Billy Johns

Billy Johns

By Malc King

Billy Johns was a forward who played 238 games for Gloucester between 1902 and 1913, was captain 1904-06, and made 22 appearances for Gloucestershire. He was renowned for his dribbling abilities, and won 7 caps for England:   16th January 1909 v Wales at Cardiff 30th January 1909 v France at Leicester 13th February 1909 v Ireland at Lansdowne Road 20th March 1909 v Scotland at Richmond 15th January 1910 v Wales at Twickenham 12th February 1910 v Ireland at Twickenham 3rd March 1910 v France at Parc des Princes.

At the end of his first season as an international, a celebratory dinner was held in his honour at the New Inn in Gloucester on 22nd April 1909. The following season he took part in the first 2 internationals to be played at Twickenham. He was then invited by the RFU to go to South Africa, departing in June and returning on 24th September 1910.  

Billy's collection of mementoes from his playing career are held in our archive, and can be viewed at the Gloucestershire Archives. They include his copy of the programme for the dinner mentioned above containing many signatures, together with England selection letters, post-international dinner menus, etc.  

William A Johns was born in Gloucester on 1st February 1882, and died at Weston-super-Mare on 10th March 1965 aged 83. He went to school at Sir Thomas Rich's, and captained the school team for 2 seasons 1894&5, whilst playing half-back. He then played for Rich's Old Boys for 2 seasons, before playing his first match for Gloucester against Cheltenham, a mid-week fixture in the 1901-2 season, and became a regular in the side the following season. He was 5ft 9in tall, and weighed in at 12st 6lb.  

Dai Gent later wrote " I must tell this story against one of the finest dribblers that ever played for England, W A Johns, of Gloucester. It was in a club match at Gloucester, and against Swansea. Johns was one of the very worst forwards (of his class) I have seen at handling a ball, and any tries he got were the result of superb dribbling and then falling on the ball. Well, in this match a gorgeous dribble had left him clear with about fifteen yards to go. Unfortunately for Johns, the ball bounced so high that he was bound to take hold of it - which he did. But having the wretched ball in his hands and not at his feet so upset his mental and physical balance that he lost control of his legs, crossed them (a la Tishy!), and fell headlong a few yards short of the goal-line. I am afraid that forwards of today have too much "handling" practice to feel as this fine forward did. I wish they didn't, for then they might approach Johns more nearly as dribblers."