Charles Reid (14 January 1864 – 25 October 1909) was a Scotland international rugby union player.
[6] He acquired a nickname of Hippo at the school; this does not refer to his being like a hippopotamus, but the fact that he didn't know the word for a horse, when asked once in an Ancient Greek class at the Edinburgh Academy.
[10] The first historian of Scottish rugby, R.J. Phillips says that Reid "carried no superfluous weight and was as active as a well-trained ten-stone man",[10] but that also, from his viewpoint in the 1920s, he was "Scotland's greatest forward.
"[11] He played alongside some of the greats of the era including Ninian Finlay, Andrew Don Wauchope and Bill Maclagan.
[3] He maintained an interest in rugby long after retiring from the game, and after the positional changes in the early 1890s, he wrote boldly: However, Massie disagrees with this statement, and says that over-dependence on aggressive forward play such as that supported by Reid led to European sides being beaten thoroughly by New Zealand and South Africa when they toured.
His body was returned to Swindon and was buried in the same plot as his wife in Radnor Street Cemetery on 29 October 1909.