Hely Hutchinson Almond

Hely Hutchinson Almond (12 August 1832 – 7 March 1903) was a Scottish physician and a politician, a headmaster of Loretto School (1862 - 1903)

Almond was born in 1832 in Glasgow and was the son of Reverend George Almond. In 1845 he enteredGlasgow College. There he got the Cowan Gold Medal in the Blackstone Latin Examination and was also awarded first prizes at Greek and Junior Mathematics. In 1850 he went on to Glasgow University and from there was elected to an Exhibition at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Snell Exhibitioner.

He was also an accomplished athlete and secured a place in the eight of the college. It was also here that he started playing rugby. In 1857 he was offered a job of Mathematical teacher by his distant relative Charles Langhorne. In the summer of 1859 he accepted the post of a second master at Merchiston under Dr. Harvey.

In the spring of 1862, Almond purchased Loretto School. Under his leadership the school became the leading rugby nursery in Scotland.

He was one of the umpires of the first international rugby match at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh in the 1871 Scotland versus England rugby union match, and was a supporter of the formation of the Scottish Football Union in 1873, after renamed as Scottish Rugby Union in 1924. Such was the importance of his contributions to rugby football that in 2007 he was nominated for inclusion in the IRB Hall of Fame, although his nomination did not lead to induction.

On 29 April 1876 he married to Miss Eleanora Frances Tristam in Durham. On 20 February 1877 their first child, George Helly Hutchinson, was born. On 19 December 1878 his second child, Christiana Georgiana was born. His third child, Henry Tristam, was born at Linkfield House.

His daughter, Christiana Almond, married Rev Canon Maurice Elphinstone. Their son Maurice was Sir Maurice Douglas Warburton Elphinstone 5th baronet Elphinstone of Sowerby FRSE.