Clifton RFC History - Edward Innes Pocock

Edward Innes Pocock selected for Scotland in 1877 while playing for Edinburgh Wanderers. He was born on 3rd December 1855 at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol. He died on the 14th Jan 1905 in Fort Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was educated at Clifton College from 1872-1875. He played rugby for the school in his final year when he won his Black Cap. He had started playing rugby for Clifton Club in 1873

His father was Rev. Nicholas Pocock M.A. was born on 16th January 1814 in Falmouth, Cornwall. He was christened on 22nd March 1814 in Falmouth, Cornwall. He married Edith Prichard on 13th January 1852 in Oxford (St. Peter in the East). Nicholas was employed as Clerk in Holy Orders. Edith was the daughter of Dr J.C.Pritchard MD.

His mother Edith Prichard was born on 27th July 1829 in Bristol, Gloucester. She died on 6th March 1919 in Clifton, Bristol.

In 1861 the Pocock family were still living at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol. It was occupied by

In 1871 the Pocock family were still living at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol. It was occupied by

Above the Edinburgh Wanderers side of 1876-1877 with Edward Pocock. At the time the Wanderers ground was at the Grange cricket field, just off Raeburn Place in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, which is next to the Edinburgh Academicals ground where the first England v Scotland international took place and Pocock would play his disastorous 2nd and last match for Scotland. George Turnavine Budd, became captain of Edinburgh Wanderers in 1879-80

Above the Grange Cricket Ground, Stockbridge, Edinburgh where Edinburgh Wanderers played.

Above Scotland team that played Ireland in Belfast, 19th February 1877 with ex Clifton College and Clifton RFC Edward Innes Pocock. Image courtesy of SRU. The Scottish Rugby Union had to obtain consent from the RFU to play Pocock.

Above: Programme from the match Scotland v England on 5th March 1877. Edward Pocock’s second and last game for

Scotland

. There are good accounts of his first international but in the second he had such a bad game he was moved from the backs to the forwards.

Above Scotland team that played England in Edinburgh, 5th March 1877 with ex Clifton College and Clifton RFC Edward Innes Pocock. Image courtesy of SRU.

He served in Brighton (where he was attached to the 16th Lancers) in 1880, Aldershot, India and the West Indies.

His Great-grandfather was the world renowned Marine Artist Captain Nicholas Pocock (1740-1821) who was a founder member of the Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1804. The National Maritime Museum holds a large collection of his works, mainly of naval subjects, and Bristol Art Gallery also has a good holding, especially of Bristol-related ones. Edward had 8 brother and sisters. 3 of his brothers also played for Clifton. They were

Herbert Innes Pocock 1879-80 : Colonel R.A.M.C. He is on the 1885-86 team photo.

Reginald Innes Pocock 1883-84 : Employed as Zoologist / Author in London Zoological Gardens. His wife Constance gave birth to a son on 9th March 1905 at the Zoological Society Gardens.

Walter Innes Pocock 1884-85 : Scholar Trinity College, Dublin. M.A. Local Governer Board 1882 - 1900 Student of Anthropology.

In 1881 the Pocock family were still living at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol. Edward had left home by then but it was occupied by

He was transferred to the newly formed R.A.S.C. in 1888 and promoted to Captain. Stationed first in Dublin and then Claremont, Capetown. He resigned his commission in 1890 to join the Pioneer Column.

On 18th April 1890 Captain Edward Pocock was recruited by Cecil John Rhodes to be part of C Troop of the Pioneer Column. The Column was organized by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The column consisted of a Pioneer Corps of 180 men, accompanied by a paramilitary police force (later christened the British South Africa Police) of 300; it was commanded by Major Frank Johnson and guided by the hunter Frederick Selous.

As the column set off northwards Pocock played in a cricket match in Mafeking. "Skipper" Hoste in his book, "Gold Fever" wrote:

"On Thursday 15th May we took the day off from drill and played a match - Home-born versus Colonials. I played for Home-born and was in for two hours with one of our men, Pocock, during which time he piled up 60 runs. I also managed to pile up quite a score, consequently by the time I was bowled I felt as though I had cooked to a turn."

