Ted McLaren
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| Born | Edward McLaren 28 May 1902 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Died | 30 March 1950 (aged 47) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ted McLaren (28 May 1902 – 30 March 1950) was a Scotland international rugby union player.[1]
Amateur career
McLaren was brought up in Edinburgh and went to the Royal High School. He later played rugby union for Royal HSFP.[2]
On moving to London for business he then played rugby union for London Scottish.[3]
He later played rugby for the Shanghai Rugby Club in China.
Provincial career
While with Royal HSFP he played for Edinburgh District in the inter-city match of 1922.[4]
While with London Scottish he played for Scotland Probables in the first trial match of 1923.[5] He then played for the Scotland Possibles in the subsequent trial match, a month later, in 1924.[6]
International career
He was capped 5 times for Scotland from 1923 to 1924.[7]
Administrative career
He was made a vice-president of the Shanghai club in 1938.[8] He was made President shortly after the war ended.[9] He moved to England in 1949 after the communists took control in China.
The last recorded game of Shanghai rugby club in the 1950s (before the club was re-started in the 1990s[10]) was on 18 March 1950 (a match between the players and former players), although the club drifted on till 1952 in the new communist China. Taken ill a week before that match with a coronary thrombosis, McLaren died around two weeks after that last match in March 1950. Shorn of McLaren's Scottish influence, the closing funds of the club in 1952 went instead to Twickenham in England to furnish the President's Room there.[11]
Referee career
He became a rugby union referee in China when his playing days were over.[8]
Business career
McLaren worked with the shipping firm Butterfield & Swire. He learned Chinese; and managed to work in various Chinese cities:- Hankow, Shanghai, Tientsin and Hong Kong. He was praised by his company for his sensitive handling of the Wanhsien incident on the Upper Yangtze in 1926 when two boats were seized by the local warlord Yang Sen.[2]