Ralph Sampson, the Scottish rugby international hooker and wartime Spitfire pilot who went on to become a leading industrialist, has died at the age of 89.
Known as ''Sammy Sampson'', Ralph was born in South America, where his family of Edwardian entrepreneurs were engaged in the business of establishing railway systems, notably in Chile and Peru. As was the custom, they sent Ralph and his younger brother, Victor, home to England to be educated at Rossall School in Lancashire. He captained the first XI football team but, to his slight annoyance, only made the school second XV playing on the wing, in his view, out of position.
He moved south to be apprenticed into the newspaper ink trade and soon found his way to Richmond Athletic Ground, home of the London Scottish rugby club, for whom
he played throughout his rugby career. A switch to hooker brought immediate results. He played for the first XV and came to the notice of the Scotland selectors, who capped him against Wales in 1939 at Cardiff Arms Park.
Then came what he described as ''an altogether more testing fixture against Herr Hitler''. He had joined the London Scottish Regiment in 1937 and by the outbreak of war was commissioned into the 6th Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. Telling one of the few ''white lies'' of his life, he used his rugby contacts in the Ministry of Defence to massage his age - down the way - and joined the RAF as a trainee pilot.
Thereafter, as he described in his action-packed book, Spitfire Offensive, he had a remarkable war as a fighter pilot.
By June 1942 he had joined the redoubtable 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron. He flew in the Dieppe Operation, claiming two Focke Wolfs destroyed and two Dorniers damaged. He then became flight commander with 131 (County of Kent) Squadron claiming five more Focke Wolf destroyed or damaged, for which he was awarded his first DFC.
Perhaps his most distinguished appointment came near the end of the war when he was appointed to command the Free French wing, teaching them to fly the Spitfire.
His final ''kill'' was an ME 109 destroyed over Bocholt in Germany, after which he was awarded the bar to his DFC and the Croix de Guerre and palm. By 1945 he had flown no fewer than 189 operations. Air Commodore Peter Brothers said of him: ''As a squadron commander and wing leader he was the most exciting leader on offensive operations I had the privilege to serve with.''
Finally, as a wing commander, he helped establish and commanded the west of Scotland wing of the Air Train-
ing Corps for which he was awarded the OBE. He was also appointed a deputy lieutenant of Renfrewshire.
Although his rugby career was no less successful, his first cap at the Arms Park in 1939 had been a rough baptism. Despite the fact Scotland fielded practically the same team that defeated England at Twickenham in March 1938, winning the Triple Crown to boot, they did not function well and lost 11-3.
But the selectors remembered him after an eight-year absence when he was selected again for Scotland in 1947 - once more against the Welsh - at Murrayfield, becoming one of only five ''before and after'' internationalists. In the immediate post-war period, Sammy was a prominent figure in London rugby. He captained the London Scottish, Middlesex, and the London Counties side. He was also a Barbarian and was honoured with the captaincy on a Baa-Baa tour.
In the 1950s he helped establish the Hillington Industrial Estate near Glasgow as managing director of Ault and Wiborg - printing ink suppliers to all the leading UK newspaper groups. On his retirement in the 1980s, he accepted a government consultancy to encourage and assist new companies and businesses in need of guidance.
His rock was his wife, Margaret, whom he met during the war when she worked for MI5. He proposed to her at the London Scottish ball in 1946 and they had been happily married for 54 years. They lived mainly in Bridge of Weir in Renfrewshire.
He is survived by his wife
and their sons, Jamie, Stephen, and Charles.
Ralph Sampson, born
September 25, 1913,
died January 31, 2003.
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