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| Action photo of Ireland vs England women, the first ever women's international hockey match in 1896. |
2 March 2021 is the 125th anniversary of the first ever women’s international hockey match in 1896, between Ireland and England. Ireland beat England 2-0.
The game took place on the Alexandra College ground in Milltown, Dublin, at 3.30pm, in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people. M Obre and D Johnson scored for the hosts.
To put things into context, this match took place less than fifteen years after the formation of the first hockey club at Teddington and only one year after the first men’s international match. Perhaps more importantly, social opinion at the time considered women’s hockey, indeed women’s sport, to be unladylike! Contrast that with today when some one hundred nations are playing women’s hockey internationally.
This was certainly not an impromptu event as the invitation to England had been issued the previous year. Indeed, it was the Irish who formed the first women’s national association, the Irish Ladies Hockey Union in 1894. Ireland has much to be proud of internationally; they won both of the first ever international hockey matches, men’s and women’s.
The history books show that this game was almost the second in history because a match did take place in Brighton on the 10 April 1895, one year earlier. Although it was publicised as an ‘international’ it was soon downgraded to ‘another match of interest’. This was because the Irish team, although very competent, were in fact the Alexandra College team from Dublin, not a national team. Additionally, England had yet to form their national association so the England team had no official status. As such, the match at Milltown, Dublin on the 2 March 1896 becomes the first ‘true’ international women’s match.
How The Match Was Reported At The Time
The reports of this notable 1896 encounter follow, albeit by male reporters!
The Irish Independent:
“There was little to choose between the teams, and though the combination of the Irish ladies was better than that of their opponents, and they had somewhat the better of the opening period, the English ladies pressed quite as much in the second half, and with better shooting they might have equalised.”
The Irish Times:
“When the teams took up their positions they made a pretty scene, the English players wearing red skirts and white bodices and caps, while their opponents were arrayed in green blouses and dresses of a similar but deeper hue, and as the colours mingled and co-mingled during the course of the match, the spectacle was quite animating, not to say charming.”
The Daily Express:
“After the bully-off, lreland got down to the English line, and there was close work for a few minutes until the visitors brought the ball to centre along their left wing. Ireland returned to the pressure and Miss Johnson [disproved; correction: Obre] got a run to the circle where, after some scrummaging, she shot the first goal for Ireland a few minutes from the start.”
Ireland went on to score a second goal before half time.
“The visitors set about reducing the opponents' advantage in determined style and, with the backs feeding the front division well, the latter made matters pretty warm for the Irish defence. Miss Martin in goal was equal to all the calls made upon her resources however and, after the Irish had conceded a corner of which nothing came, a penalty free gave them a much-needed relief.
“The English ladies attacked hotly and Miss Martin only Just managed to stop a fast shot sent … in the nick of time. A couple of corners gave England no material advantage and, after some give and take play, the Irish forwards, whose placing of the ball at this period was very good, gradually worked their way into the visitors' circle. Miss Bell had an ineffectual shot at goal, following which Miss Robson raised the siege and the remainder of the play took place at midfield. Ireland thus won a meritorious victory, albeit they were hardly two scores the better side.”
The Two Teams From The First Women's International Match
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| Ireland women's team, 2 March 1896 | England women's team, 2 March 1896 |
The sides lined up as follows:
Ireland: Miss Louisa Martin (captain, Alexandra College); Miss Shaw (Donnybrook), Miss E Sealy (Dundrum); Miss I Boyd (Merton), Miss EA Obre (Merton), Miss A Boyd (Merton); Miss F Henshaw (Alexandra College), Miss D Johnson (Alexandra College), Miss M Obre (Merton), Miss Frances Martin (Alexandra College), Miss A Bell (Donnybrook).
England: Miss Ethel M Robson (Blackheath); Miss Winifred M Langrishe (possibly Langridge; Columbine), Miss A Carver (Brighton); Miss A Bouchier (possibly Bourchier; Bedford), Miss Emily G Johnson (captain, East Molesey), Miss Emily Tatham (East Molesey); Miss J Retallack (Bournemouth), Miss Brook (Bournemouth), Mrs Mary D’Oyley (East Molesey), Miss M Andrews (East Molesey), Miss M Mellor (Brighton)
By Mike Smith and Dr Jo Halpin
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| Sutton Hoo excavation, 1939. Still from film made by Harold John Phillips. Public domain. |
In a recent article (click here) we covered the links that exist between the Netflix blockbuster film The Dig and our sport of hockey. Following that piece, we received news of a further hockey connection.
