William Griffiths

William Satterlee "Bill" Griffiths (26 June 1922 – 27 October 2010) was a British field hockey player who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was a member of the British field hockey team, which won the silver medal. He played all five matches as forward. Griffiths was President of Abergavenny Hockey Club from 1967 to 2007, for 40 of the club's 110 years existence. He was about 14 years of age when he started to play hockey. He was to represent Great Britain on 8 occasions and was the holder of an Olympic silver medal that he won at the 1948 London Olympic Games when Great Britain came second to gold medallists India in the final. He played in all the matches of that campaign. His GB caps were awarded against Switzerland, the United States, Pakistan, India, Holland (twice), France, and Afghanistan. Whilst a student at Cambridge University Griffiths was awarded a hockey blue. When World War II came he joined the Royal Air Force and was posted to South Africa where he continued to play hockey and became a PT instructor. On returning to Wales and to Cardiff University to complete his medical studies he played hockey for Newport Athletic and joined Abergavenny in 1950. By then Griffiths had already accumulated 10 Welsh international caps, the first of which was in 1947 against Ireland. In total he played 32 times for Wales and ended his international career in 1956 when he travelled to Amsterdam to play Holland. Two of those 32 international games were played at Abergavenny Cricket Club – against England in 1949 and Ireland in 1954.