Thomas Judson
Encyclopedia
Thomas Haigh Judson was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born international rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 player who played club rugby for Llanelli
Llanelli RFC
Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...

 and international rugby for Wales
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

. Judson would later become a member of the very first London Welsh team.

Rugby career

Judson won his first international cap when, as a member of first class team Llanelli, he was selected to play in the inaugural Home Nations Championship
1883 Home Nations Championship
The 1883 Home Nations Championship was the inaugural series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Five matches were played between 16 December 1882 and 3 March 1883...

 against England. Under the captaincy of Charles Lewis
Charles Lewis (rugby player)
Charles Prytherch Lewis was a Welsh international rugby union player, who won five caps between 1882 and 1884.-Life:...

, Judson was one of three Llanelli players in the Wales squad, the others being Alfred Cattell
Alfred Cattell
Alfred Cattell was an English-born international rugby union player for Wales who in his later life became Lord Mayor of Sheffield...

 and Harry Bowen
Harry Bowen
David Henry "Harry" Bowen was a Welsh international rugby union player who played club rugby for Llanelli and international rugby for Wales...

. Wales were competent, but unspectacular and were out-classed by Australian wing Gregory Wade, in a two goals and four tries to nil loss. Judson was reselected for his second and final international game in the game against Scotland as part of the same Championship. This was the first meeting between the two nations, and was played at Raeburn Place
Raeburn Place
Raeburn Place is the main street of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, and the name of the playing fields there.-Rugby:The first international rugby football game was played on the playing fields at Raeburn Place on 27 March 1871 between England and Scotland. It was won by Scotland, though England got revenge...

 in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. Wales lost by three goals to on, but Judson scored the Welsh try, making him the first ever points scorer against Scotland for his country.

In 1885 Judson was living in London and on 24 June was present at meeting which saw the creation of Welsh exile club, London Welsh. The meeting states that Judson was elected club treasurer, and on 25 October 1885, a London Welsh team faced London Scottish
London Scottish F.C.
London Scottish Football Club is a rugby union club in England. It is a member of both the Rugby Football Union and the Scottish Rugby Union.-History:...

 in which Judson was amongst the Welsh forwards. Later that year he was part of a joint London Welsh / London Scottish team that faced a London XV, in a charity match at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

, to benefit the London poor. The match was watched by a crowd of 8,000 and amongst the spectators was the Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

.
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