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Lloyds Bank’s iconic dark horse was front and center at the RFU’s announcement of their new shirt sponsor on Wednesday, but its presence is all thanks to the winger who won one game against Scotland 56 years ago.
Mike Bulpitt was born in Richmond, Yorkshire in April 1944 and played for Blackheath, Eastern Counties, Rosslyn Park, London Counties and the Barbarians.
He worked for advertising agency Coleman Prentice & Varley before joining Lloyds Bank as assistant advertising manager, where he developed the bank’s famous ‘Black Horse’ campaign. He was the general manager of marketing communications when he retired.
He famously was a member of the London counties who faced the Springboks in 1969, a match interrupted by anti-apartheid demonstrations led by Peter Hain and future Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Bulpitt won his only cap in the 14-5 defeat of Scotland in 1970, coming on as a substitute for Martin Hale, but lost his place when John Novak moved to left wing for the final championship game against France. He was never elected again.
“Obviously, I wish I had a few more, but as everyone keeps telling me, at least you got it. There’s a lot of people knocking on the door for England but I never got the chance.
“I remember coming home to my flat in Kensington to be told that Albert Agar, the chairman of the England selectors, had left a message for me to call him. I was stunned to hear the news from him that I had been selected.”
“It was midnight but we all went to my parents’ flat to have a champagne party,” Bulpitt recalled to RugbyPass’ Jon Newcombe for his Rugby Paper film My Life in Rugby.
Ironically, Agar’s day job was as a teller at Lloyds Bank, while John Clayton, who played in England’s first international against Scotland in March 1871, was a director of Lloyds. He died in the back of a taxi after a board meeting in London in March 1924.
Meanwhile, Henry Bell, who won his only game against Ireland in Lansdowne Road in February 1884, founded Lloyds Bank Rugby Club in 1913 and sat on the bank’s board of directors until his death in September 1935.