If you have seen the film you will recall that Edith Pretty’s nephew became involved as the photographer of the excavations. During the film he signed up for the Royal Air Force, became a dashing young flyer and had a romantic liaison with Lily James’s character. Well, all of that was significant artistic licence, although with WW2 just about to start it did offer an interesting story line.
In reality the significant photographs of the excavations at the site were taken by two lady schoolteachers from Putney High School who were holidaying in the area, originally intending to photograph Saxon remains in Suffolk churches. When they heard of the Sutton Hoo excavation, they visited the site and offered their services. The two ladies in question were Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff, who was the PE teacher and hockey mistress at the prestigious girls’ school in Putney. Barbara had learned her hockey at Cheltenham Ladies College and went on to train at Dartford College of Physical Education where she was the hockey goalkeeper.
These two ladies were at Sutton Hoo for most of August 1939 and their request to take photographs was an amazing bit of luck. They took 447 photographs, 45 colour transparencies and two reels of Agfa colour film, thereby creating a unique photographic record of perhaps Britain’s greatest archaeological dig. This photographic collection now resides in the British Museum.
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| Excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, 1939. Photograph by Barbara Wagstaff; © The Trustees of the British Museum |
by Dr Jo Halpin.
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| Portrait of Edith Pretty by Dutch artist Cor Visser. © National Trust / Robin Pattinson |
Edith Pretty is famous for unearthing an Anglo-Saxon burial ship on her land at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1939 – an event that has now been made into a film, The Dig, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes.
But dig a little deeper into her life and you find plenty of connections to hockey, including to the formation of the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA).
The daughter of wealthy Manchester industrialist Robert Dempster, Edith and her older sister Elizabeth were enrolled at Wimbledon House School, Brighton, in 1894, when Edith was 11 years old. The school (later known as Roedean) was considered radical for the time because of its wide-ranging sports programme for girls, with pupils encouraged to take part in hockey, tennis and cricket, as well as running, swimming, gymnastics, fencing and dancing.
Young Edith – "a promising, if unspectacular, sportswoman" (Skelcher & Durrant, 2006) – took full advantage, playing hockey for the school’s 3rd XI and her house XI, for which she was vice-captain. She also captained her house cricket and drilling teams, was a competent gymnast, and a member of the tennis club.
The teacher in charge of drill and games at the school was Christabel Lawrence, one of the five women who met in a coffee shop in Brighton on 10 April 1895 to set up the AEWHA. Lawrence would become the first honorary secretary and treasurer of the association, and Wimbledon House School a founding member.
The idea for an English governing body had come about after a tour to Ireland by Newnham College, Cambridge, during the Christmas holiday of 1894/95. In the run-up to the meeting in Brighton, Irish side Alexandra College were on a return tour to England, and their itinerary included a game against Wimbledon House School.
Although Edith is unlikely to have been in the team, it is highly likely that she and her fellow pupils watched the match – which the school won 1-0!
They would probably also have been encouraged to attend the pseudo international match that took place in Brighton immediately before the tea-shop meeting, between the Irish tourists and a hurriedly assembled English representative side – a game that ended 0-0.
So, Edith’s first year at Wimbledon House coincided with the school’s central role in the formation of the AEWHA – and it brought her into contact with her future husband’s family.
She became firm friends with Mildred Pretty, one of nine children of Ipswich-based corset manufacturer William Pretty, whose factory was a major employer in the town from the mid-1800s. Edith met Mildred’s brother Frank while still in Brighton, and the couple eventually married in 1926.
The Prettys were prominent on the early 20th-century Suffolk sporting scene. Frank and his half-brother Ernest were members of Ipswich men’s hockey club, founded in 1899, but also played for men’s and mixed teams based out of the family’s large home, Goldrood House.
Other family members who turned out for Goldrood’s mixed XI were: Hilda and Elsie (Frank and Ernest’s sisters); Margaret (aunt) and her husband Russell Paul; Reginald (cousin); and Mabel Pretty (sister-in-law).
Hilda, Elsie, Margaret, Mabel and Mildred also played for Ipswich Ladies, while Margaret and Mildred were selected for the Suffolk county team.
Margaret also got involved in the administration of the sport, serving as president of the Suffolk Women’s Hockey Association and on the council of the East Anglian Ladies Hockey Association.
With such active future in-laws, it is unlikely that Edith, who travelled extensively after leaving Wimbledon House School in 1899, gave up playing hockey and other sports altogether. Evidence of her involvement has yet to be found, however – although I’m Pretty sure it must be out there!
*The Dig was released on Netflix on 29 January.
