This is astonishing. The story of the British Lion who was a Sunderland war hero

Excitement is growing for the Lions 2025 tour which starts with a game against Western Force in Perth on June 28.

But Sunderland historian Keith Gregson has uncovered Wearside’s own link to the Lions and here it is.

Keith tells us more.

Alan Ayre-Smith featured in 17 of the 20 tour matches and represented Britain in all four Test Matches against Australia in 1899.

He scored for the Lions against Australia

He had a medical background as his father was a surgeon and the family home was in Park Terrace, Sunderland in 1881.

He scored his only international try in the second test and played an important part in the victories achieved in the third and fourth tests.

But he then sacrificed his international rugby career and travelled to South Africa where he worked as a dresser in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital during the Boer War.

By 1902, he was back in Sunderland where he played for the 1st XV for three seasons. It was quite a triumph for him.

He fought as an artillery captain in World War I

In the first season, the team won the county cup and in the third, he became the captain of the 1st XV.

He was also part of a successful Durham County side during the same period. He then turned his attention to volunteer soldiering as surgeon lieutenant with the 1st Durham Garrison Volunteers and served there from 1905.

In 1908 he became part of the new Royal Garrison Artillery and married in the same year.

He was a captain in the Royal Garrison Artillery when World War I broke out. At the time, he was in his late 30s. He served as captain and major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

As the brutal war continued to rage, he found himself on the Western Front but survived to tell the tale.

An adopted Mackem after 50 years on Wearside

He died in 1957 at the age of 81.

We are indebted to Keith for sharing a great Sunderland sporting story.

Keith, born in Wembley, is one of Sunderland’s most passionate advocates. He loves the history, is involved in the music scene and reckons the city has ‘just about accepted’ him after 50 years of living here. Keith and his wife first came to Sunderland on Cup Final Day in 1973. But not to get into the football spirit.

Keith explained: “We were house hunting and the place was deserted, absolutely deserted.”

Hear it all on podcast

The couple later travelled to Hartlepool to watch Sunderland beat Leeds United on TV with friends. But Keith and his wife Barbara were smitten with Wearside life and bought their first house in Hendon.

He has a love for singing, folk dancing, history especially Ashbrooke and once ran the folk club at the Blue Bell pub in Fulwell, and told us all about it in an episode of the Wearside Echoes podcast, sponsored by Mobility Care Solutions.

If there is any aspect of Wearside history you would like us to examine, email [email protected]