OTD 1915 KIA at #gallipoli Capt Jimmy 'Mud' Dingle of @dunelmia @OURFCblues @rosslynpark @HartlepoolRFC and @englandrugby Born Nov 5th 1891 in Hetton-le-Hole, Co Durham. Son of Reverend Arthur Trehane Dingle, Rector of Egglescliffe, and his wife Beatrice.

Educated @dunelmia 1904-10 (King's Scholar1906; monitor and head of school 1910; rowed in first crew, 1910; in XV, 1907-09; Captain of Gymnasium, 1910) and @KebleOxford BA 1913. Played centre for @ourufc against @CURUFC 1911. Five more rugby int'ls here all KIA #FWW

He played with @Dunelmia schoolmate (and predecessor as School Captain) Nowell Oxland for @rosslynpark v @quins at halfback on 19 Nov 1910. Poet Oxland was killed 13 days earlier at #gallipoli Chocolate Hill

Returned to @dunelmia as Junior Master in Sept 1913 and played regularly for @RichmondFC1861 @rosslynpark, Surrey and for Durham County in 1913.
Got his @englandrugby Cap No 532 in 1913 against Ireland and in 1914 against @Scotlandteam rugby (here, back 2 from L) and France.

He also played in the last Five Nations game before the war. The Times’ wrote “AJ Dingle was the weakest of the four (backs). He failed to take the passes and was very slow getting into his stride.” This easy victory 13-39 gave England a second consecutive grand slam,

Not many #rugby players are in poems but PG Wodehouse wrote an ode to Cyril Lowe, the mercurial English winger who had not received a single pass in the previous game

On the afternoon when someone passed to Lowe.
There he stood, poor little chappie,
Looking lonely and unhappy,
 While the other players frollicked with the ball.
For he knew he could not mingle,
In the fun with Coates and Dingle;

The names of those killed in the #GreatWar are carved on the pillar at the Memorial Chapel at the School, here next to his brother Hugh. The tall figure to the left of him in the @EnglandRugby Alfred Maynard was also @dunelmia and killed

His brother Hugh was a @RoyalNavy surgeon killed at Jutland. His father lost his wife, both sons in #WW1 and brought up two daughters alone, and worked in a factory aged 92 in #WW2

On 21 Aug Dingle's 6/East Yorks battalion attacked Scimitar Hill, control of which would unite the allied forces as originally planned. The attack failed, ending any hope of allied victory. Exactly what fate befell Arthur Dingle remains a mystery.

In the aftermath of the battle he was posted as missing presumed killed. His body was never found. He is therefore on the Helles Memorial.

In witness statements taken to verify his death, one Private stated in heartfelt tribute 'He was a gentleman and made tea for ten of us'.

A comrade taken prisoner in the battle wrote this poem in praise of him in a Turkish PoW Camp #RIP