YOUNG ruby players paid their respects at the grave of a club member who was killed in the trenches.

The Upper Clapton Football Club’s under 17’s rugby team visited the war cemetry in Trois Arbres, France on Sunday April 17 on their way to play Dutch opposition.

They laid a wreath at the graves of the 45 club members who were killed in World War 1, including Lieutenant Leonard Cowper, who was killed in action in the Somme in 1916 when only 19 years old.

Under 17’s coach Danny Elmer described the visit: “Our club has always had a very strong ethos. We believe it is important for our members to respect their elders and be aware of their history.

“When they visited the grave it seemed to really effect them. They seemed to grow up a bit.

“It has a big impact on the players knowing that these soldiers went to the same club. They are all round about the same age as Leonard was when he was killed which really brings it home.

“It is a very moving experience, there are lines and lines of graves out there. When they got back on the coach they were so quiet.

The club recently set up the Leonard Cowper award in memory of the war dead, in which a member of the under 17s team is awarded for showing exceptional character.

Club historian Chris Prince initiated the visits to the war cemetery after investigating the lives of the club’s war dead.

He said: “Enough men for three rugby teams were killed from out club in The Great War. As I was walking past the war plaque one day I decided it was time to find out more about them.

Pursuing his investigation he began to find out more about one former member, 18-year-old Lieutenant Cowper, who joined the 20th Northumberland Fusiliers as an officer in 1916.

Prince said: “He was from a middle class background and expected to go to university so to be suddenly thrown in commanding a group of dockers and miners from the northeast would have been quite a challenge.

Within only two months of joining the trenches Cowper was dead, killed by an enemy shell on November 6, 1916.

“Cowper’s parents received a letter from the officers and men in the battalion, in it they said "that Cowper had a smile and a good word for every body" and lamented the fact that the best have to go first. We read it out at the grave and it was very moving”, said Prince.