Not sure where to post this but I think it fits here. A cracking story about Air Marshal Sir George Beamish originally from Dunmanway, County Cork where some of my antecedents came from. As well as the RAF he was great Rugby player. His brother Victor, also an RAF pilot was shot down and killed in 1942.
George Beamish: The flying number eight with the widest of horizons
A ‘Boys Own’ life on and off the rugby pitch has been chronicled in a new book
From Dunmanway in West Cork to a knighthood, a rank of air marshal in the RAF and along the way a World War, 25 Irish caps and five caps with the Lions, George Beamish lived a cartoon-sized ‘Boys Own’ life. ...
The life of George (1905-67) was also coloured by his siblings, Victor (1903-42), Charles (1908-84) and Cecil (1915-99), who like him were all accomplished sportsmen. George and Charles played international rugby for Ireland and with Victor and Cecil they all played variously with Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Harlequins. ...
George played at number eight and won his first Irish cap as a 19-year-old in 1925 and between 1928 and 1933 was rarely out of the Irish squad. Selected in 1930 for the Lions’ tour of Australia and New Zealand, he played in all five Tests and in 17 of the regional matches. On return from that tour in the same year he was picked as Irish captain. ...
Between them all the Beamish family provided one air marshal, one air vice-marshal, two group captains and two flight lieutenants. Victor even died a tragic, glorious death after an attack on his Spitfire by a Messerschmitt in 1942. As it says in ‘The Lion of the RAF’ by Paul McElhinney, it was “an impressive tally for one family.” ...
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/george-beamish-the-flying-number-eight-with-the-widest-of-horizons-1.3987429