By Steve Smith
When I set out on this blog, I tried to think of any sport related activities I had ever done in the name of Toc H. Those who know me will be aware I left my sporting days behind, at much the same time I threw my school uniform off for the final time. On careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that the closest I have come to playing sport for Toc H, is rolling cheese shaped wooden blocks down a long gutter, in what passes for skittles in Poperinge!
Of course, during my time in Toc H, there was little to choose from in the way of sport. Those teams that retained the Toc H name (A northern rugby team, and a Kiwi running club, more of both later), were no longer actually part of Toc H. Perhaps one or two branches still fielded a Shove H’appeny First IV, or embarked on a brave run in the Dominos Association Cup. There was always bowls of course, and Fred from Gorleston loved his bowls (but I don’t think it was actually a Toc H team, just had several Toc H members in it). And come to think of it, Margaret Sinnicks (Clacton) was a sharp cards player.
Margaret Sinnicks (Clacton stalwart) leads the card school on a Toc H holiday
But no, sport was not high on the Toc H agenda in the 1990s and 2000s. It used to be very different. From the earliest days, sport was to play a huge part in Toc H life. This started with the Toc H London Sports Club but soon many individual groups had their own teams. This article will focus on the London scene but with some mentions of local clubs.
To look at its genesis, you have to consider the make-up of the London Marks – which as you will know if you are a regular reader of this blog – was pretty much how Toc H was reborn after the war. The Marksmen – the hostellers who lived in the Marks – were by and large young men, just out of university, the army or both. Settled in London with new jobs or training (trainee doctors and civil servants were particularly prevalent amongst Marksmen), they need outlets for their energy.
One of the key figures in getting sports off the ground was Stuart Sheppard whom we met in a blog way back in November 2019. A cousin of Tubby, Sheppard was very involved in the early days of Toc H, being asked to edit The Christmas Spirit, the fundraising annual Toc H published at Christmas 1920. Sheppard was also on the London Club Committee (the group that oversaw all the London Marks and Branches at the time) but it was sport where he would make his most lasting impact.
Stuart Sheppard
His first outing was with the football team. Toc H Registrar, William J Musters later said that Sheppard approached him to form a team. He agreed but as he (Musters) had a foot shattered during the war, he said that the team began with one and a half players. Musters was restricted to goal-keeping duties whilst Sheppard was joined on the outfield by players like Hector Wimbush, though usually the team was selected by anyone in the London Marks who was free on a Saturday afternoon.
The soccer first XI had played their debut game on 25th September 1920, on that occasion in Knightsbridge, where they beat a team from the Brigade of Guards headquarters. The kit chosen was black and amber, a colour scheme which soon spread to ties and scarves.
However, no sports club can hold its own by playing only away fixtures, and more importantly, lacking practice facilities, so one of the first things Sheppard needed to do was to find a ground with a suitable pitch.
Their second match of the 1921 season was on June 11th against St Mark’s church, Barnet Vale. I suspect, though I don’t know for certain, that this game – which Toc H won – was held at Folly Farm which is about half a mile from St Mark’s church as the crow flies. Folly Farm was part of a private estate just to the east of the Great Northern Railway and on the southern edge of Monken Hadley Common. The area was generally known as Hadley Wood or as New Barnet, Hertfordshire. Several acres of the estate were owned by farmer and caterer Eli Frusher who used them in the winter to fatten his pigs and, in the summer allowed their use as recreation grounds. A Folly Fair was held there, and various church groups organised outings and picnics at the site.
In the spring of 1921 eight acres of the land were available to let and Sheppard picked up on this. Negotiations were opened. By this time, they had started a Sports Club to which members were asked to pay a (minimum of) five shilling per annum subscription. These were the only funds available to them and membership was still quite low. Notwithstanding this, by the autumn the land had been leased and a pavilion had been ordered. There was running water to the site and another six acres could be made available. It even boasted a bathing pool though I believe this was little more than a pond. As well as the various pitches and a planned running track, it was to be used in the summer as a camp site. Toc H were nothing less than ambitious! No surprise then, that almost from the off, the venture was haemorrhaging money and various appeals were made for funds and increased membership.