Sources: Mary Skelcher & Chris Durrant, Edith Pretty: from socialite to Sutton Hoo (Leiston Press, Leiston, 2006); Jo Halpin, ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’: The rise of leagues and their impact on the governance of women’s hockey in England 1895-1939 (PhD thesis, May 2019); East Anglian Daily Times; Suffolk & Essex Free Press; The Social Review.
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The Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet bears a passing resemblance to the early hockey facemasks of the 1980s. |
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Sutton Hoo at the British Museum
Discover more about the Suttton Hoo treasures with online content from the British Museum. Click here for an overview of their collection, including a virtual tour of the gallery, and here for a 15-minute podcast discussion with the Curator [10:24 - 25:53].
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Sutton Hoo Gold Shoulder Clasp. |
In 1900 there were just twenty clubs from the North affiliated to the Hockey Association (HA) causing some historians have been misled as to the game’s popularity outside of the home counties. In most northern towns and cities at this time hockey playing was increasingly popular.
For example: in Hull the Sports Editor of the Hull Daily Mail wrote in 1902:
“Now that hockey has become firmly established in Hull and East Riding, the question has been mooted as to the advisability of forming a league or some form of competition. Seeing that there are some twenty clubs in the neighbourhood of Hull, many leading players are inclined to the belief that a competition could be run on a sound basis.”
The next day a letter appeared from a ”hockeyite” pointing out the HA’s ban on all cups and competitions.
Hockey’s popularity in Hull was such that the Morison Advertising Agency was publishing annually from 1902 The Hull & District Hockey Register which contained the rules of the game and the fixtures lists and officers of all the local clubs. The register sold for 2d and by 1905 3d.
Unfortunately to date, we have yet to find a surviving copy. Can anyone help in our pursuit?
James Ormandy
28.01.2021
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| Cover of the Sticks Club Handbook, 1910 |
A fascinating item recently came into The Hockey Museum’s possession which threw an amusing light on a social activity in London hockey circles in the early years of the last century.
It was the history of an exclusive gentlemen’s hockey club whose Latin motto of "Aut vino aut ludo invicti" might give some indication of the club's founding intentions: Never defeated by wine or in a game.
The Sticks Club originated in a meeting of a dozen hockey players at the Russell Hotel in London on 21 March 1907. Two of them – Stanley Shoveller and Eric Green – would represent England at the London Olympic Games a year later where they earned gold medals. Shoveller won gold again 12 years later at the Antwerp Olympics.
Almost a year later, on 10 March 1908, six of the original dozen, including Shoveller, met at Hatchett’s Restaurant in Piccadilly when a resolution was passed to found the Sticks Club “for the purposes of mutual recreation at hockey matches and dinners and other necessities of civilisation [...] The health of the new club was drunk with much enthusiasm in Scotch ale, this being recommended by Mr Shoveller as a sound training beverage.”
Their first match was to be played on 11 April 1908 vs Folkestone, followed by a meeting at the Royal Pavilion Hotel in Folkestone to approve the Club’s rules and regulations. Four other gentlemen, including 1908 Olympians Gerald Logan and Percy Rees, were asked to attend as the first Ordinary Members, taking the membership to 25, seven of whom played for Hampstead HC. This number was the limit laid down in the Club’s rules.
When a vacancy occurred, a bizarre method of election was carried out. Namely:
“Candidates for electing must take their stand in a hockey goal, in the presence of at least four Original Members or Members, who shall each be entitled to one free hit at goal. Each time a goal is scored the Candidate shall stand drinks round [presumably buy a round - ed] at the next general meeting; if no goals are scored the Candidate shall certainly not be elected. In the event of a goal not being available the Candidate shall undergo such other initiation either on the field, or in, upon or at such licensed premises as the majority of the original members and Members present shall decide.”
The secret nature of the Club was to be maintained by another rule:
“Neither the rules or regulations of the Club or the names of the Members or Officers shall on account whatever be disclosed to anyone who is not a Member.”
Click the PDF icon to the right to view the full Sticks Club handbook including membership list and complete rules.
The Jean Arnold collection was donated to The Hockey Museum (THM) during lockdown and is now helping to uncover more of the once-hidden history of women’s league hockey.
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Jean Arnold |
Jean Arnold, a well-known figure in Liverpool hockey circles, has donated a large number of items relating to the Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League. Among this collection is The Lord Mayor’s Cup.
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The Lord Mayor’s Cup, Jean Arnold Collection. |
The Lord Mayor’s Cup was presented to the League by Burton Eills, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, in 1919. It was presented to the League Champions. This must be one of the oldest women’s hockey league cups still in existence.
