Ronnie Lamb: In Dark Blue Memoriam

Ronald Hunter Lamb was educated at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and went on to read geography and public and social administration/business studies at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University from 1961-65.

He Captained Oxford University R.F.C. where he played for three years during the middle 1960s.  He was appointed Captain of a Joint Oxford & Cambridge Touring XV playing in South America. He was selected and played in a Scotland Trial and was capped numerous times for the then Edinburgh District XV.  He Captained Edinburgh Wanderers F.C. over three seasons, including Wanderers Centenary year in 1968.

A Chairman of Oxford University R.F.C. for a great many years, he was elected as a Council Member of the (England) Rugby Football Union. Ronnie captained the Wanderers Seven's Team of 1969 that played in the Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham.

He won three Blues in the 1962, 1963 and 1964 Varsity Matches; his highlight captaining Oxford to a 19-6 victory against Cambridge in 1964 when his opposite number at stand-off was the Irish and Lions great, Mike Gibson. The result was a surprise, as Cambridge had won the preceding four matches.

In his match report, under the headline: Lamb hero of Oxford’s emphatic victory, John Downie of the then Glasgow Herald, wrote: “Almost everything that had been predicted about the match proved false.

“The great shining star of the whole game, for instance, was expected to be Gibson, the Cambridge and Ireland stand-off.

“Yet the hero, carried off at the end, was his opposite number, Lamb – a trialist rejected by the Scottish selectors – who had been so badly troubled by a left knee injury that it was doubted until recently that he would even be fit to play.”

“He was a great man, a true leader.  Never better than in the autumn of 1964 when he led OURFC through months of defeats ("Lamb to the slaughter") to victory 19-6 on the big day.” Ken Houston.

We extend our sincerest condolences to Rosie, his wife, and all the family - Jamie, Emily and twins Moppy and Wiggy.

For highlights of the 1964 Varsity Match, click here 

(With thanks to Anthony O’Sullivan, Ken Houston and Scottish Rugby)