Rugby will come to a brief and respectful halt at London Scottish this Sunday as it does every Remembrance Sunday.

The clamour of voices and whistles will be still for a few minutes, as the minis and juniors join members and officials at the club's War Memorial, for the traditional ceremony of remembrance, which this year marks 100 years since hostilities began. 

London Scottish President Rod Lynch will lay a wreath to the 103 men of London Scottish who were killed; and Richmond President Nick Preston and RAA Chairman Tony Hallett will do likewise to honour their dead.

Prayers will be said for all who died in conflict then and since – the clubs' memorials also list all who died in the Second World War.

The club will also be remembering Sir Thomas Macpherson CIE LLD, a former London Scot and one of the most decorated soldiers of World War Two, who passed away yesterday (Thursday, November 6).

London Scottish club secretary Paul McFarland will read In Flanders Fields, the poem which launched the poppy as the symbol of remembrance and which was written by his grandmother’s fiancé.

This will be followed by the traditional two minutes’ silence, after which the boys and girls of both clubs will resume the joyful sounds of training and games. 

The centenary of the outbreak of war offers a poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by rugby players in particular.

For example – of the Scotland XV that contested the 1914 Calcutta Cup; six were later killed and four of these, including the captain FH Turner, were London Scots … as were 20 of the 31 Scotland internationalists killed in 1914-18.