The Cup is engraved with the following:
The Lord Mayor’s Cup
Presented by
BURTON EILLS, ESQ., JP
Lord Mayor of Liverpool
1919-1920
To the Liverpool County
Ladies' Hockey League
(affiliated to the AEWHA)
Division 1
The engraving confirms that in the 1919-1920 season, the League was affiliated to the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA), which since 1895 was the ruling body of women’s hockey in England. The AEWHA was not in favour of league hockey; however, after the First World War, the number of clubs affiliated to the AEWHA was in decline and the leagues were growing in popularity.
Some of the early leagues, such as the Liverpool League, joined the AEWHA after the war, boosting the AEWHA numbers, but the relationship was always a difficult one and some leagues did not stay long. The Liverpool League left in 1928 and eventually joined the English Ladies’ Hockey Leagues Association (ELHLA), an alternative body set up in 1932 to look after the interests of the Leagues. One of the founders of the new Association was John Lishman, the founder of the Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League.
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Mark Evans with the items donated by Jean Arnold. He is holding The Lord Mayor’s Cup and the Liverpool Ladies’ Challenge Shield. |
Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League 1961-62 Handbook showing the League was founded in 1918. |
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The Hockey Museum (THM) has recently acquired a set of blazer buttons that once adorned the England blazer of George Hardy. These buttons, emblazoned (ahem) with the HA logo of the Hockey Association, presumably made their way to Hardy’s fellow England player, Captain John Yate Robinson who passed them down through the Robinson family line. The buttons were donated to the museum by Robinson's great nephew.
Quite how or why the buttons passed from Hardy to Robinson is lost in the fog of time. Whilst our Great Britain match records are now complete, the England records are not finalised and have yet to be fully researched and cross-referenced. What records we do have show that Hardy played only one game for England, against France on 18 April 1908 in Paris. Robinson didn’t play in that game but did play against Scotland two weeks earlier in Edinburgh and then subsequently, after Hardy’s sole England appearance, in the London Olympic Games in October 1908 (winning gold). Hardy played for Brooklands, Cheshire and the North; Robinson for Oxford University and the South. Despite never having been in the same England side together (as best we know), somehow these buttons passed from Hardy to the descendants of John Yate Robinson; and what happened to his blazer?
A mystery then, but an intriguing one. The buttons, which innocuously spell out HA-HA-HA, appear to delight in their ambiguity, mocking our efforts to establish absolute provenance. The brass cheek of it.
Shane Smith
04.09.2020
On 14 April 1935 (not 1938 as stated on this British Pathé YouTube clip), Germany women played England women in Berlin. The result was 6-4 victory for England. An unexpected tour given the precarious political situation in Europe.
The England team line up: Eileen Arnold (GK), Mary Knott (Cptn), Marjorie Collins, Phyl Carlebach, Ruth Maddox, Rebecca Blaxland, Angela Pilley, Hilary Redman, Christina Goodman, Marjorie Pollard, Rosemary Marriott.
One of the umpires was LM Scott (England); the other was presumably German, but we do not yet know her name.
We believe that England forward Angela Pilley was something of a principled, social justice campaigner and the family tale has it that she upset the All England Women's Hockey Association (AEWHA) by refusing to give the Nazi salute whilst running out between two lines of Hitler Youth. This would've been totally contrary to her beliefs and she is alleged to have made an anti-Nazi statement to the press afterwards. After this tour, which also included a match against the Netherlands in Haarlem, she was not officially selected for England again.
Reports of other England games in 1935 mention Angela as a fast and effective forward. She was clearly in her prime. An editorial in Hockey Field magazine in 1936 notes that, “Mrs Pilley does not even appear in the reserves list this year – surely the biggest surprise of all. According to reports from the territorial matches, Mrs Pilley has been up to form and lost none of her speed and initiative.”
Was Angela Pilley dropped for her political stance? We have yet to uncover concrete evidence of a statement to the German or English press, nor for that matter a reason given for her omission in the AEWHA minutes. We can see that none of the England team give the Nazi salute in the British Pathé video, but the national anthems (as shown) would've been after the runout (which isn’t). Were the England team made to salute, and did they? How did Pilley react?
Whatever the truth – and we may yet discover it – was there ever a time when selection didn’t surprise somebody?
Germany Women vs England Women, 14.04.1935
The Hockey Museum recently received a Winchester HC fixture card for the 2017-2018 season.
This came as a bit of a surprise as we knew that many (most?) clubs no longer produce such a publication. With the availability of information on the internet and social media they have become virtually redundant and the new GDPR personal data rules make it more difficult to provide contact details.
