Preface

The Club was formed in 1892, three years after the creation of The London County Council and with soccer itself only thirty years old.

Its history is extensively, if patchily, documented and is here collated and edited by me [I.C. Murphy], the current Chairman and Past Secretary / Match Secretary.  This history took some time to compile and was concluded up to 1981.  The Club continues to be a force in amateur football and it will be for others to add to this account in future years. [Ed. After 1981, the history has been continued by incorporating further information from a variety of sources and by drawing on members own recollections.]

The Club’s minute books for the period 1894 – 1912 were preserved and passed back to us by the Council’s official record keeper; the staff magazine covers all the years from 1900 supplemented by the recollections of Frank Pearce (Secretary between 1921 and 1927) and of Bunny Austin, the Pooh-Bah of the 1930’s; his records are not available, having vanished with his office table in the general exodus at the outbreak of war in 1939.  Post-war presents the opposite problem; that of digesting the considerable mass of paper generated.   [Ed.  Pooh-Bah: a person in high position or of great influence – a person holding many public offices]

We have also benefitted by the written recollections, sought in 1950, of the following stalwarts, the dates mentioned relate to their period of Club membership: -

F. C. Wells:               1894 – 1904    (Captain: Comptroller’s inter departmental and, later, their Assistant Chief Officer)

L. W. Butler:              1988 – 1914

F Scothorne:             1903 – 1909

D. M. Harvey:           1904 – 1920

A. Brimacombe:      1906 – 1914    (100 yards champion & outside right, present at 2 post-1945 re-unions)

G. H. Jarvis:              intermittent 1906 – 1921, regular 1911 – 1913

H. H. Wilmott:          1908 – 1920

It is a matter of considerable regret to me that I didn’t produce even part of this record, in time for them to see what had become of their creation – the “best” is the enemy of the good.

One further source of information is a fixture card of 1923/4, giving the foundation date as 1892; this can be taken as authentic since the President is shown as W. H. Waddington, Deputy Clerk of the Council, a member of the first recorded team in 1893-4; Pearce pays tribute to his wholehearted support at the time (and to that of Monty Cox), in contrast to the Council itself.

An endeavour has been made to compromise between a general picture, a chronological record, and the patches of “local colour” which it is hoped will be of reasonable interest to a majority of readers – how the other half used to live, including considerable emphasis on the running saga of the grounds.

The naming of players in the early eras is perhaps of more doubtful interest, since there can hardly be anyone for whom they have a personal meaning anymore; at the same time, they were the vital foundation of our football and their record should be preserved.  It is well to comment here, although the framework in which they operated must have been frustrating and the results mainly unrewarding, they had the excitement of pioneering, and an even greater camaraderie than we muster now.  Run-on Scothorne comments in 1950, “We have a great affection for the Council of those days.”

Many other more or less current names appear in the story.  If you are among those who receive a copy of this history and are not mentioned, you will still be in the minds of your contemporaries as one who contributed to the Club by the way you played and enjoyed football.

I. C. Murphy   1980

 (1911 – 2003)