Food Industry Legends #2 – Ronnie Poulton-Palmer By Scott Hutchinson
There is a corner of a foreign field that is forever England. Ronnie Poulton-Palmer lies buried south of Ieper (formally Ypres) in Belgium having lost his life on Wednesday 5th May 1915, aged 26. His death occurred just two months after his arrival on the Western Front. An extremely popular officer, it was reported that when a fellow officer went round the company at dawn “almost every man was crying.” Lt Colonel Richard Dacre recalled “one of the nicest and best fellows in the world. He was the first officer in the Division to be killed and the one man who could have been spared for better things.”
Born Ronald William Poulton in 1889 and educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford, Ronnie changed his name to Poulton-Palmer in 1913 after inheriting a fortune from his uncle George William Palmer, one of the founders of the Huntley and Palmer Biscuit factory in Reading.
An outstanding sportsman, Poulton-Palmer played rugby for the Barbarians and Harlequins going on to captain England to victory in the 1914 Grand Slam. Ronnie scored 5 tries including 4 against France, in what was England’s first ever back-to-back Slam. 13 months later he was dead. He was one of 26 England rugby internationals killed during WW1.
Poulton-Palmer joined Huntley and Palmer in 1912 quickly rising to Chairman via the patronage of Uncle George. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he immediately volunteered for the Royal Berkshire Regiment, one of 1,833 men from the Huntley and Palmer factory to join up. 145 were killed in action.
We shall remember
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