Education
Dulwich College. Eric completed his education at Dulwich College, and immediately joined the Consular Service.
Dulwich College. Eric completed his education at Dulwich College, and immediately joined the Consular Service.
Earlier in his life, he had played for Uruguay in a rugby union international against Argentina, although the game was not one for which test caps were awarded. Eric"s was from a middle-class family from Northumberland. They had three children, Dorothy, James and Eric Arthur.
Eric"s career immediately took him across the Atlantic.
He was to go to South, Central and North America. Amongst his postings were stints in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Washington, District of Columbia, Los Angeles and Havana.
During the Second World War, he was stationed in Los Los Angeles He retired in 1955 as British Ambassador to Eric Arthur had learnt rugby at Dulwich College, a school that already had a proud history in the sport.
In 1922, the school magazine, The Alleynian, reported that a "Rugby International match played at Monte Video (Uruguay) between Argentine and Uruguay".
The report went on to detail that the participants included "twenty public school boys", of whom "five were O.A"s" (OA being an Old Alleynian, the term for a former pupil of Dulwich College). The five former pupils named were C.H. Scott (1914-1916) for Argentina, and L.P. Bridal (1914-1918), Captain J.M. Cat (1909-1915), East.A. Cleugh (1907-1913), and Civil Engineer Cat (1909-1916) for Uruguay. lieutenant was interesting to note that Cleugh"s former school mate, Civil Engineer Cat, was actually at the time the captain of Argentina"s then premier team, Belgrano Club, but played for Uruguay because he was born in that country.
The match took place 26 years before Uruguay"s first official match against Chile in 1948.