Immortal Harlequin

Born in 1883 to a Dutch father and a Scottish-Irish mother, Adrian Stoop became one of the greatest names in English rugby. After early days at Rugby School and as captain of Oxford, his revolutionary leadership led Harlequins to become the greatest club side in the country before the First World War. As national captain he made the (then unheard of) village of Twickenham an Englishman's castle, synonymous with free-flowing, attacking rugby. Fighting on the roads to Baghdad in the First World War, during which he won the Military Cross, he was seriously wounded. Making a full recovery, he was to be widely credited with inventing modern rugby and almost single-handedly restoring national pride in the game he loved. Immortal Harlequin tells the story of a man who forged a nation's sporting identity.