John Griffin (rugby union)

John Griffin (2 August 1859 – 13 July 1895)[1] was an English medical doctor who became an international rugby union forward for Wales despite having no connections to the country.

He was partly educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital before gaining a place at Edinburgh University from which he qualified.

[2] He first spent some time in Pretoria as a locum tenens before gaining a more permanent position in Port Elizabeth, where he set up a practice.

After several years his health improved and in 1893 he travelled back to England in charge of small-pox patients on board a steamship.

[7] Griffin was one of three new caps in the Welsh squad, the others being Horace Lyne and John Arthur Jones, all three playing in the pack.

Stained-glass window, [ 4 ] showing the baptism of Christ, in memory of Dr John Griffin at the west end of the south aisle of St John's-in-the-Fields Church, [ 5 ] St Ives, Cornwall, UK. John Griffin's brother Edward was vicar of the parish from 1892 to 1915.