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Born in
Cheltenham on June 24th 1908 Christopher Champain Tanner, more
commonly known by those close to him as ‘Kit’, attended the nearby
Cheltenham
College
where he doubtless gained his first exposure to the game of rugby. By the time
that he progressed to
Pembroke
College
,
Cambridge
he was already regarded as a resolute running wing. His qualities on the pitch
were initially missed by his University, although the ever astute Barbarians
were not fooled and following their tradition of selecting at least one uncapped
player for each match the young Tanner was duly picked for the Edgar Mobbs
memorial match against East Midlands held at
Northampton
on March 6th 1930. It was perhaps this match more than any other
that brought Tanner to prominence during the Barbarians twenty two points to six
victory where Tanner scored three tries in front of the
England
selectors. As was noted by The Times “the
strong and determined running of Tanner had been one of the features of play.”
There is no doubt
that the selectors were duly impressed by Tanner’s display in the black and
white hoops of the Barbarians. Two weeks later he was again selected to play
although this time in the white shirt of his country against
Scotland
at Twickenham on March 15th. The match, played in front of the
Prince of Wales ended in a goalless draw with the Scots retaining the Calcutta
Cup by default as the current holders. Littered with handling errors and
ineffective back play the match itself was far from a classic although “Tanner did his best… and, in fact showed such a power of stride he
looked every inch a scorer.” Unfortunately Tanner was adjudged to have
knocked on taking the pass, a highlight of an otherwise dismal game.
The 1930 season
was a mediocre one for
England
, which ended surprisingly well with their taking the championship due to their
record of two wins, one draw and one loss. Tanner was not selected to play for
his country during the 1931 season, although he was to play three more times for
the Barbarians that year in the traditional Christmas match held against
Leicester as well as Cardiff and Newport on the Barbarians customary Easter tour
to Wales. Despite the lack of
England
honors in this season one gap in his playing career was, perhaps belatedly,
filled when he was selected to play for
Cambridge
against their nemesis
Oxford
, gaining his blue on December 9th 1930. Again the match resulted in
a draw, although by three points each this time in what was considered a fair
result for a disjointed match.
Cambridge
scored when they had largely been on the defensive during the first half and
then despite having the better of the play in the second were unable to convert
this into further points.
The 1932 season
found Tanner back in favor with the
England
selectors as he returned to Twickenham on January 2nd to face the
touring South Africans.
England
proved poor opposition even though their most avid fan would hardly have
expected them to win this encounter. Again Tanner did his best. “[He] got in one run that really raised the rather despondent crowd”
but this was of little comfort during the seven points to nil defeat. Things did
not improve for
England
during their next match, a crushing twelve points to five defeat by the Welsh
at
Swansea
on January 16th 1932. Played again in front of the Prince of Wales
only the stout defense provided by the English backs, including Tanner,
prevented the score line from becoming far more pronounced.
Given
England
’s poor run of form with no international victory since 1930 it is no surprise
that they travelled to
Dublin
as underdogs to face an
Ireland
side undefeated in three seasons. Despite this they managed to edge a scrappy
match blighted by several injuries and numerous penalties by eleven points to
eight on February 13th. This unexpected victory set the
England
team up well for the final match of the season with a return to Twickenham a
week later on the 19th to play
Scotland
. In a complete reversal from the early part of the season
England
dominated the play, particularly in the forwards and were never in any danger
of loosing the fixture that was won by sixteen points to three. Tanner
distinguished himself with a debut try for his country
“… [He] then went at full tilt for the corner, turning in a bit to hand off
Macpherson just before he crossed the line.” The win returned the Calcutta
Cup to Twickenham and also ensured a share of the championship title in a
strange season with this honor shared between
England
,
Wales
and
Ireland
.
The
Scotland
match, Tanner’s fifth cap was to be his last for his country. He played twice
more for the Barbarians in 1933, again with victories against East Midlands and
Newport
, never being on the losing side during his six appearances for the club.
Putting aside the highest level of the game, which had also seen him play for
Richmond
and Gloucestershire, Tanner now turned to more spiritual matters.
Ordained in 1935
Tanner was initially the Curate at Farnham Royal for two years until 1937. This
was also the year that he married to Eleanor Rotherford at
St Leonard
’s in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He returned to his home town of
Gloucester
as Curate of St Mary de Lode with his new bride for a further two years until
his appointment as the Rector at Haslemere in August 1939. His time here was cut
brutally short as Tanner elected to serve as a Chaplain with the Royal Naval
Volunteer Reserve at the outbreak of war.
Posted to HMS
Fiji Tanner by all accounts took the transition from Rector to Military Chaplain
in his stride as if he had served in the forces all his life. The
Fiji
herself was commissioned on May 5th 1940 the first of the crown
colony class of cruisers. She, with Tanner aboard, was dispatched to the
Mediterranean fleet in April 1941 to support operations to relieve the besieged
island
of
Malta
. Tactical imperatives now came to the fore and she was sent in company with the
Destroyers HMS
Kandahar
and HMS Kingston to
Crete
her mission to prevent a German seaborne landing on the island.
Battle
was joined on May 22nd 1941 with HMS Fiji soon coming under heavy
and sustained aerial attack. Tanner had no direct duties whilst in combat, the
role of the chaplain being hard to define in these situations and so he was left
to make the best contribution that he could devise. With the Fiji hit by several
bombs, possessing only one working anti aircraft gun, little ammunition and
heeling badly the captain, Peverill William Powlett, was left with no option but
to order all hands to abandon ship. To Tanner his duty was clear and he
personally oversaw the removal of some sixty wounded from the sickbay to the
last whaler that the
Fiji
had remaining. Tanner, along with most of the five hundred odd other survivors,
was forced into the water. At the time of her sinking the apart from the whaler,
now crammed with wounded, the Fiji had only two carly floats designed for twenty
men each left, the rest having been dropped earlier to assist the survivors from
the sinking of HMS Gloucester. Tanner took it upon himself to minister to those
who found themselves in the same peril that he now faced, assisting those who
could not help themselves onto rafts and leading the men in song until rescue
could arrive. It has been noted that the repertoire owed more to a rugby club
bar than Sunday service, but all things considered they were most likely
appropriate. After four hours in the water, somewhere after midnight the
Kandahar
and
Kingston
were able to return and pick up survivors. Tanner was soon brought on board the
Kandahar
, but characteristically spurned the comforts being offered to survivors, small
though they may have been of a blanket, cup of tea and a cigarette. Instead with
no regard for his own personal safety Tanner repeatedly reentered the sea to
help those who were too weak to grasp the ropes thrown to them from the deck of
the
Kandahar
. No accurate count can be made of the number of times Tanner repeated this,
although it has been estimated that up to thirty men directly owed their
survival to him as Tanner resolutely refused all attempts to dissuade him from
again entering the sea. Shortly after his last rescue the Reverend Kit Tanner
succumbed to his own exhaustion, dying a few minutes after he himself was hauled
on board. For his bravery Tanner was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal, a
rare decoration in World War Two and is on a par with the George Cross. It was a
fitting award for a man of Tanner’s character and bravery who, as his obituary
in the Times noted, had the gift of getting on famously with everybody.
Sources
"The
Complete Who's Who of England Rugby Union Internationals", R Maule,
Breedon 1992
The
Times Online Digital Archive
Wikepedia
www.angelfire.com
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The
Rugby History Society