TWO members of one "extraordinary" family, one of them a former England Rugby captain killed in the First World War, will be honoured with a blue plaque tomorrow.

Ronald Poulton Palmer was just 25 when he was killed on the Western Front in 1915 but is regarded as one of the greatest rugby players of all time.

His father Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton was an evolutionary biologist famous for pioneering work on animal markings.

Tomorrow the pair will both be honoured on the same plaque at their family home in Banbury Road.

Economist and broadcaster Peter Jay, Sir Edward's great-grandson, will be taking a trip down memory lane to give a speech at the presentation.

Mr Jay told the Oxford Mail: "I'm very proud and delighted, tomorrow will actually be almost 73 years since I last visited the house.

"I went to see my great-grandfather Sir Edward when I was six and all I can remember is he was in bed in his pyjamas sipping orange juice.

"There was an ancient gardener who showed me how to collect leaves. I remember it must have been November as he died in the same month."

Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, a professor of Zoology at Oxford, was a passionate advocate of Darwin's theory of natural selection and was known for his work in determining how certain animals change their markings to warn off predators.

In 1881 he married Emily Palmer, heiress to the Huntley and Palmer biscuit business, and bought Wykeham House in Banbury Road – now the University Careers Service – where he lived until his death in 1943.

His second son Ronald Poulton Palmer will tomorrow become the youngest blue plaque recipient since the Oxfordshire scheme began in 2001.

Ronald won seventeen caps for England and led the team through an unbeaten Five Nations campaign in 1914.

He still holds the record – five – for the most tries in a varsity match against Cambridge.

After becoming a 2nd lieutenant in a territorial battalion of the Royal Berkshires he volunteered for service abroad to help the war effort.

He was killed by sniper fire in Ploegsteert Wood in Flanders just two months after arriving on the Western Front.

Mr Jay, 79, said his great-uncle accomplished a lot for someone so young.

He said: "He achieved so much in his life also doing important work in the business and social spheres and by all accounts he had a fascinating personality.

"To have two members of the family on a blue plaque makes me incredibly proud and I'm very excited for the ceremony."

Secretary of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board Eda Forbes said: "It's not often we put two people on the same plaque but sometimes we feel its appropriate.

"Sir Edward Poulton's eminence as a leading scientist and evolutionary biologist was widely recognised and his son Ronald was quite simply extraordinary.

"He's the youngest person we have had on a blue plaque I think since we started in 2001 – it's incredible he could achieve so much."

The ceremony to unveil the plaque, which will involve speeches from Mr Jay and Zoology professor Charles Godfray, will begin at 11am.