Major Sir Tasker Watkins VC GBE PC QC DL
Given his immense courage on the battlefield, it is little wonder that, as president of the Welsh Rugby Union, Tasker Watkins was sometimes asked to address his nation’s players before a big international match. As he attempted to inspire them to victory on the rugby field, he would compare their chosen sport to warfare, since he stated that both required “a cool mind, discipline and self-sacrifice”.
As a talented player in his younger days, Watkins was hugely respected by those sporting the famous red rugby jerseys. They knew only too well why he had been decorated with the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Tasker Watkins was born in Nelson, Glamorgan, on 18 November 1918. The son of a Welsh-speaking miner, Bertram Watkins, and his wife Jane (née Phillips), the young Watkins divided his early childhood between his own parents’ home in Station Road, Nelson, and the nearby home of his grandparents in Shingrig Road.
He was one of seven children and had been christened with his grandmother’s maiden name. While still living in South Wales, he attended Llanfabon Infants School and Pontypridd Grammar School. After his family moved to Essex, he attended Romf…
