Who was Arthur Donnison Cooley-Smith?

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The Sevens were well established when l last had dinner with him and his wife Terry in Hong Kong in 1978 and he was excitedly about to host his third Sevens. 

Then we lost contact until I heard, sometime after the fact, he had died too young in 1985. The obvious answer to my curiosity was to ask contemporaries what had gone on in his later life. As I had known so many of them I expected it to be easy.

He was already almost 50 when he died which would now place contemporaries in their 80s. I called around but soon found that depressingly few were still with us. Fortunately I found some

very helpful 'youngsters' who were present then and filled gaps in the story.

I was honorary secretary of the then HKRFU during the 1960s which provided me with a good background for the story.

We then did much of the spadework to set up formalised rugby in Asia and develop Hong Kong’s contacts around the world.

It started out as a dull memorandum of rugby activities and facts but then a book started to emerge as a fun project. 

As his story revealed itself it expanded into colonialism, empire, racism and apartheid. Into

booze, infidelity, duplicity, betrayal and finally tragedy.

Throughout, however, it remained focused on his brilliant achievements: opening up the game and the Founding of the Hong Kong Sevens.  

He has not yet received the recognition he deserves!