Cycle tribute to fallen rugby player and WWI hero

The group of ex-Hull FC players includes eight riders and three support crew

Several former Hull FC players are taking part in a 330-mile remembrance bike ride to commemorate a fallen World War One hero who also once played for the team.

Eight of the ex-players are cycling through Holland, Belgium and France, and plan to arrive at Arras on Saturday, where Hull FC player Jack Harrison is remembered on the memorial there.

Mr Harrison was awarded the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery after he single-handedly charged and silenced a German machine gun emplacement in May 1917, ultimately saving a large number of his fellow soldiers.

However, Mr Harrison's body was never found and he was classified as missing in action.

Jack Harrison, who died in 1917, is celebrated on a mural in Hull

Andy Taylor, one of the former Hull FC players on the ride, said the journey so far had been brutal.

He said: “We’ve ridden into the wind the entire trip so far, and we still are. It’s just a gruelling ride.

"None of us are proper cyclists, we are all just ex-rugby players from Hull FC."

When the group arrive in Arras, the men plan to lay a wreath and some poppies at the memorial, before heading back on their bikes to catch the ferry home.

Mr Taylor said: ”It was something we decided was a lovely thing to do in memory of an ex-player.

"We’re all emotional rugby players. It will be very emotional.”

Mr Taylor added that it was a "great privilege" to honour Jack Harrison's memory, and all the other men who lost their lives in the war.

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