Full name | Eric MacLeod Milroy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 4 December 1887 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Edinburgh, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 18 July 1916 | (aged 28)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of death | Delville Wood, France | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | George Watson's College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
University | Edinburgh University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Chartered accountant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Military career |
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Allegiance |
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Service/branch |
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Years of service | 1914–1916 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rank | Lieutenant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit | Black Watch |
Position(s) | Scrum-half | ||
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Amateur team(s) | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
1906–1914 | Watsonians RFC | () | |
National team(s) | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
1910–1914 |
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12 | (3) |
Eric "Puss" MacLeod Milroy (4 December 1887 – 18 July 1916) was a rugby union player who represented Scotland and Watsonians. He was capped twelve times for Scotland between 1910 and 1914, his first appearance coming as a surprise replacement for the Scottish captain, George Cunningham. He was selected for the 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa after other players were forced to withdraw. Due to illness, he only participated in three matches, and did not take part in any of the tests against South Africa. In 1914, he captained Scotland against Ireland, and against England in the last international match before the outbreak of the First World War.
At the start of the war, Milroy was commissioned in the Black Watch and was killed in action in Delville Wood, France, in the Battle of the Somme. He was one of 31 Scottish rugby internationals to be killed in action. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing dead of the Somme.
Eric Milroy was born in Edinburgh on 4 December 1887, the second son of Alexander MacLeod Milroy, a bank agent, and Margaret Walteria Milroy. His siblings were Jessie, Rowatt, and Margaret. He went to school at George Watson's College from 1895 to 1906. As well as playing scrum-half for the first XV in his final year, he was a scholar and a skilled debater in the Literary Society. Winning a bursary to Edinburgh University in 1906, he studied mathematics, graduating with a Master of Arts with honours in 1910. Thereafter he took up an apprenticeship with the firm of Messrs A & J Robertson, chartered accountants, and himself became a chartered accountant in 1914.