Toc H were not to be disheartened and before too long, William Henry Nicklin, who lived nearby on Cats Hill with his parents, was acting as groundskeeper. A piano tuner by trade, Nicklin was a Foundation Member who had tuned the pianos at Talbot House. He was one of the first to answer Tubby’s call and turned up at Red Lion Square where he committed himself to Toc H. No sportsman, he at least had a spectator’s interest in such things, but it was his dedication to the Movement itself that caused him to devote the next two years of spare time to being the unpaid groundsman. Each day he toiled away digging ditches and rolling pitches. Without ‘Nick’ the Toc H sports ground at Folly Farm would have been Sheppard’s (and Toc H’s) folly.
Not that there weren’t moments and, in early 1922, a decision was made to close it. Somehow, the passion of Nicklin, Sheppard, and others overcame this hitch, and the ground survived thanks to an injection of funds from ‘the powers that be’. Two tennis courts were to be installed for the summer of 1922 but 10 were planned in all. Tubby of course, had been a keen tennis player when at the family home in the New Forest. A cricket pitch was also prepared and though the Sports Committee admitted it was not up to the standard of Lords, it was of ‘the superior village green variety’.
In the autumn of 1922, the ground was fenced off. Not to prevent swarms of supporters sneaking in without paying but rather to keep away wild animals when boys were camping on the site at weekends. Mark III also provided a flagstaff and Toc H flag to finish the site.
Jumping ahead a little, on the 17th of July 1928, thanks to the generosity of a donor (possibly the Duke of Westminster), Toc H would be able to buy the lease of Folly Farm from the Frushers.
Artist unknown
So, who played at Folly Farm? Come 1921, a fixture list had been set up for two football teams and a rugby XV. The first home game for the soccer First XI took place on the 19th November 1921 against the Casuals A (a team mostly made up of old Etonians, Charterhouse, and Westminster boys). Toc H finished victors winning 4-2. Whether or not the pavilion – that was due towards the end of November – had actually arrived, or whether the teams changed elsewhere, is not recorded in the match report. Toc H’s A Team appeared to play their first game on New Year’s Eve, against the Old Citizens A.
Musters was still keeping goal and was also the first secretary of the club. Their skipper in the 1921/2 season was John David O’Kelly. A former Royal Artillery captain, O’Kelly had previously played for Yorkshire Amateurs in the 1919/20 season, and some friendlies for Wakefield City in April 1920. He also signed as an amateur with Leeds City in 1919-20, but did not make any appearances at first-team or reserve level. He was married to Rosa, became something big in the coal industry, lived in Egham, and died in 1967.
Claude Valentine Kerpen was captain against Charthouse on the 1st of October 1921 because O’Kelly was injured. Born on the 21st of May 1897, Kerpen was in the Northamptonshire Regiment but transferred to the RAF as a pilot late in the war. He married Frances Albright in March 1923 and died in 1974.
Reginald Irvine Croucher was an early regular, who was also a member of the Toc H committee (pre-cursor to the Central Executive), a member of the first Provincial Executive, and the London Club Committee. A Clerk at the Crown Agents for the Colonies before the war and a cadet in the RFC from the 17th August 1916, he became a wireless operator and is known to have visited Talbot House on 11th November 1917. He was transferred to the RAF when it was founded on 1st April 1918 and then in July was transferred to the wireless school. He was later a Customs Officer. He lived in Greenwich and later Godalming and married in 1923. He died in 1972.
Other early players included Herbert Hirst Michelbacher, born 1902, and later a Civil Servant in the Ministry of Health; Thomas Henry Lyttle, born 1901 – another Civil Servant with the Ministry of Health; Sydney Herbert Purkiss, a former gunner in the RFA; and Herbert Cook, a Toc H lynch-pin who had much to do with the early pilgrimages to Flanders.
Bromley brothers Geoffrey George Farnfield and Bernard ‘Bunny’ Stanley Farnfield patrolled the left wing with gusto (Geoffrey went on to play first class cricket for Essex, whilst Bunny was an International footballer for the AFA). Both brothers played cricket for Toc H, as did another sibling, Eric. Bunny was a schoolmaster who went on to become headmaster at Bickley Hall School in 1939, where yet another brother, Archibald, had been headmaster in the 1920s.
Six of the Farnfield Brothers whilst at Queen’s College Cambridge
There were in fact, some nine brothers, six of whom played football for Cambridge University. The eldest, Algernon, won a full International cap. An incredible family whose name survives today in the Farnfield Fund, which supports the Queen’s College Amateur Football Club.