Historically, fixture cards provide a wealth of knowledge, not just about the club in question but who they played against. From this and other data we have determined that some 8,000 clubs have existed in England since the first in 1891 – that is both men's and women's. We are avidly trying to collect these fixture cards as they provide a significant insight into the make-up of hockey through the years. If you have any, please send them to us.
Mike Smith, 25 October 2018
Mike Smith, Curator of THM (left) discusses the
Old Creightonians HC archive with Simon Lawton-Smith (right).
At The Hockey Museum (THM) we receive at least one collection each week, but not many have a twist in the story like this one.
A recent visit by Simon Lawton-Smith brought us the club records of the Old Creightonians HC, a very active club in Middlesex for over fifty years. Originally the ‘Old Boys’ of Kilburn Grammar School, when the school closed and they ran out of ‘Old Boys’ to solely sustain player numbers – a not uncommon scenario – they changed the name to simply Creightonians HC. Although now disbanded, the club lives on with regular social and golfing gatherings. With their records lodged with THM, however, the name will live on in annals of hockey.
The twist in the story came whilst showing Simon around the Museum. We mentioned our 1908 Olympic gold medal to which he responded, “My family has one of those!” Simon’s grandfather, Herbert Smith, was in the gold medal-winning side of 1908, not for hockey but for football. Like us at THM, the family keep the medal in a safe but what a wonderful twist that 110 years on the stories of these two successes should come together.
Mike Smith, 28 August 2018
Over the past couple of years, a considerable amount of material, including a large collection of trophies, has come to THM from Cannock HC. It was rescued from the former National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes by Laurie Alcock, affectionately known as 'Mr Cannock'. Had Laurie not saved it, the cabinets and artefacts would have been lost to hockey but the Museum now has both.
We are still working our way through cataloguing the trophies but the accompanying photos show two of the gems that we have found.
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One (above, left) was presented to The Hockey Association in 1962 by the Indian Air Force hockey team on the occasion of their visit to the UK. We know that at least one more of these exists with the Royal Navy Hockey Association and we suspect that the Army and the RAF also received one during the visit. If you have any information on this trip do please contact Mike (through our contact form) to let us know.
The other trophy (above, right) was presented to The Hockey Association on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary in 1936 by the Dutch Hockey Association. It is a quite beautiful windmill with full sails all made from silver. Sadly, it was very battered and the moving parts didn’t survive! We approached a well-known hockey enthusiast and former Great Britain women’s Manager, Chris Pickett, for help. Chris owns Pickett and Pursers, the renowned jewellers in Petersfield and they have kindly restored it to its former glory. Thank you, Chris, for saving one of our finest possessions.
Mike Smith, July 2018
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Joyce Hatton, Vera Cox (wearing her AEWHA blazer) and Frances Heron-Maxwell.This photograph was colourised for Frances Thompson's talk at The Hockey Museum. Last Wednesday 4 May, Frances Thompson travelled from Australia to The Hockey Museum (THM) for a rather personal research visit, and we asked her to give...
Peter Johnson: The Great Britain Hockey Player With Only One Cap
A total of 581 players (men and women) have represented Great Britain (GB) over the years. Many of these players have enjoyed illustrious international careers with seven men and 13 women having exceeded 100 appearances – yet this piece is about those players who only made one single appearance. To...
Echoes Of The Moscow Olympic Hockey Boycott 42 Years Later
The Hockey Museum recently received a 42-year-old document that has a particular resonance with contemporary events that are consuming the world’s media today. The document in question is a copy of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s letter of 19 February 1980 to Sir Denis Follows, CBE, Chairman of the British Olympic...
A Mother's Pride
The first England women's hockey team (1896).Mary D’Oyley is seated middle row, right of centre next to the lady holding the ball. Mary has her cap on her stick. When England’s Mary D’Oyley (nee Piper) lined up against Ireland at Alexandra College, Dublin, on 2 March 1896, she...
Hockey: A Political Symbol In The Punjab
Punjab Lok Congress Party symbol The image shown above is being used by a political party as its logo (see here). This may seem a rather strange adoption, yet it has occurred in the Punjab in Northern India. Not only is hockey the national sport of India...
The Evolution of Hockey Honours Caps
The ongoing series of Great Britain (GB) honours cap presentations to current and former GB players is a direct outcome of THM’s Playing Statistics Project. These presentations are really a 'bolt on' to the stats project, perhaps triggered by THM's small collection of various historical hockey...
The First Ever "Hockey" Magazine
"Hockey" magazine, 15 December 1893 – the first magazine for hockey? The Hockey Museum (THM) has over 80,000 items in its growing collection. We receive another two collections most weeks. These are sorted and catalogued by our brilliant volunteers and occasionally we come up...
