This is one of a series of posts to mark the international Rugby players who served in, and survived, The Great War. If anyone has further information on the men concerned, I’d be most grateful if it could be added to the thread. Gareth Greig, Sir Louis Leisler KBE CVO played for Scotland and Great Britain Scotland Internationals: 5: 1905 NZ- ; 1906 SA+ ; 1907 W+ ; 1908 W- I- Great Britain Internationals: 3 : 1903 SA= SA = SA- Louis Greig was born on 17 November 1880 Played as a Scrum half for: Merchiston Castle School, Glasgow Academy, Glasgow University, Royal Navy Profession: Surgeon, Royal Navy; appointed on 16 February 1906, he was promoted to Staff Surgeon on 10 February 1914. Post War, he attained the rank of Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. Remarks: He played as Fly-Half for The Officers of the Royal Navy v The Officers of the Army in 1910 (16-10) and scored a try. He was capped as a Centre in the three International matches on the British tour to South Africa in 1903. He was the third choice half back for Scotland v the 1905 New Zealand tourists, after A N Fell and W C Church declined to play. In 1926 he accompanied Prince Albert (later Duke of York and King George VI) in the Gentlemen’s Doubles at the All England tennis tournament at Wimbledon. He was a mentor to King George VI and a confidante to Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. In addition, he gifted the equivalent of ₤30 million towards various good works, including the reconstruction of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh and the building of a new Geology Department at the University of Edinburgh. His biography, by Geordie Greig, was titled Louis and the Prince. War service: Royal Navy and Major, Royal Air Force. He was aide-de-camp to Prince Albert. He died on 1 March 1953.
Group Captain Sir Louis Leisler Greig, KBE, CVO (17 November 1880 – 1 March 1953) was a British naval surgeon, courtier and intimate of King George VI. The son of a Glasgow merchant, Greig was educated at Glasgow Academy and Merchiston Castle School before studying medicine at Glasgow University. Academically gifted, Greig was also an excellent rugby union and tennis player. After a few years practicing as a junior doctor in the Gorbals, he joined the navy in 1906 and won the gold medal during his training at Haslar. In 1909, Greig entered officer training at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, where he met Prince Albert, later George VI. He served as a mentor for the gauche and diffident prince, and the two served together in HMS Cumberland, where Greig was posted as a surgeon. He was transferred to the Royal Marines in 1914, and was captured at the fall of Antwerp, spending eight months as a prisoner of war. Released by a prisoner exchange, Greig married Phyllis Scrimgeour on 16 February 1916, by whom he'd three children: Bridget Greig (b. 1917), married Sir Ninian Buchan-Hepburn, 6th Baronet in 1958 Jean Greig (1920–1973), married Joseph Cooper in 1947 Captain Sir (Henry Louis) Carron Greig, KCVO, CBE, DL (b. 1925), a ship broker, Gentleman Usher in Ordinary to Queen Elizabeth II 1961–1995, married Monica Stourton and has issue Greig joined the company of HMS Malaya in June 1917, rejoining Prince Albert, and helped cure the prince of the severe peptic ulcers from which he suffered. During the next seven years, he was extensively in attendance on the Prince, receiving an appointment as an equerry to the Prince in 1918. Prince Albert and his Equerry both joined the Royal Air Force in 1919 (Greig rising to the rank of Wing Commander), and the two were partners at Wimbledon, an event which brought Greig's influence with the Prince into public light. Greig continued to act as a mentor and advisor to the Prince (created Duke of York in 1920), acting as a surrogate father and encouraging his social life. He encouraged the Duke of York's courtship of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, which was ultimately to have significant consequences for Greig's relations with the Duke. While he was made a CVO (26 April 1923) for his services, Elizabeth, as Duchess of York, gradually displaced him as an intimate of the Duke. Ultimately, Greig was omitted from a royal tour of the Balkans and consequently resigned his equerryship. However, he was created a Gentleman Usher in Ordinary on 1 March 1924. Greig's subsequent life was uneventful. He successfully joined J&A Scrimgeour (a firm connected with his wife) as a stockbroker, and formed a friendship with Ramsay MacDonald. Greig played a small role in the formation of the National Government, and was persuaded by MacDonald to accept a KBE on 3 June 1932, in which year he was also created deputy Ranger of Richmond Park. Greig went into a brief eclipse under King Edward VIII, who disliked him, and resigned his ushership on 21 July 1936. However, upon the accession of his old friend George VI, he was appointed an Extra Gentleman Usher (1 March 1937), and was also elected chairman of Wimbledon. He rejoined the RAF in 1939, serving as a liaison with the Air Ministry and reaching the rank of Group Captain. He was operated on for cancer in 1952, but succumbed in early 1953 and was buried in Ham, Surrey. http://louis_leisler_greig.totallyexplained.com/
This made me smile !! A Royal Air Force officer who was a close friend and aide to Prince Albert, the future King George VI ....... http://www.polybiblio.com/embeekay/...af-officer-and-great-friend-to-king-george-vi
