This research project was prompted by the enormous interest and publicity that has surrounded the centenary of the start of WW1. We knew that many, indeed thousands, of hockey players were involved and that many lost their lives. The stories do not just relate to serving men but also those...
HMS Royal Oak pictured in 1937.Public domain [link]. By Mike Smith On 14 January, a small group of hockey enthusiasts visited Hill Head, Gosport to collect the lifetime’s work of the late hockey and military historian Alan Walker. Alan’s archive is contained in approximately one hundred boxes –...
Photographs of Sir Philip Neame. Left image courtesy of Cheltenham College Archives. Right image: public domain. Hockey player Sir Philip Neame was born on 12 December 1888. He was awarded a Victoria Cross (VC) in the First World War (WW1) and a decade later...
Captain H V M Cox's hockey stick from the Indian Army Hockey Team tour to New Zealand in 1926.The engraved plate reads:1926 Indian Army Hockey Team v New Zealand.390 goals for. 37 against.Stick used by Captain V M H Cox throughout the tour. This stick is one of...
Lt Charles Arthur Campbell It seems highly likely that Lt Charles Arthur Campbell was the first hockey player to make the ultimate sacrifice in WW1 as there were so few others killed, officers or soldiers, before the Battle at Mons. Lt Campbell was born in London but grew up...
Once the First World War had begun it became obvious that the Royal Navy, traditionally the pride of the British Nation for centuries, would have to play a vital role in what would become both a domestic and global conflict or perish in the attempt. Not for nothing is the...
Perhaps the first Naval hockey player to become a casualty of the Great War? Lieutenant Eric Walter Poyntz Westmacott RN was on the left wing for the Royal Navy in 1912 and in 1914 he was reported as "the best player in the Navy team". That was to be his...