It's not often that someone from "Platt Wazz" (Platt Bridge, a district in Wigan, UK) is hailed as a hero. Richard Ramsdale, or "Dicky" to many, comfortably ticks the box as a "hero".
Born in 1885, Ramsdale's first taste of the rugby code came with his local Platt Bridge club before Wigan signed him for the 1903-04 season. Standing 6 feet 1 inch tall, Ramsdale spent his first season with Wigan's premier club in the reserves learning his trade. Weighing 14 stone, Ramsdale was a proper "Collier" rugby player with his day job working down the pit.
Dicky was the first proper forward for Wigan since the days of Billy Atkinson and Ned Bullough in the pre-Northern Union days. Spending 18 years at Central Park either side of the Great War was an achievement in itself. He wasn't a classy player: kids today wouldn't have had his name on their shirts, but what he did have was grit, determination, an outstanding pass and the reliability of a rugby player that you couldn't buy. Think of Liam Farrell today and you'd be close.
Ramsdale scored the only try in the 1908-09 Championship Final against Oldham where Wigan won four trophies that season which included a Lancashire Cup (against Oldham) as well as a Lancashire League and South West Lancashire Cup. Ramsdale would go on to add three more Lancashire Cups, numerous Championship Finals and six more Lancashire Leagues to his medal haul.
What makes Ramsdale stand out from others of the time was his involvement in the famous Rorke's Drift Test Match of 1914. With the Great Britain Tour of Australia coming to a climax in the third Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, GB were depleted and were without fellow Wiganers Gwyn Thomas and Bert Jenkins through injury. Having been told to "do their duty for England", Ramsdale and fellow Wiganer Percy Coldrick followed the immortal Harold Wagstaff of Huddersfield into battle. Injuries hit Great Britain from the start and ended the game with 10 men against a marauding Australian side that included Wally Messenger, Sid Deane and Arthur Halloway.
Ramsdale played the game of his life and kept the Australians out against all the odds. Against ALL the odds: words cannot emphasise this enough. He would have died for his team that day if it came to it!
He is now buried in Wigan Cemetery at Lower Ince after playing more than 300 games for Wigan. He was honoured with a benefit match in June 1921 alongside Bert Jenkins and Johnny Thomas, and today is often visited by myself at Lower Ince - to doff my cap, as it were, to simply say "thank you".