is commemorated in the name of the trophy that was presented to the series-winning captains John Eales and Alun Wyn Jones in 2001 and 2013 respectively. When the trophy was commissioned, it was on the mistaken assumption that no other player had matched his achievements.
'It was just thinking that in a way Blair had been rubbed out of history that made me think, 'This isn't right', and particularly as he was part of Australian history as well,' Robert said in October. 'I may not have every quality, but I am pretty relentless. I've been at this for a long time and I have been determined that by the time we get to next year something will have changed about it.'
Now that wrong has been righted.