Medal - Wales v New Zealand 1905

The gold medal presented to Percy Bush following Wales’ victory over New Zealand at Cardiff on Saturday 16^th December 1905.
To mark the occasion of the historic victory, the Welsh Football Union at their General Committee Meeting held at the Queens Hotel, Cardiff on Thursday 7th June 1906 decided that a memento be given to each Welsh player who took part in the game; ‘Mr Ack Llewellyn moved, and Mr Tom Williams seconded, that a memento be given to each player who took part in the match against New Zealand, at a price not exceeding £2/2/- each.  Messrs Tom Williams, T D Schofield and the Secretary (Walter Rees) were appointed to deal with the matter and also purchase same’ (Extract from the minutes of that meeting).
The medals were purchased from T W Long, Jeweller and Diamond Merchant, 2 St Mary Street, Cardiff, and each medal is inscribed to the reverse with ‘Long Cardiff’.
Some medals have the original Albert chain link at the top and others, as in this case, have been modified to a pin fixing.

Percy Frank Bush, born in 1879, played most of his career for Cardiff RFC making 171 appearances and scoring 66 tries between 1899 and 1913. He scored 35 drop goals and scored four tries in a match against Moseley in 1905/06. He captained the club for three seasons. His father James Bush was one of the founders of Cardiff RFC in 1875. Percy was educated at University College, Cardiff and became a school teacher until 1910. He also gained eight caps for Wales [1905-1910] including the famous 1905 victory over New Zealand. He played in four test matches for the British Lions on their tour to Australia and New Zealand. He was the star of the tour and dubbed "Will o' the Wisp" by the Australian press. In 1910 Percy moved to Nantes, where he continued to play rugby for Stade Nantais. He returned to Wales in the mid 30's. His former clubs were Cardiff Romilly, University College Cardiff, Penygraig RFC, London Welsh. Percy also played  cricket for Glamorgan CCC and Marylebone CC.