Jordi Alumà: Hockey
Hockey, Olympic Suite No.2 by Jordi Alumà The Hockey Museum (THM) holds in its art collection a limited-edition print of a female hockey player by Spanish artist Jordi Alumà (pictured). After a long and distinguished life, Alumà passed away earlier this year on 8 June 2021. The...
How Great Thou Art: Religious Hockey-like Games in Ethiopia
© The Trustees of the British Museum How are Orthodox Christianity and sport linked within Ethiopian culture? Created in the late 1940s by an Ethiopian priest, this watercolour painting from the British Museum’s collection depicts two teams of men playing the native stick-and-ball game Genna. Traditionally played at Christmas,...
The Longest Olympic Matches
As we approach the quarterfinals (QF) of the Tokyo 2020 hockey tournament, we reflect on a momentous QF back in 1960: Kenya vs Great Britain (GB) at the Rome Olympic Games. On 5 September 1960, the QF match in Rome became the longest match in the Olympic history (until this...
Tracing The Match Ball From The Australia And New Zealand Tour of 1914
An archival document recording an All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1914, leads The Hockey Museum (THM) Archivist on a journey of discovery to trace a very special match ball with an intriguing social history. The match ball from Canterbury...
Louis Charles Baillon: The Only Falkland Islander Olympic Champion
The England hockey team from the 1908 Olympic Final. Louis Baillon is seated furthest left. Louis Charles Baillon is the only Falkland islander to have won an Olympic gold medal. He achieved this feat as a member of the England hockey team that won gold at the 1908...
Alan Turing: WW2 hockey-playing hero features on £50 note
After the 2014 feature film The Imitation Game and other publicity most people are now aware of the amazing contribution made by Alan Turing and the remarkable team at Bletchley Park during World War 2. It is often said that their efforts helped the Allies to win the war and...
Christ’s Hospital's Jovial WW1 Charity Match
These photographs tell the story of a convivial charity match involving Christ's Hospital school (CH) during World War One (WW1). They were unearthed by staff at Christ’s Hospital Museum and shared with The Hockey Museum. Photographs of the hockey match fundraiser, 1917....
Kenya Hockey Olympians Conference
I was delighted and honoured to be invited as one of the Guests of Honour at a virtual conference for Kenyan hockey Olympians on Sunday 30 May 2021. The invitation was extended by Hilary Fernandes, Kenya’s triple Olympian, and Raphael Fernandes, a Kenyan Los Angeles 1984 Olympian. Raphael co-ordinated the...
The ‘Hockey Girl’ And The Pursuit of Love
Cartoon from the Punch Almanack, 1903. The caption reads:"We had a scratch game with the 'Black and Blue' Club yesterday, but had an awful job to get any men. Enid's brother and a friend of his turned up at the last moment; but they didn't do much except call 'offside'...
A Biography of Janet Macklin (née Smallwood)
When Janet Smallwood (later Mrs Macklin) was awarded her first international cap for Scotland in 1951 she was not the first member of her family to have an international sporting honour – her father, Alistair Smallwood, was selected to play for England Rugby in the 1920s. Alistair was born in...
The Festival of Britain’s Grand International Hockey Tournament 1951
Cover of the programme for the Grand International Hockey Tournament during the Festival of Britain, 1951.Click the image to download the full programme as a PDF.Credit: the AEWHA Collection at the University of Bath Library. Seventy years ago in May 1951, a very unusual sporting event was staged...
Harvey Wood: England’s Mysterious Giant Goalkeeper
[ Editor's note: A follow up article to this piece has since been published which corrects some aspects of the below. Please click here for the follow up article: Correcting Hockey History: The Hunt for Harvey Wood | hockeymuseum.net ] A piece of research on the 1908 Olympic Games together with...
Bandy In Shakespeare
Portrait of William Shakespeare, 1610. Possibly painted by John Taylor. There are several references to the word ‘bandy’ in the works of English playwright William Shakespeare, including one in Romeo and Juliet when Romeo, trying to stop a fight between Tybalt and Mercutio, declares: “The Prince expressly hath forbidden...
Hockey-Playing Thespians Of The Edwardian Era
Frank Benson, actor and hockey players, inWilliam Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The Edwardian era would witness the peak of theatre going and its watershed moment as cinema arrived. It also witnessed a sporting boom – especially in hockey – and one club, Benson’s Hockey Club, had done...
It's A Date: Celebrating the First Scotland Women's International Match
By Katie Dodd The first Scotland women's team, 1901. The 13 April 2001 is the 120th anniversary of Scotland women’s very first international match, played against Ireland in Dublin. I was first made aware of this special date during a conversation with Evlyn Raistrick, former Scottish and International...
