Digby Owen
William Digby Owen (1857 – 2 June 1901) was a Welsh amateur footballer who played as a forward in the first international match between Wales and England in January 1879. He played his club football for Oswestry, for whom he also played cricket. He later became a private tutor and died of pneumonia in his early forties. Education Owen was born in Oswestry, a few miles from the Welsh border within Shropshire, in the third quarter (ie July to September) of 1857, son of George Owen (1827-1901), and educated at Oswestry School. He attended Trinity College, Oxford from where he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1878. He was selected to represent Oxford University against Cambridge at football but was unable to play because of illness, thus missing out on a "blue". Football career Described as "a fine athlete and a noted exponent of the dribbling game", Owen first played football for Oswestry in 1876, but his appearances were rather intermittent, as they were interrupted by his academic studies. In January 1879, he was one of nine players from Oswestry (including three who were spending a season with Oswestry as their own club, Druids, was temporarily without a ground) who