Before crossing into the the new colony it seems possible that the pioneers continued their cricket contests at Fort Macloustie with E and D Troops who already occupied. The company commander, Major A. G. Leonard, wrote in his book, "How We Made Rhodesia", that cricket helped to "while away many a weary hour".

On the 3rd June 1890 he was appointed to B Troop. He was reprimanded and sentanced to 1 extra inlying Picquet for being absent from laager whilst on inlying Piquet.

The Column's route began at Macloutsie in Bechuanaland on 28th June 1890 and proceeded east towards what is now Harare. The British union flag was hoisted on 13th September 1890 (later celebrated as a Rhodesian public holiday).

Captain Henry Francis Hoste was one of the officers in the column and commanded B Troop. A few years before his death in 1936 he compiled an account of Forty Years Ago: Rhodesia in 1890. One paragraph mentions Pocock captaining in the first cricket match in the country on 16th August 1890. It said

"Fry, who was our official photographer, got his camera going, to the great alarm of the natives, who watched him in fear and trembling, expecting an explosion every moment. We in the meantime wandered about the place. We camped there that night, and the next morning after an early breakfast saddled up and returned to the laager, where we arrived in the forenoon. In the afternoon the first cricket match in the country was played. The sides were 'A' Troop (Pioneers) v. 'B' and 'C' Troops (Pioneers). I forget who won; it was probably 'A' Troop as they had several outstanding cricketers, notably Monty Bowden, the celebrated Surrey wicket-keeper. He had come out to the Cape in an English team, Read's I think, and hearing of the Pioneer expedition, had joined as a trooper. L. Vintcent and B. Wimble, both noted South African cricketers, were also in 'A' Troop. Our side was captained by Trooper E. I. Pocock, an ex-military officer, and a most useful cricketer."

This first cricket match in the country played on 16th August 1890 was staged at Providential Pass, near Fort Victoria (now known as Masvingo). Bowden had, on 25th March 1888, become the youngest ever cricket captain of England at 23 years 144 days old.

Above map of Fort Victoria area and Providential Pass in 1890 where the first cricket match in the country took place. The Zimbabye Ruins were once the capital of the Queen of Sheba.

Above hoisting the flag at Fort Salisbury on 13th September 1890. It subsequently changed its name to Salisbury and finally changed its name to Harare on April 18th 1982, the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence, taking its name from the Shona chieftain Neharawa.

The Pioneer Corps was officially disbanded on 1st October 1890 and each member was granted land on which to farm (with mining concessions). Some of the men sold their farm right for £100 and their claim right for £100. By 1899 over 15.7 million acres had been granted, with only about 4 million left for the native Ndebele.

Pocock played cricket for The Public School Old Boys along with Hoste in Salisbury. They played their matches in the enclosure of Messrs. Frank Johnson & Co. Ltd., prior to the establishment of the Salisbury Cricket Club ground which ran parallel to Pioneer Street on the south side of Manica Road. On one particular occasion The World beat the Public School Old Boys by 4 runs, aided by the fact that they scored 46 extras, due largely to the nature of the pitch rather than the wicket-keeping.

In 1891 the Pocock family were still living at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol.

Edward had a farm in one of the richest farming areas outside Salisbury now called the Mazoe Valley (3 miles north of Mount Hampden), then in the district of Abercorn from 1890 - 1892. He wrote to his mother to say that "this is no farming country" but it was a mining country and he had tried to mine for gold in partnership with O.R.Armstrong.

He sold his land to Sir Francis Newton, a direct descendant of Sir Isaac Newton.

He prospected and developed mining properties in the Lomagundi District (Simoona) in 1893.

He was in hospital in Salisbury in 1893 with an abscess on his knee. During his convalescence he worked as a temporary Civil Servant in Salisbury. Organised the Queen's Birthday Gymkana on May 24th 1894.

He was a member of a patrol collecting Hut Tax when Trooper Cooper, B.S.A. Company's Police was stabbed to death in August 1894.

