One-cap England winger backed a winner with black horse campaign

Lloyds Bank’s iconic black horse was front and centre of the RFU’s announcement of their new back-of-shirt sponsor on Wednesday, but it’s very presence is all thanks to a winger who won one cap 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 the ad agency Coleman Prentice & Varley before joining Lloyds Bank as Assistant Advertising Manager, where he developed the bank’s famous ‘Black Horse’ campaign. He was chief manager of marketing communications when he retired.

Famously, he was a member of the London Counties side that faced the Springboks in 1969, a match disrupted by anti-apartheid demonstrations led by Peter Hain and future Labour Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Bulpitt won his only cap in the 14-5 defeat to Scotland in 1970, coming on as a replacement for Martin Hale, but lost his place when John Novak moved to the left wing for the final game of the Championship against France. He was never picked again.

“Obviously, I would love to have had a few more, but as everyone repeatedly says to me, at least you got one. There are a number of people who knocked on the door for England but never got a chance.

“I remember returning 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 ring him. I was amazed when I heard the news from him that I’d been selected.

“It was midnight, but we all went round to my parents’ flat to have a champagne party,” recalled Bulpitt to RugbyPass’ Jon Newcombe for his feature My Life in Rugby in the Rugby Paper.

Ironically, Agar’s day job was as a treasurer at Lloyds Bank, while John Clayton, who played in England’s first-ever international against Scotland in March 1871, was a director of Lloyds. He died in the back of a taxi cab following a board meeting in London in March 1924.

Meanwhile, Henry Bell, who won his only cap against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in February 1884, founded Lloyds Bank Rugby Club in 1913 and sat on the bank’s board until his death in September 1935.