The UCT Rugby Club has paid tribute to alumnus Dr Louis Babrow with the launch of a booklet on the UCT, Western Province and Springbok rugby hero.

Penned by Leonard Kaplan (Rugby Club captain between 1980 and 1983), Louis Babrow chronicles Babrow's achievements as player, coach, selector and administrator, as well as his varied experiences as a medical doctor. This includes meeting the British king and queen, as well as their two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, in London immediately after World War Two as official representative of the SA Medical Corps.

He would also, shortly after this meeting, be commissioned by General Jan Smuts - with whom he was close friends - to inspect Hitler's bunker and other sites in Berlin.

"This booklet represents a veritable labour of love," notes Kaplan in the preface. "I hope it will provide an insight into a life of wonderful service and achievement for the UCT rugby players of 2003." The 88-year old Babrow was at the booklet's launch at the Rugby Club on May 14, which was also attended by other luminaries such as Judge Patrick Tebbutt, who composed the foreword, and Dr Cecil Moss, another South African rugby legend.

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