Easter Festivals in Years Gone By
Not that many years ago Easter festivals were the much-anticipated climax to the hockey season. Many hundreds of teams, certainly well into four figures, would travel to play in one of over fifty festivals that took place around Britain. The most popular venues were seaside ones, from Bournemouth to Bridlington...
An Amazing Find As The Hockey Museum Links Up With The British Museum
It’s not often that small, independent museums like The Hockey Museum (THM) have an opportunity to change the narrative of national history, but today we share some very exciting news concerning a highly significant archaeological collection – the Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo. Sutton Hoo gained a lot of...
Welsh Honours Caps: A Tale of Interrelated Research
By Elton Riches I was researching in The Hockey Museum (THM) library reviewing the early hockey periodicals for photographs or illustrations of player-issued caps. I located a black-and-white photograph in an 1898 publication showing the Welsh men’s hockey team wearing honours caps. Clear evidence that the Welsh national teams were...
Remembering Wembley
On 3 March 2021 The Hockey Museum (THM) celebrated the 70th anniversary of the first England women’s hockey match at Wembley Stadium in 1951. In partnership with Talk Hockey Radio, we produced a podcast (The Special One - Epsiode 6) and video of the personal memories of Maggie Souyave, Anita White...
Wembley Was A Family Affair
By Christabel Russell Vick I grew up knowing that the Wembley hockey international was the biggest fixture in the women’s hockey calendar. When I talked to my mother (Mary Russell Vick) about her hockey career, I was amazed to discover that these matches at the iconic Wembley Stadium were entirely...
The First Ever Women's International Hockey Match in 1896
Action photo of Ireland vs England women, the first ever women's international hockey match in 1896. 2 March 2021 is the 125th anniversary of the first ever women’s international hockey match in 1896, between Ireland and England. Ireland beat England 2-0. The game took place on the Alexandra...
Unearthing Further Hockey Connections At Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo excavation, 1939. Still from film made by Harold John Phillips.Public domain. In a recent article (click here) we covered the links that exist between the Netflix blockbuster film The Dig and our sport of hockey. Following that piece, we received news of a further hockey connection. If...
Digging Hockey: An Excavation of Edith Pretty's Links to Hockey
by Dr Jo Halpin. Portrait of Edith Pretty by Dutch artist Cor Visser.© National Trust / Robin Pattinson Edith Pretty is famous for unearthing an Anglo-Saxon burial ship on her land at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1939 – an event that has now been made...
In Search of The Hull & District Hockey Register
In 1900 there were just twenty clubs from the North affiliated to the Hockey Association (HA) causing some historians have been misled as to the game’s popularity outside of the home counties. In most northern towns and cities at this time hockey playing was increasingly popular. For example: in Hull...
Never Defeated By Wine Or In A Game: A Secret Edwardian Gentlemen's Hockey Club
Cover of the Sticks Club Handbook, 1910 A fascinating item recently came into The Hockey Museum’s possession which threw an amusing light on a social activity in London hockey circles in the early years of the last century. It was the history of an exclusive gentlemen’s hockey club...
The Jean Arnold Collection: The Lord Mayor's Cup
The Jean Arnold collection was donated to The Hockey Museum (THM) during lockdown and is now helping to uncover more of the once-hidden history of women’s league hockey. Jean Arnold Jean Arnold, a well-known figure in Liverpool hockey circles, has donated a large number of items relating to the...
Baffling Brass Buttons
The Hockey Museum (THM) has recently acquired a set of blazer buttons that once adorned the England blazer of George Hardy. These buttons, emblazoned (ahem) with the HA logo of the Hockey Association, presumably made their way to Hardy’s fellow England player, Captain John Yate Robinson who passed them...
A Tale Of Principled Pilley
On 14 April 1935 (not 1938 as stated on this British Pathé YouTube clip), Germany women played England women in Berlin. The result was 6-4 victory for England. An unexpected tour given the precarious political situation in Europe. The England team line up: Eileen Arnold (GK), Mary Knott (Cptn), Marjorie...
A Rare Item In The Modern Hockey World
The Hockey Museum recently received a Winchester HC fixture card for the 2017-2018 season. This came as a bit of a surprise as we knew that many (most?) clubs no longer produce such a publication. With the availability of information on the internet and social media they have become virtually...
Old Creightonians Archive Arrives With A Suprise
Mike Smith, Curator of THM (left) discusses theOld Creightonians HC archive with Simon Lawton-Smith (right). At The Hockey Museum (THM) we receive at least one collection each week, but not many have a twist in the story like this one. A recent visit by Simon Lawton-Smith brought us the club records...
