3. CENTRE James Edgar Dobbie – THE ‘SPORTING PASTOR’ KILLED IN AN AIR RAID

James Edgar Dobbie had his birth registered in Durham in 1902 and died as the result of an air raid on Bromley in 1943. He played rugby in the centres for Durham University then for Sunderland and Durham County in the late 1920s. His father was a grocer in Spennymoor and his brother was a teacher. He married into the sporting Jopling family in 1931. Prior to this he had taken holy orders and had been a deacon at Belmont and curate at St Michael’s Bishopwearmouth (1928 -30).  In the 1930s he founded Rock Lodge Preparatory School in Roker and while there coached a successful boys’ rugby side. He was with an evacuated school in Morpeth in 1939 but joined the RAF as a chaplain. ( As a youth he had been an officer in the territorial army). His post was the equivalent of squadron leader. In 1943 he returned to life as a civilian and died from injuries suffered in an air raid on Bromley in 1943. As a centre, he was said to be ‘ a little short of brilliant’. He was also a successful boxer in the early ‘20s.

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