Former rugby international, solicitor and army officer, Harry McKibbin, who made a huge contribution to rugby as an administrator at national and international levels, died on September 3rd aged 86.
Henry Roger (Harry) McKibbin was born in Belfast on July 13th 1915, the eldest of four children, (two sons and two daughters), of Harry McKibbin, an estate agent, and his wife Martha (nΘe Rogers).
Both sons, Harry and Desmond, who died in 1999, went on to play rugby for Ireland and both were presidents of the Irish Rugby Football Union, the only brothers to attain that office. That was just one singular distinction for a family whose contribution to the game is without parallel in the annals of Irish rugby.
Educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institute (RBAI), he was an outstanding rugby player at school and had the unique distinction of playing on the RBAI senior cup team for four seasons. He captained the school to win the cup in 1933. He was also head boy in his final year.
He studied law at Queen's University and subsequently qualified as a solicitor. The promise he had shown as a rugby player at school, came to full fruition in Queen's University and he was capped for Ireland against Wales as a 22-year-old in 1938.
Despite his limited international experience, he was chosen for the Lions tour to South Africa in 1938. He played in all three tests and scored a penalty goal and conversion in the famous 26-21 win over the Springboks in Cape Town in the final test.
The team was captained by Sammy Walker, and included no fewer than eight Irish players, the biggest representation Ireland has had on a Lions test team.
The victory is put into historical perspective by the fact it was the first recorded by the Lions against the Springboks since 1910. Harry McKibbin was named by the Springboks as the best back on the tour.
He went on to win three Irish caps in the 1939 championship and then came the 1939-'45 war and the cancellation of all international rugby until 1947.
While circumstances meant his international rugby career was short but distinguished, his record as a serving officer in the British army was equally distinguished and adventurous. He had been in the Officer Training Corps at Queen's University and, at the outbreak of war, joined the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant. He was involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk and then, with the rank of major, fought in the Burma campaign.
On his return to Belfast after the war, he resumed his legal career and became a partner in the firm of S. and R. Crymble. He played briefly for Instonians before turning to rugby administration.
In September 1945, he married Sheila Lord, an outstanding athlete, who won the Scotland and Northern Ireland 100 and 220-yard sprint titles. The second World War deprived her of possible Olympic participation. They had four children, three sons and a daughter. Two of their sons, Harry jnr and Alistair, went on to emulate their father by being capped for Ireland at senior level. Only one other family, the Collopys, of Bective Rangers, can claim a similar distinction. The third of Harry McKibbin's sons, Roger, was an Irish trialist, but injury brought a premature end to his career.
His grandson, Christopher, became the third generation of the family to play for Ireland when he was capped at under-19 level, while his nephew Brian played for Ireland at schools and B level. Harry jnr was manager of the Ireland team that won the under-19 World Cup in 1998.
Harry McKibbin was president of Queen's University Rugby Club in 1950-51; president of the Ulster Branch of the IRFU in 1963-64; an Ireland selector from 1960 to 1963; assistant manager of the Lions team that toured South Africa in 1962 and a member of the IRFU committee from 1964 until 1987.
He was a member of the game's ruling authority, the International Rugby Board (IRB) from 1967 to 1987 and was one of the men who made the decision to inaugurate the Rugby World Cup in 1987. He served a term as chairman of the IRB and was president of the IRFU in its centenary season 1974-75. He was ideally suited to that task, meeting every demand in his own quiet and dignified manner.
He was awarded the CBE for his services to rugby in 1975 and inducted into the Rugby Writers of Ireland Hall of Fame in 1987. He maintained his deep interest in, and love of, the game to the end of his long and fruitful life.
He is survived by his wife Sheila, sons, Harry, Alistair and Roger, daughter Deborah and by two sisters.
Henry Roger (Harry) McKibbin: born 1915; died, September 2001