Frederick Stokes (rugby union)
Frederick Stokes (12 July 1850 – 7 February 1929) was the first captain of the England national rugby union team, who played for and captained the team in the first three rugby internationals, all between England and Scotland. He was also the youngest president of the Rugby Football Union. Early life Frederick Stokes was born on 12 July 1850 in Greenwich, the son of Henry Graham Stokes, Proctor to the Admiralty and solicitor, and his wife Elizabeth Sewell. He was one of at least nine children (six brothers and three sisters) and attended Rugby School. Rugby football Stokes played for Blackheath F.C. and was for a time captain of that side. His five brothers also played for Blackheath. On 26 January 1871, when Stokes was 20 years old he, along with Benjamin Burns, represented Blackheath at a meeting of twenty-one rugby teams at the Pall Mall Restaurant. The outcome of the meeting was the founding of the Rugby Football Union whose Laws were to be drafted by three Old Rugbeians, Algernon Rutter, E.C.Holmes and L.J. Maton. Less than two months later, Stokes, himself an Old Rugbeian, accepted a challenge from Scotland to raise a 20-man side to take to Edinburgh