The soccer First XI’s opening season ended on the 15th April 1922. They had played 27 games of which they won 12, lost 11, and drew 4.
Their second season opened on the 4th of October against the HAC at their Armoury House ground near Bunhill Fields. An A Team also had a full season’s worth of fixtures beginning slightly earlier, on the 30th September, against Paddy’s Goose Boys’ Club at Woodford. The club were actually based in Shadwell (in the old Paddy’s Goose pub, hence the name) but presumably lacked a suitable ground nearby.
They also managed to squeeze in a Christmas tour of Eastbourne, travelling down on Boxing Day to play the Royal Engineer’s Old Comrades, and Eastbourne Town FC the following day. They beat the former 5-2, and whipped the latter 7-nil, so a successful, albeit brief, tour.
At the start of the 1923 season, Bunny was President, and the Middlesex cricketer, Hugh Loyd Dales, had joined the committee as Chairman. Vernon Eversfield Morgan from Charterhouse, had joined the team as the new centre-half. Even more renowned as a runner, Morgan went on compete for Britain in the 1928 Summer Olympics, before embarking on a thirty-year career as Reuter’s sports editor.
A south coast Christmas tour was repeated in 1923, this year they squeezed in four games around Bognor Regis, but the results were still good. They won three, and lost one.
Stuart Sheppard continued to play and by 1924 was soccer secretary.
One spectacular game at this time was a friendly against Ipswich Town on Saturday the 8th of November 1924. Toc H were visiting Portman Road for the first time and took early control, being two nil up after thirty minutes. However, Ipswich turned things around and it was all level at 2-2 by half-time. In the second half, things were evenly matched. At one stage Toc H were awarded a penalty but gallantly tapped the ball to the Ipswich goalie, making no attempt to capitalise on the event. Can you imagine that happening today? They paid the price for their gentlemanly behaviour conceding two goals in the last 15 minutes and losing 5-3 to their hosts. Worse still, Mus, who had returned to the team after a short absence, was badly injured and unable to play for the rest of the season. Wood would replace him in goal. Bennett too, ended the game with a broken collar-bone.
The earliest games were by and large friendlies with London schools (ex-pupils, not current ones) and other organisations. They did play in the Amateur Football Association (AFA) Cup but it was not until 1925 that the Toc H First XI joined a league. Tom Angliss was now leading the team (Herbert Cook captained the reserves). The brothers Farnfield were President and Vice President whilst F G Riley was Secretary. Mus was chairman.
They were elected to the Southern Amateur League Second Division for the 1925/6 season. They had to play in white because their traditional black and amber kit was too similar to other teams. Incredibly they ended the season in glory winning the title at the first time of asking and being promoted to the First Division. They won 16 of their 22 games and lost 6, with not a draw all season.
Charlie Thompson was their secretary for this season (See below for more on Charlie) but Angliss remained skipper. Easter saw the team on tour in the south of France where they played Cannes twice, and laid a wreath at the club’s war memorial
Sheppard became Secretary for the 1926/7 season, whilst T L Cornelius was Match Secretary. They remained in the league until the end of the 1931/32 season, during which they reintroduced their famed Amber and Black kit, albeit it with a narrow white stripe either side of the amber to differentiate it. Sadly, they never surpassed their first season, and the trophy cupboard remained unoccupied bar that solitary Second Division title.
By 1932, Toc H were struggling to put together a decent First XI but that was far from the end of soccer. If you can’t get enough players for 11-a-side teams, then try 5-a-side.
On the 9th April 1932, forty-four teams (from thirty-seven Toc H Groups and Branches) were entered into the London Toc H 5-a-Side contest, competing for the W J Musters Cup. The following year, teams from the provinces were invited to join the Londoners at New Barnet. Tower Hill were victors in 1933 & 1934. The competition continued until 1939, when war intervened.
There is another element to football we have not yet mentioned. As early as 1922, some branches were taking ‘crippled ex-soldiers’ to football matches as spectators. Then someone had the genius idea of taking blind people along and a sighted Toc H member giving them a running commentary. And then, what if we could send the commentary down the GPO wires to the local hospitals and let the bed-bound patients hear the game? Another innovative piece of Toc H work had been born but you will have to wait until my blog on Organisations Borne of Toc H to get this story in full.
