David Marques
England
player portrait
Full name Reginald William David Marques
Born December 9, 1932, St Margarets, Ware
Died September 29, 2010, Ware (aged 77 years 294 days)
Major teams British and Irish Lions, Oxford and Cambridge, England
Position Lock

Test career
Span Mat Start Sub Pts Tries Conv Pens Drop GfM Won Lost Draw %
All Tests 1956-1961 25 25 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 14 6 5 66
England 1956-1961 23 23 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 13 5 5 67.39
British and Irish Lions 1959-1959 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 50
Five/Six Nations 1956-1961 21 21 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 12 4 5 69.04

Career statistics
Test debut England v Wales at Twickenham, Jan 21, 1956 match details
Last Test Wales v England at Cardiff, Jan 21, 1961 match details
Test Statsguru Main menu | Career summary | Match list | Most points | Most tries | Tournament list
Profile

Marques played 11 seasons for Harlequins, 23 times for England and two Tests for the British Lions on their 1959 tour to Australia and New Zealand. He also appeared in four Varsity matches, for the Army and for the Barbarians against the 1958 Wallabies and on their ground breaking tours to Canada and South Africa.

He will be best remembered as part of a record setting partnership with John Currie in the second row for England of 22 consecutive appearances from 1956 to 1961. Both were part England's Grand Slam team of 1957, the first since 1928. Of Marques's games for England, 13 were won, five drawn and five lost.

To many he was the epitome of an English gentleman. With mischievous humour, he played up to this image on a number of occasions. He is forever remembered in Lions folklore as the man who stepped off the aeroplane in Darwin's brutal heat at the start of the 1959 tour, resplendent in shirt and tie, jacket, raincoat and bowler hat, carrying a rolled up City of London type umbrella. This was the splendid, indefatigable Englishman stepping out into the Colonies.

Then, when he was kicked by the New Zealander, Albie Pryor, some distance from the action and the ball, he jumped to his feet, six feet five inches of quivering English rectitude and, to the astonishment of all, held out his hand to Pryor to gingerly take it. After the match, his colleague Bill Mulcahy demanded, "Why the devil didn't you belt him?" for the aristocratic Marques to reply, "You wouldn't understand, Bill. I wanted to make him feel a cad."

And Marques' family history is as colourful a tale. "I had an Australian father and Welsh mother. My father came to England originally via Gallipoli." After schooling at Tonbridge, where David was part of the unbeaten 1949 XV along with a certain Colin Cowdrey who did rather well on another sporting field, national service and Cambridge, he joined the family firm in Ware. In 1964, he was a member of the crew of Sovereign, the America Cup challenger, providing the powerhouse along with fellow Quin and Tonbridgian, Dick Page.

Off the field, he was a JP, a governor of Haileybury College and took an active interest in the Riding for Disabled charity. The latter helped Jason, one of his sons who is disabled, enjoy life.

With thanks to Harlequins

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Latest Photos
Jan 16, 1960
England's David Marques claims a lineout
England's David Marques claims a lineout
©  Getty Images
Jan 14, 1956
Cambridge University and Harlequins' David Marques
Cambridge University and Harlequins' David Marques
©  Getty Images

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