William Ralph Martin-Leake

William Ralph Martin-Leake (21 December 1865 – 14 November 1942) was an English rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cambridge University and Harlequins and international rugby for England. In 1890 Leake became one of the original members of the Barbarians. Leake also played cricket as a youth, representing Dulwich College. Despite his father winning four sporting 'Blues' for Cambridge at cricket, Leake instead focused on rugby, winning three 'Blues' at rugby football. Personal history Leake was born in Ceylon in 1865 to William Martin-Leake and Louisa Harriet Tennant. William was a civil engineer who was employed in Ceylon, but later became a coffee-planter. Louisa was the daughter of Col. Sir James Tennant of the Bengal Artillery. Leake was educated in Britain, at Clifton College in Bristol and Dulwich College in London, before matriculating to Selwyn College, Cambridge in 1885. He received his BA in 1888 and from 1889 to 1909 he was an Assistant Master at Dulwich. In 1909 he was ordained as a deacon, and then as a priest in 1910 at Southwark Cathedral. From 1909 he held two positions at Dulwich, Assistant Chaplain of the College and Head of Dulwich Preparatory School. Leake held both posts until his retirement in 1937, but after portions of the school were unable to be evacuated owing to the air-raids of World War II, he returned to take charge of part of the school. His son, Major Stephen Philip Martin-Leake, died in Albania during World War II. Leake was also a published writer, compiling a history of Arthur Herman Gilkes, a headmaster of Dulwich College; the book is titled Gilkes and Dulwich, 1885–1914: A Study of a Great Headmaster (1928).