It was with enormous sadness that we heard the news of the death of David Rollitt. Over the years he was a great friend of Rosslyn Park acting as head coach during our days in the lower tier when the ship needed steadying by the influence of a good man. His other major contribution is obviously being the father of Pippa, our well known physio and latterly, head of medicine. This is all to forget, however, a dazzling playing career that saw him make 415 appearances for Bristol with many seasons as captain, 73 county matches for Gloucester including six finals, 16 Barbarians run-outs and 11 England caps. Described as ‘a ferocious tackler, there are many in the game who believe that he should have played for the national side on many more occasions. We offer our condolences to his family and large number of friends in the game.
David Rollitt’s funeral will be:
Wed 18th Jan at 2pm
Mortlake Crematorium
And then there will be a celebration of his life at a wake to be held at
Richmond Athletic Ground at 3.30pm
A message from Pippa Rollitt:
This venue has been carefully selected because it was here that we, as a family, were taken under the wing of the West London rugby family back in 1977, dad finished his playing career in 1979 with them as well as going on to coach them and be involved with the club as Eben played his mini rugby there and yes I then started my pitchside physio there in 1996-99 and then I moved to Rosslyn Park following my lovely Matt who had also moved from Richmond to play the Park.
It would be lovely to see any of the Park old boys (or young) come along but it would be also helpful to get a rough estimate on numbers (please email pipparollitt@gmail.com)
Bristol / Richmond / Park / Loughborough and Medics as well as Old Paulines are going to fill this venue along with our relatives and great non-rugby friends – joining us to remember this gorgeous Old Grey Fox .. dad!