Paul Johannes Roos

Paul Johannes Roos was the first South African Springbok Rugby Union captain and led the first South African rugby team to tour overseas – to Britain in 1906. Roos was born near the South African town of Stellenbosch in 1880 and completed his education there. Roos was a popular rugby player and was chosen by his own teammates to captain the 1906 tour. Throughout the tour he was articulate and gracious in victory and defeat, and saw the campaign as an attempt to improve the relationship between his fellow countrymen and the British after the events of the Second Boer War. A devout Christian, Roos was an excellent ambassador for the game and helped promote the South Africans as a fair and exciting sporting team. His earliest recorded games of rugby were for Victoria College, for whom he played in the third team in 1897, progressing through the squads until by 1899 he was a prominent member of the first team. With no first class team in the area, he joined the Villagers in 1900, before returning to the Stellenbosch University side in 1901. By 1902 Roos was captaining the team, and led the team with great success. By 1903 Roos had been selected for the Western Province team, but was such a devout Christian, he refused to play or travel on a Sunday. This led to Roos refusing to play for the Western Province team in the Currie Cup of 1904 as it would mean he would need to travel on a Sunday. The Western Province captain wrote to a professor at Stellenbosch University, where Roos lectured, to convince Roos to play. Before his first international match Roos faced the 1903 touring British Isles while representing Western Province; the game ending in an impressive 3-3 draw at Newlands. After his performance for Western Province, Roos was selected to represent the South African national team in 1903 in the final Test against the British Isles. In 1906 Roos was part of the first overseas touring South African team. Roos, who was the only player not to have undertaken a trial for the match as he was seen as a certainty for the team, was elected by the rest of the players to be the team captain. After being given the captaincy, Roos addressed the team by stating, "I would like to make absolutely clear at the outset we are not English-speaking or Afrikaans-speaking, but a band of happy South African"; as the tour took place just several years after the end of the Second Boer War, where once team mates had fought on different sides of the conflict. It was during the tour that the South African national rugby union team's nickname, Springboks, was first used. At an impromptu meeting, the tour manager Cecil Carden, vice-captain Carolin and Paul Roos invented the nickname 'Springbok' to prevent the British press from inventing their own nickname. Roos told the newspaper reporters that they were to call the team 'De Springbokken', the Daily Mail then printed an article referring to the 'Springboks'. The trip helped heal wounds after the Boer War and instilled a sense of national pride in the South Africans. In 1910 he became Rector of the Stellenbosch Boys' High School, formly Stellenbosch Gymnasium, of which he was a former pupil and teacher. He held this post for thirty years and retired in 1940. In 1941 the name of Stellenbosch Boys' High School was changed to Paul Roos Gymnasium in his honour. He was elected as a National Party member of parliament in 1948. He died in 1948.

Burial: Stellenbosch Cemetery Cape Town Western Cape, South Africa

Created by: Anton Strydom Record added: Feb 14, 2012 Find A Grave Memorial# 84973559