He was appointed Gwelo District Mines Inpector in February 1896. He admitted he knew very little about mining and in one of his letters he wrote that the Chief Inspector of Mines was coming to his district, so in order to avoid having his knowledge tested, he got on his horse and left the district until the Chief Inspector had gone back to Salisbury. In another letter to his mother, he mentioned that he had had a promotion and as a result had been given a ox cart and span of oxen - today's equivalent of the company car! He also said there was a sad lack of suitable young ladies to marry and asked his mother to advertise for a bride in the Matrimonial Post in Britain. He met Johan and Molly Colenbrander, and wrote very affectionately about Molly, as she had a "good seat on a horse"! The Colenbranders were well know in Rhodesian history.

He served as a Captain in the Gwelo District Volunteers in the 1896 Rebellion. He was wounded in the left arm by a spear at Maven on the 24th October 1896.

He commanded at Fort Gibbs (25 miles north of Gwelo) from September to October 1896.

His father died on 4th March 1897 in Clifton, Bristol. The funeral service took place at St. Raphael's, Bristol and he was buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery, Bristol.

In 1901 the Pocock family were still living at 5 Worcester Terrace, Clifton, Bristol.

In 1901 at 7 Worcester Terrace lived his brother, Gilbert Innes Pocock, Headmaster of a Preparatory School.

He was appointed Mining Commissioner, Lomagundi District in November 1897. He resigned from the Civil Service in 1901 and was then employed by United Excelsior Mines Ltd., to take charge of Alliance Mine in the Abercorn District (68 miles south of Salisbury). He continued to live on the property, with J.A.Harvey, after mining operations ceased in June 1903.

Edward was a great horseman, but horses died like flies of horse sickness in those days. He also had continual bouts of malaria, every letter to his mother mentioned that he had just recovered from another bout. These became more and more severe until he developed black water fever.

Edward Pocock died on on the 14th January 1905 in Salisbury Hospital from pneumonia. He was 49 years of age. He is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Salisbury (now Harare).

We were all pretty much cut up about poor old Pocock's sudden death. I had went into town just after the new year and put up at Nardens but was down with fever, 104 for a few days and got back to my house on the 6th feeling fairly well and we had our usual piguel games , but about the 10th he caught cold in the throat and could not take his *dop or **scoff with any relish and on the 12th Thursday, he complained of pain across the chest and said he would go into town if he could get in, but did not feel up to riding in.

So I rigged up a Machala and he went in on Thursday morning, but hung up at Heanley's for the night and reached hospital on Friday and died Saturday at 6.30. The doctor said there was no hope for him.

I went in on Tuesday and had instructions from High Court to send horse, rifle etc to them, which I consequently did, including your letter case. After I got your note, I wrote telling them it was your property, but have no reply yet. I am sending scoff box, sheet, stretcher, sheet etc. also 2 letters from Salisbury.

As you say there is very few of the old hands left, only a day or two before he went into town we were congratulating our two selves on being among the survivals and we drank our own good health.

P.S. They expected you in town last week but of course it is a distance to walk, if you do happen to go in give us a call.

I received your letters of Feb 16th and also one from Nurse Irving, an old friend of your son's. I am sorry that I cannot tell you much. I know Captain Pocock some years when he was a smart looking man and was very much shocked at his altered appearance when he came in to us on the morning of Jan 14th at 8o'clock, he looked old and worn, quite like a man of 60, he was very bad indeed and did that same night at 11.30 he really was scarcely conscious from the time he came in, till the time he died, he know me and talked for a few minutes to Mr. Cornwall, the secretary here, who has known Captain Pocock for years and he says he will write to you.

I cannot say whether he knew that he was dying and he said nothing. We must only trust dear Mrs. Pocock that his heard was right with his God before he came to his death bed and that the day there will be a glad reunion with your loved and lost.

I can honestly assure you that everything was done for him after he did come in. The thing was that he came in too late. Dr. Fleming was his doctor and also his friend and all my nurses are English trained and good women. I shall pass on your letters to Mr. Cornwall, also to other friends of your son's and they will let you have any particulars they can.

Would you be good enough to let Nurse Irving have this letter in answer to his as well as to pass as I have so many letters to write.

The Matron has handed me your letter of February 16th asking news of your son's illness. I think I was perhaps as intimate with him as anyone in Salisbury. On the occasions of his coming into town he would come to lunch or dine and spend a few hours with us most of the days of his stay.