Terrific Trophies
Over the past couple of years, a considerable amount of material, including a large collection of trophies, has come to THM from Cannock HC. It was rescued from the former National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes by Laurie Alcock, affectionately known as 'Mr Cannock'. Had Laurie not saved it, the cabinets and artefacts...
The Work Of Preserving Hockey Heritage: Saving The AEWHA Scrapbook
The All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) Collection is looked after at the University of Bath by their Archivist, Lizzie Richmond. The collection contains many unique and irreplaceable items documenting the evolution of women’s hockey in the UK. Two items, the Hockey Jottings scrapbook and the very first minute book...
A Vintage Christmas Present? From India To The London Stage
Photo from Daisy Pulls It Off, showing at the Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London.Photo courtesy of Tomas Turpie. One of our eagle-eyed supporters spotted this wonderful image taken by Tomas Turpie in The Times newspaper last week. It was from a review of Daisy Pulls It Off, a play that...
An Early Easter Hockey Tour
Programme (cover) of The Newport Centrals Hockey Club Fourth Annual Tour, Season 1913-14 Easter hockey tours and festivals have been very popular for many years, probably more so before the league systems were set up in the 1960s and ‘70s. A recent find, hidden amongst our postcard collection, gives...
Bullets Stopped Play
Yesterday one of our volunteers was going through a collection and found this newspaper cutting from Thanet International Hockey Festival, 1964. Anyone who has been to Thanet will know that three coats is a mininum and not just because of the flying bullets.
Hockey Played In Antarctica
"First game of Hockey played on ice near Ship", from The Atlantic magazine, 2013. The Hockey Museum recently heard of hockey being played in a most unlikely location: on the sea ice in Antarctica. We were contacted by an Antarctic history enthusiast who pointed out that the British Film...
Bringing History To Life With Juan Calzado
The Hockey Museum (THM) was very proud to receive a visit recently (28 March 2017) from Juan Calzado, former President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH), European Hockey Federation (EHF) and Real Club de Polo, Barcelona. We were honoured that on a holiday visit to London with family he took...
An Update On The English Cup
In 2015 The Hockey Museum received an enquiry from Alan Lancaster. He sent two photographs, one a team photograph, which Alan thought was Newhey Ladies’ Hockey team. One of the photographs featured his mother Doreen Howles and her two sisters, Vera and June holding a cup which was believed to...
Three Antique Silver Cups From The Royal Navy HA
Does the existence of three antique silver cups with the Royal Navy HA have a ‘black lining’? The Royal Navy Hockey Association is the proud owner of three silver cups that date back to the 1900 period. They were used for different competitions between ships and units that made up...
The Grand International Match
During the First World War, the War Office often used sporting references to try to persuade sportsmen to enlist and an amusing notice in the book Ireland’s Call (by Stephen Walker) recently caught our eye.
The Liberty Bodice
We recently came across an interesting advertisement in The Hockey Field magazine from 6 January 1916: "Physical Instructors and Games Mistresses are recommended to try the Liberty Bodice. It obviates the necessity for corsets and gives absolute freedom of movement to growing girls. It is ideal wear for all kinds...
Hockey And Football: A Comparison
We recently acquired copies of a rare early sports magazine dating from 1906 – The Cricketer, The Hockey and Football Player. It was only published for just over a year taking in two cricket and one winter season. The magazines contain a number of interesting articles that make comment on...
An Illegal Hockey Stick
New collections are, thankfully, arriving weekly and many of them create great interest when received. The hockey stick illustrated in the below images was a real example of this. It came complete with a copy of an advertisement from Hockey Magazine of 4 September 1908 extolling the virtues of the...
The Jet-propelled Hockey Stick That Didn't Take Off!
In response to the many enquiries that we receive at The Hockey Museum our volunteers are constantly trawling through hockey publications in search of information. These searches often take twice as long as expected because we find unrelated pieces that are very interesting. One such piece was discovered recently in...
Hockey On The Sand At Minehead
Hockey players on the beach at Minehead with North Hill behind. Photograph by Alfred Vowles. Unlike most of today's youngsters who learn to play on artificial pitches, Nan Williams, a former England international and volunteer at The Hockey Museum (THM), started her playing career on the sands of Minehead on the...
Have You Heard Of The English Cup?
I have recently joined the many volunteers working with the The Hockey Museum. As I live in the Manchester area I am quite away from all the action, however I have recently been forwarded a couple of enquires from the Museum in relation to matters from the North! My first...
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