Sammy Sampson
| Birth name | Ralph William Fraser Sampson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 26 September 1913 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Chile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 31 January 2003 (aged 89) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Bishopton, Renfrewshire, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sammy Sampson (26 September 1913 – 31 January 2003) was a Scotland international rugby union player.[1]
Rugby union career[edit]
Amateur career[edit]
Sampson played for London Scottish.[2]
He played for the Co-Optimists.[3]
He played for Kelvinside-West.[4]
Provincial career[edit]
He played for Blues Trial against Whites Trial on 17 December 1938.[5]
He then played for Scotland Probables against Scotland Possibles on 14 January 1939.[6]
He played for Middlesex and London Counties after the Second World War.[7] He captained London against Australia in 1947 on Boxing Day.[8]
International career[edit]
He played for Scotland twice in the period 1939 to 1947.[9]
He also played for the Barbarians.[3]
Military career[edit]
He joined the London Scottish Territorials in 1937. When the war started he was commissioned in the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders 6th battalion, but he transferred to the Royal Air Force.[3]
He was a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War. He joined the 602 City of Glasgow squadron. He flew in the Dieppe Raid and destroyed two Focke-Wulfs and damaged two Dorniers.[7][10]
He then joined the 131 County of Kent squadron, and downed another five Focke-Wulfs.[7][10]
He was appointed to command the Free French wing, and taught them how to fly the Spitfire. He flew 189 operations in the war.[7]
After the war, he commanded the West of Scotland Ait Training Corps[clarification needed].[7]
He wrote a book Spitfire Offensive: A Fighter Pilot's War Memoir recounting his actions.[3]
Business career[edit]
He was a managing director of Ault & Wiborg Company. This was a firm that supplied printing ink to newspaper groups.[7]
Family[edit]
His family were based in Chile and were railway entrepreneurs in the country.[7]
He married Margaret Lenny in 1946. They met at a London Scottish ball that same year.[7]
References[edit]
- ^ "Ralph William Fraser Sampson". ESPN scrum.
- ^ The Essential History of Rugby Union:Scotland. Nick Oswald and John Griffiths. Headline Publishing. 2003.
- ^ a b c d "Spitfire pilots and aircraft database - G/C Ralph William Fraser Sampson RAF". allspitfirepilots.org.
- ^ "Register". Retrieved 14 July 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
- ^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Ralph Sampson Scottish rugby international hooker, leading industrialist, and distinguished Spitfire pilot". HeraldScotland. 21 February 2003.
- ^ "Register". Retrieved 14 July 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Rugby Union - ESPN Scrum - Statsguru - Player analysis - Sammy Sampson - Test matches". ESPN scrum.
- ^ a b "Sampson, Ralph William Fraser "Sammy" - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com.