Thomas Arthur Nelson
Thomas Arthur Nelson MID (22 September 1876 – 9 April 1917) was a Scotland international rugby union player. He later became a book publisher in his family's firm of Thomas Nelson and Sons. He was killed in the First World War. Background He was born on 22 September 1876, the son of the publisher Thomas Nelson and his wife Jessie Kemp. The family lived in the house of their grandfather Thomas Nelson: Abden House on the south of Edinburgh, the grandfather having died in 1861. His father built a new house, St Leonards, in the grounds of Abden House and the family moved there on its completion in 1890. Nelson obtained an estate at Achnacloich, on the shore of Loch Etive near Oban. He spent a considerable part of each year there. Rugby Union career Amateur career He was educated at Edinburgh Academy, where he became a rugby union player. He played for a combined Edinburgh Academy - Watsons College schoolboy side in January 1895. He then went to study Classics at Oxford University, where he befriended John Buchan. Nelson played rugby union for Oxford University, playing for them from 1896. He captained the side in 1900. Provincial career Nelson