We (my wife and I) have known him for the last eight years and always gave him a hearty welcome as we were very fond of him. For the last two years he has come into town less often and we have not seen so much of him as in previous years.

He was in town for a week at New Year and spent a good many hours in my office. As my wife is in England in search of health, I was not able to sustain him except as a bachelor. He left Salisbury for Abercorn just a week before he was carried in again on a Machala, arriving here on the morning of Saturday January 14th. I met him at the Gates of the grounds. I saw that he was very ill indeed and feared the worst.

He was got into bed immediately and had all the care and skill that could be desired, but sank steadily and died on the evening of the same day. I saw him frequently during the day as he sent for me several times to do some trivial things for him. He seemed to prefer that I should do them rather than the nurses.

I asked him 2 or 3 times whether he had any messages that I could deliver in case of his death, but each time he said NO. I think that he was slightly delirious at the time of his admission and I doubt if he was quite free from delusions at any time afterwards.

As you know, he was very reserved and did not speak much of himself or his affairs and I know practically nothing of his life outside Salisbury. He occasionally spoke of you and of his brother in India.

So far as I can gather, he started out from Salisbury in January and was caught in a heavy rain. This appears to have been the commencement of his illness. The end came rather suddenly due to his heart failure under the strain. He did not suffer much actual pain, but the difficulty in breathing caused him distress.

He did not wish to see a Minister at the time as he felt too ill. I hardly think he believed that he was dying although I tried to make him understand that it was very probable.

He was shown the last honours by all of his old Pioneer Comrades who were in Salisbury and by many others of us who had known him.

May I say that I am truly sorry for you in your bereavement and that I too have felt his death very deeply.

By last mail I received your letter dated 16th February. I would have written to you before now to express my sympathy with you, in the loss of your son; on the day I got word of his death, I was down with black water fever and have been in Salisbury Hospital for the last six weeks and am only back here a week.

Your son left here on 21st December last, intending to stay till the New Year with a friend called Geo. H. Cardigan - an old hand up here since 1891. His idea was, then, to go into Salisbury - get his Retired Army pay and a fresh outfit while in town and again, to spend a few days with Cardigan, on his way back here.

I heard nothing from the time he left, till I got a note advising me of his death, and also adding that he had expressed a wish that I would go into town. Being too weak to walk in, I got a masheela - a hammock swing on a pole and carried by natives - and started, arriving in Salisbury February 3rd but I had then to go straight to Hospital and was there three weeks before I could do anything.

During that time I saw Mr. Darling, who told me he had written your son in London, whom he knew, advising him of the loss.

In the end, your son's death was very sudden, the Matron and nurses at the Hospital told me he had delayed, till too late, going in to be attended to - he arrived at 9am and passed quietly away at 8pm on the same evening - the cause of his death being double pneumonia, brought on by getting wet when riding to Cardigans, a chill ensuing.

For the last seven years Captain Pocock and myself lived together with occasional breaks, when business separated us, sharing hard and good times together. By his death, I have lost a great friend and grand companion.

The last two years have been very bad up here for business. We got the Alliance Mine House - rent free - and for economy, lived there in preference to staying in Salisbury. Our nearest neighbour 18 miles away and town 78 miles. We enjoyed the quiet life together and it will be very lonely now-a-days.

Your son's affairs are in the hands of the Master of the High Court and to him I have handed Capt. Pocock's last quarter of Retired Pay and Mr. Cardigan has handed him his desk writing case and his personal property. Out here, there is nothing it would pay to send into town for his Estates benefit. I have, however, kept back his photograph Album and his Freemason's apron -- and a birthday book and as soon as I get an opportunity I will send them to you, with any other of his things I get. I believe there are some Silver Cups lying in Beira

When in Salisbury I went to the cemetery to see his grave, it looked very bare with only a number plate to distinguish it, so I took the liberty of getting an iron railing put round it, quite simple thing, plain but neat. I did it in accordance with a mutual promise we had made to one another, that we would see each others graves did not look uncared for during the period of communicating with home, in the event of one of us dying out here. I little thought the duty would fall on me a few weeks afterwards. I enclose the account for same. I am sending a cheque to the blacksmith this mail for the five pounds.

