{{Short description|England international rugby union player}} {{Infobox rugby biography | name = Francis Poole | image = | caption = | full_name = Francis Oswald Poole | birth_date = {{birth date|1870|12|17|df=y}} | birth_place = County Durham, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1949|05|22|1870|12|17|df=y}} | death_place = Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England | height = | weight = | occupation = | school = | university = | relatives = | position = Forward | repyears1 = 1895 | repteam1 = {{nrut|England}} | repcaps1 = 3 | reppoints1 = 0 }} '''Francis Oswald Poole''' (17 December 1870 – 22 May 1949) was an English international rugby union player.<ref>{{cite news |title=Announcing His Own Banns |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000902/18970413/041/0002 |work=South Wales Echo |date=13 April 1897}}</ref>

Born in County Durham, Poole attended Cheltenham College and Keble College, Oxford.<ref name="Chester">{{cite news |title=Former Vicar Of Ashton Hayes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/886222354 |work=Chester Chronicle |date=28 May 1949}}</ref>

Poole was a forward in rugby and gained four Oxford blues (1891–94). He also played club rugby with Gloucester and Richmond. In 1895, Poole was capped three times for England.<ref name="Chester"/>

Ordained in 1895, Poole held several curacies before becoming vicar at Ashton Hayes in 1906. He was rector at Nantwich from 1910 to 1923, then rector at Burton Agnes until 1925. For the next 24 years, Poole was the vicar at Mucklestone in Staffordshire. He was chaplain to the High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1944.<ref>{{cite news |title=Mucklestone rector's death |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000252/19490528/150/0007 |work=Staffordshire Advertiser |date=28 May 1949}}</ref>

==See also== *List of England national rugby union players

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{ESPNscrum|1135}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poole, Francis}} Category:1870 births Category:1949 deaths Category:English rugby union players Category:England international rugby union players Category:Rugby union players from County Durham Category:Rugby union forwards Category:Oxford University RFC players Category:Gloucester Rugby players Category:Richmond F.C. players Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Category:People educated at Cheltenham College Category:21st-century Church of England clergy