1938 British Lions tour to South Africa


The 1938 British Isles tour to South Africa was the fourteenth tour by a British Isles team and the sixth to South Africa. The tour is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.
The tour party was led by Ireland's Sam Walker and managed by Col. Hartley, and took in 24 matches. Of the 24 games, 19 were against club or invitational teams, three were test matches against the South African national team and the other two games were outside South Africa against Rhodesia. The British Isles lost two and won one of the test matches, and in the non-test games lost five and won sixteen.
Like many of the early Lions parties, the tour did not represent the best of British and Irish rugby talent. Obvious omissions included Wilf Wooller and Cliff Jones.

Touring party

Complete list of matches played by the British Isles in South Africa:
Test matches
#DateRivalCityVenueResultScore
111 JunBorder BulldogsEast LondonWon11–8
2[|15] JunGriqualand WestKimberleyWon22–9
318 JunWestern ProvinceCape TownNewlandsLost8–11
422 JunSouth Western DistrictsOudtshoornRecreation GroundWon19–10
525 JunWestern ProvinceCape TownNewlandsLost11–21
629 JunTransvaalPotchefstroomOlën ParkWon26–9
72 JulOrange Free StateBloemfonteinWon21–6
86 JulOrange Free State CountryKroonstadLoubser ParkWon18–3
99 JulTransvaalJohannesburgEllis ParkLost9–16
1013 JulNorthern TransvaalPretoriaCaledonian GroundWon20–12
1116 JulCape ProvinceKimberleyWon10–3
1220 Jul RhodesiaSalisburyWon25–11
1323 Jul RhodesiaBulawayoWon45–11
1430 JulTransvaalJohannesburgEllis ParkWon17–9
156 AugJohannesburgEllis ParkLost12–26
1613 AugNorthern ProvinceDurbanKingsmead CricketLost8–26
1717 AugPietermaritzburgWon15–11
1820 AugBorder BulldogsEast LondonWon19–11
1924 AugNorth-East DistrictsBurgersdorpWon42–3
2027 AugEastern ProvincePort ElizabethSt George's ParkWon6–5
213 SepPort ElizabethSt George's ParkLost3–19
2210 SepCape TownNewlands StadiumWon21–16
2317 SepWestern Province UniversitiesCape TownNewlands StadiumWon19–16
2421 SepWestern Province CountryCape TownNewlands StadiumLost7–12

PlWDLPsPc
241707414284

Test details

First Test

South Africa: G.H Brand, F.G Turner, G.P Lochner, P de Wet, D.O Williams, T.A Harris, D.H Craven, S.C Louw, J.W Lotz, M.M Louw, B.A du Toit, W.F Bergh, A.R Sherriff, W.E Bastard, L.C Strachan
British Isles: V..G.J Jenkins, E.J Unwin, D.J Macrae, H.R McKibbon, E.L Jones, F.J Reynolds, J.L Giles, M.E Morgan, C.R.A Graves, G.T Dancer, S Walker, R.B Mayne, R. Alexander, W.G Howard, A.R