Captain Pocock when he left for Salisbury got seven pounds in cash from me and I was to be repaid some from his retired pay, when he got back here. I asked at the High Court about it and was advised by Mr. Darling to mention same to you, when you receive the retired pay and, if convenient, please remit same to me through Standard bank of South Africa Ltd.

Regarding the photograph that was taken by an amateur, I have never received any up to now. I have, however, written to him to see if they are at all printable and telling him of your wish to have one. As soon as I hear from him I will let you know.

Your son was very anxious for you to see the photograph, because in it he has beard on and told me you had never seen him thus.

Capt. Pocock enjoyed very good health and with the exception of a dose of malaria - which we are all liable to, out here - a liver, or spleen, I don't think he was ever ill. He took exercise on his pony every morning, to which he attributed his good health, that and a sound constitution.

When I received the news of 14th January I at once wrote to Cardigan for particulars, as it will be of interest to you, I enclose the letter, he sent me in reply. I also enclose one from Warden with home he stayed in town

As regards his funeral, it was most unfortunate that it had to take place on Sunday - a day most people are away from town - and it was not generally known that E.I.Pocock was dead until the Monday.

Many men of all ranks and conditions expressed their sorrow to me at not knowing of his funeral, they would all have liked to pay their last respects to an old friend. The quartermaster of the B.S.A. Police, who is a Hon. Captain out here - Mr. Masterman - served under your son in the A.S.G. at Aldershot and would have seen he had a military funeral but he knew nothing of his death until the burial was over.

Any further points you would like to learn I will be glad, where able, to give you. Please understand, I am entirely at your service. Can I be of any use to you here?

Again accept my deep sympathy in your bereavement and know I also mourn the loss of a good friend.

Name	Relation	Age	Occupation	Where born
Nicholas Pocock	Head	47	Clerk In Holy Orders Without Cure Of Souls	Falmouth, Cornwall
Edith Pocock	Wife	31		Bristol
Edward Innes Pocock	Son	5	Scholar	Clifton
Mary E. Innes Pocock	Daughter	3	Scholar	Clifton
Walter Innes Pocock	Son	1		Clifton
William W. Witherell	Pupil	16	Scholar	India, British Subject
Harriet Pyske	Servant	35	Cook	Peterchurch, Herefordshire
Jane Hooper	Servant	24	Nursemaid	Bristol
Ann Brice	Servant	25	Housemaid	Charlton, Somerset
Eliza Harvey	Servant	26	Parlourmaid	Fairford, Gloucestershire

Name	Relation	Age	Occupation	Where born
Nicholas Pocock	Head	67	Clerk In Holy Orders Without Cure Of Souls	Falmouth, Cornwall
Edith Pocock	Wife	51		Bristol
Mary E. Innes Pocock	Daughter	23		Clifton
Walter Innes Pocock	Son	21		Clifton
Edith Innes Pocock	Daughter	19		Clifton
Evelyn Innes Pocock	Daughter	15		Clifton
Theodore Innes Pocock	Son	12	Scholar	Clifton
Mary A. Lintem	Servant	22	Parlour Maid	Longwell Green
Charlotte J. Webb	Servant	24	Cook	Wiveliscombe, Somerset
Louisa F. Miller	Servant	27	House Maid	Jersey, Channel Islands

Name	Relation	Age	Occupation	Where born
Nicholas Pocock	Head	77	Clerk In Holy Orders	Falmouth, Cornwall
Edith Pocock	Wife	61		Bristol
Gilbert Innes Pocock	Son	25		Clifton
Edith Innes Pocock	Daughter	29		Clifton
Evelyn Innes Pocock	Daughter	25		Clifton
Theodore Innes Pocock	Son	22	Scholar of CCC, Oxford	Clifton
Harriet Gough	Servant	48	Cook Domestic Servant	Thornbury, Gloucestershire
Rose E. Wells	Servant	26	Housemaid	Stroud, Gloucestershire

Name	Relation	Age	Occupation	Where born
Edith Pocock	Widow	71		Bristol
Herbert Innes Pocock	Son	39	Surgeon	Clifton
Edith Innes Pocock	Daughter	39		Clifton
Rose Pulling	Servant	20	House Parlour Maid	Derbyshire
Matilda Smith	Servant	43	Cook	Bedminster, Bristol