GRFC player profiles - Gloucester Rugby Heritage
GRFC player profiles - Gloucester Rugby Heritage
GRFC player profiles - Gloucester Rugby Heritage
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Grahame Wilshaw<br />
Grahame Wilshaw Parker OBE was born in <strong>Gloucester</strong> on<br />
February 11, 1912. He was educated at The Crypt School.<br />
His first visit to Kingsholm was for the Jubilee game in<br />
1923. His father was a soccer <strong>player</strong> and during the 1929-<br />
30 season Grahame played football at left back for<br />
<strong>Gloucester</strong> AFC while playing centre threequarter for Crypt<br />
School.<br />
Grahame Parker made his debut both for <strong>Gloucester</strong> United<br />
and for the first team in 1931. He was travelling reserve for<br />
<strong>Gloucester</strong>shire at the 1932 County Championship Final<br />
against Durham at Blaydon (He went on to play 15 times for<br />
the county). He believed that he had played in every<br />
position behind the scrum for <strong>Gloucester</strong> before going up to Cambridge and gaining his first blue in<br />
1932-33.<br />
At Cambridge, he won blues at both <strong>Rugby</strong> (the 1934 side contained ten internationals) and cricket,<br />
scoring 94 against Oxford in 1934 and captaining Cambridge in 1935.<br />
He returned to <strong>Gloucester</strong> at the start of the 1936-37 season, when Harold Boughton was<br />
unavailable, but whenever he stepped up to take a penalty someone in the crowd would shout<br />
"Where's Harold then?"<br />
In 1937-38, now a schoolmaster, he realised that he would never be first choice at full back for<br />
<strong>Gloucester</strong> and played instead for Blackheath. He was selected at full back for England that season<br />
and kicked 24 points in his two internationals (including 15 points on debut - a record). He said he<br />
always regretted that "Blackheath" appeared after his name and not "<strong>Gloucester</strong>" although in fact in<br />
most international records he now appears as a <strong>Gloucester</strong> <strong>player</strong>. He also played for the Barbarians.<br />
Grahame Parker continued to play cricket for <strong>Gloucester</strong>shire and in 1937 made three centuries,<br />
including 210 against Kent at Dover. He became a major in the RASC during the 1939-45 war and was<br />
awarded the military MBE (later upgraded to OBE for his work with cadets at Blundell's School).<br />
He appeared occasionally for <strong>Gloucester</strong>shire after the war and then captained Devon in the Minor<br />
Counties Championship from 1953 until 1956. He became Secretary (Chief Exec) of <strong>Gloucester</strong>shire<br />
CCC in 1968 and later was their first ever Manager. He served as President in 1986 and 1987. On a<br />
visit to Kingsholm in 1970 to watch Western Counties play Fiji, he was greeted on arrival with the cry<br />
"Where's Harold then?" It was as if he had never been away. He died in 1995.