Jimmy Peters

James “Jimmy” Peters's early life reads like something from a Dickens novel. Born in Salford in 1879 to a Jamaican father who worked as a circus lion tamer, Peters was orphaned before birth when his father was mauled to death in a training cage. His English mother, unable to cope, sent the young boy to join another circus troupe as a bareback horse rider. After breaking his arm at age 11, he was abandoned and placed in Fegan's Orphanage, then the Little Wanderers' Home in Greenwich.

It was in the orphanage that Peters discovered his athletic gift, captaining the home's cricket and rugby teams and sweeping an 1894 sports day by winning the sprint, mile race, long jump, high jump and walking race outright. He went on to play for Bristol, Plymouth and Somerset before being called up to represent England in 1906 — becoming the first Black man to play international rugby union for his country.

He scored two tries across his five Test caps, but his international career was cut short: he was left out of a match against a touring South African side reportedly unwilling to play against a Black man, with the Western Times reporting bluntly that he had been “sacrificed” because “colour was the difficulty.” Peters continued playing rugby league in the north of England before retiring to Plymouth, where he became a well-loved local publican. It would be another 82 years before England fielded another Black player.