Edward Innes Pocock Edward Innes Pocock ( 3 December 1855 – 14 January 1905 ) was a Scottish rugby union player . Playing at three - quarters , Pocock gained two caps for Scotland while representing Edinburgh Wanderers at club level . A soldier by profession , he served in Cecil Rhodes ' Pioneer Column . On leaving the army he became a civil servant holding several posts as Mining Commissioner in various districts of Rhodesia . Early history . Pocock was born in Clifton , Bristol in 1855 , the son of Rev . Nicholas Pocock and his wife Edith . Pocock ' s Great grandfather was marine artist Captain Nicholas Pocock , while his younger brother Reginald Innes Pocock was a notable zoologist . Pocock was educated at Clifton College from 1872 – 75 and after leaving school he joined the British Army , being posted to Edinburgh . Rugby career . Pocock played rugby while still a schoolboy , and in his final year he represented Clifton College . In 1873 he played his first game for local team Clifton Rugby Football Club , but on his posting to Edinburgh , during the 1876 / 77 rugby season , he turned out for Edinburgh Wanderers . In 1877 , while playing for Wanderers , Pocock was approached by the Scottish Rugby Union to represent Scotland in the 1877 Test match against Ireland . The Scottish Rugby Union needed to gain permission from the Rugby Football Union to play Pocock due to his nationality . Although Pocock was a quick player and scored many tries at club level , he was supported by a very strong Wanderers pack ; at international level he was far more exposed . Pocock had a very good game for Scotland against Ireland , scoring a try on this debut match which Scotland won 6 – 0 . Pocock was reselected for the very next game , played in Edinburgh against England just a month later . Despite a win for Scotland from a solitary dropped goal from Malcolm Cross , Pocock had a terrible match , and at one point was moved out of his three - quarter position and into the forwards . Pocock , never a favourite with the Scottish spectators due to being English , was never selected for Scotland again . Military career . In 1880 , Pocock was posted to Brighton into the cavalry regiment , the 16th Lancers . That year he was promoted from Assistant Commissary to Deputy Assistant Commissary - General . From Brighton he was posted to Aldershot and later abroad to India and the West Indies . In 1885 he was promoted to the honorary rank of captain . In 1888 he joined the newly formed Royal Army Service Corps , retaining his rank of honorary captain . Stationed initially in Dublin , he was later posted in Claremont , Cape Town in South Africa . He resigned his commission in 1890 to join Cecil Rhodes ' newly formed Pioneer Column , and was appointed to C Troop on 18 April . He was part of the Pioneer Column Expedition that annexed Mashonaland , but before the column left Macloutsie in Bechuanaland on 28 June , he was re - appointed to B Troop . Later life in Africa . The Pioneer Corps was disbanded on 1 October 1890 , and the members of the company were offered a parcel of land to farm , which included mining rights . Pocock took up the option and acquired a farm in one of the richest farming areas just outside Salisbury . Despite this , Pocock later wrote to his mother saying he had given up farming , and had instead gone into a gold mining business with an O . R . Armstrong . After selling his farmland to Sir Francis Newton , Pocock moved from varying jobs to another . In 1893 he prospected and developed mining properties in the Lomagundi District , but that year he was hospitalised in Salisbury with an abscess on his knee . While recovering he joined the Civil Service and organised Salisbury ' s Queen ' s Birthday Gymkhana of 1894 . Pocock was later made a mining commissioner , and was present when Trooper Cooper of the British South Africa Company ' s Police was fatally stabbed while collecting hut tax . He was appointed Gwelo District Mines Inspector in February 1896 , and in March 1898 he was appointed Mining Commissioner to replace A . J . Jameson who had been murdered by locals the previous June . During an uprising in 1896 , Pocock was made captain of the Gwelo District Volunteers , and between September and October 1896 he was placed in command of Fort Gibb . He was stabbed in the arm by a spear during a conflict on 24 October 1896 . He took leave in January 1897 returning to England , and was still in the country for his father ' s death in March . Pocock returned to Rhodesia in August 1897 . In 1897 he was made mining commissioner of Lomagundi District , though he resigned from the Civil Service in 1901 . Pocock was then hired by United Excelsior Mines , and was placed in charge of the Alliance Mine in the Abercorn District . Mining operations ceased at the mine in 1903 , but he remained living at the property . Throughout his time in Rhodesia , Pocock suffered from bouts of malaria . These became more and more serious until he contracted black water fever . Due to a flooded river , he was prevented from reaching the hospital for three days , and on arrival he was seriously ill . He died at the hospital from pneumonia and was buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Salisbury .