Rowe Harding

Who was Rowe Harding?

W. Rowe Harding was a Welsh international rugby union wing who played club rugby for Swansea. An intelligent player, Harding played for several teams at club and international level. In 1926 he attended Cambridge University and played for Cambridge in a varsity match. Rowe retired from rugby at the age of 28 when he was called to the bar, and would later become a Circuit Court judge in 1953. Harding spent his later life connected with all manner of sports. He was Welsh Rugby Union vice-president from 1953–56, chairman and president of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, president of Swansea Lawn Tennis and Squash Rackets Club and patron of Cwmgors RFC.

Harding was a published author of the rugby book, Rugby Reminiscences and Opinions which is noted for its forthright and blunt viewpoints on the issues affecting Welsh rugby at the time, for example, while addressing the Welsh Rugby Union in 1950 "The Rugby League is only an infant, but it wants strangling."