ipswich: Seventy years after the death of rugby star Prince Alexander Obolensky, flowers have been placed around his statue in the town centre.

Prince Obolensky was the Jonny Wilkinson of his day – a rugby superstar of the late 1930s who had the world at his feet before war came to Europe.

He was a White Russian whose family had fled his homeland at the revolution when he was still a baby.

Prince Obolensky became a true English gent going to public school and Oxford University before winning his first English rugby cap in 1936 – inspiring his adopted country to their first-ever victory over the All Blacks.

At the outbreak of war the Prince joined the RAF, and on March 29 1940, tragedy struck.

After landing his Hawker Hurricane at Martlesham Heath, as he taxied back to the hangar a wheel snagged in a rabbit hole and he was thrown out of the cockpit, breaking his neck.

His statue was unveiled last year at Cromwell Square, and on the 70th anniversary of his tragic death at the age of just 24 a bouquet of flowers was left together with a spray of red roses – the symbol of the England rugby team.