John Guthrie Tait

In his early adulthood, Tait was a notable sportsman playing rugby union as a forward for Cambridge University and represented the Scotland international team twice between 1880 and 1885.

His proposers were D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, William Peddie, Arthur Crichton Mitchell and Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker.

At the end of the year Tait was part of the Cambridge team to face Oxford University in the annual Varsity Match, now played at Blackheath.

Tait missed the 1881 game, but was back in the team for the 1882, led by fellow Peterhouse student Herbert Fuller.

Tait played one final notable game, when in 1885 he was called back into the Scotland side, to once again face Ireland, this time as part of the 1885 Home Nations Championship.

Some few years ago he told Mrs. Everard that he was deeply indebted to me for licking him till he held his hands the right way.

DNP = Did not play R256, R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play Yellow background for top-10 On 7 January 1904 he married Annie Smith Cook, daughter of the Principal of the Central College, John Cook FRSE (d.1915).