Dick Stafford

Richard Calvert Stafford (23 July 1893 – 1 December 1912) was an English rugby union player. He played four times for the England national rugby union team in 1912 but died later that year aged only nineteen.

Life Stafford was born on 23 July 1893 in Bedford, a member of a family of local auctioneers.

Stafford made his debut for Bedford Blues in March 1909, aged fifteen and became club captain in September 1911.

Dick Stafford began the 1912–13 season as captain of Bedford again and represented the East Midlands county side but was forced to stop playing in November by injury and illness and was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the spine. He died on 1 December 1912 and his funeral was marked by shops and businesses in Bedford closing.

As a player, Stafford was a forward, usually listed as a prop in modern publications although there was less specialisation of positions in 1912. A local paper assessed him as "almost prodigal of his powers, doing the work of two men in the scrum and, in the loose, racing across to take up a three-quarter movement, or hurling an opponent to earth with that terrible tackle of his", and in the 1911–12 season he scored 14 tries for Bedford in 22 matches.