And what of other sports? In 1921, a rugby team was also established with Thomas Carroll, formerly Christ’s Hospital, as secretary. Carroll had played in the school’s First XV in 1919-20 and 1920-21. According to reports in the school’s end of season review, Carroll was said to have been “a vigorous and fearless, if wild, forward; with more experience and coolness might develop into something good.” The following season the review said “Has plenty of life and vigour but spoiled much of his good work by wild thoughtlessness; on occasions led the pack well”. Perhaps his character on the field carried through to his secretarial duties and explains why Toc H struggled to get going.
One of their early games – in October 1921 – resulted in a 53-0 thrashing by Bishops Stortford College. They frequently failed to get the number of players needed and couldn’t even put together a fixture list in the autumn of 1922. The reason given was that most of the Rugger players living in the Marks, were already playing for other teams.
Finally, on the 18th of November 1922, Bob Collis managed to scrape a team together to play Faraday House at Sudbury. By exaggerating the departure time of the train, Collis even managed to get all his players there on time, something of a rarity apparently in those days. Despite never having played together as a team before, Toc H beat Faraday House by two tries. Players for this game included Harry Willink, Warden of Mark II, and later Chairman of the Central Executive, and a Vice President of Toc H. He was also an MP, and Minister for Health in the wartime coalition cabinet. Others were Geoffrey Kestell-Cornish (Toc H padre and long-term member), Bill Daggett (a medical student), Jack Burton, Saunders, Hopper, and James.
Collis was a legendary figure, and not just in Toc H. He joined the British Army in 1918 as a cadet, but resigned a year later to study medicine in London which is when he stayed at Mark III. He would later become the first President of Toc H London. After qualifying, he was appointed Director of Paediatrics at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin playing Rugby for Ireland whilst there. He became a writer but most famously, during the Second World War he worked for the Red Cross in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation by Allied troops. He was instrumental in bringing five orphaned children from the camp to Ireland in 1947, and adopted two of them. Hence his later reputation as the Irish Schindler. He was also involved in establishing Cerebral Palsy Ireland working closely with Christy Brown, of My Left Foot fame.
Bob Collis returning to Ireland with Belsen refugees
For the second match, Collis recruited 18 men to play – just in case – but since they all turned up he had to drop three men. He clearly got a little carried away, because as the half-time whistle blew, Toc H realised they had in fact only been fielding 14 men! The game was played without goal posts, on a sodden field, and using a ball borrowed from their opponents. Nevertheless, Toc H racked up 30 points
On the 14th March 1923, a Rugby Club meeting was held where a small committee was elected. Bob Collis was made President, whilst Saunders of Mark III was made Treasurer, and Francis Mathew of Mark I, Honorary Secretary. The appointment of a Captain, Vice-Captain, and Selection Committee was held over until a later date.
A good fixture list was in place for the 1923/4 season including games against Mill Hill, the Artists’ Rifles, and the Old Haberdashers.
By 1925 Toc H able to field two fifteens and some Marks had their own teams. On 12th September 1925, the season began at New Barnet with a ‘grudge’ match between Mark VII and the Brothers’ House. The tie was repeated in March 1926 with Mark VII running out victors 67-0. Collis remained President but Tommy Clinch, of Mark I, was now Secretary.
1927 was its big step forward. On January 22nd, a General Meeting of the Rugby Club was held at Mark VII (Fitzroy Square). A constitution was adopted and fixtures for no less than three XVs were set up. It was decided to start training, initially at the Albany Street Cavalry Barracks, a Sevens Competition was announced for April. Collis was still President but the Secretary was now Tom Beech but John Mallet of Mark VII was also involved.
On 2nd April they held their AGM at Mark VII and Padre Brochner ‘Broch’ and Nicklin were elected as Vice Presidents. Eric Treacy (Hampstead) and Dudley Tailby (Barnet) were appointed Captain and Vice Captain for 1927/28. Fixtures had been arranged for three teams plus and were well underway for a fourth. Beech remained General Secretary whilst Mallet was appointed Team Secretary with G Carmichael as his assistant. Mallet and Carmichael would both move to Mark I in the summer. Geoffrey Batchelar was also elected to the committee. Batchelar, who also played, took on the administration of the newly created annual Toc H Rugger Sevens competition which he organised for over a decade. He joined Toc H around 1925 and both he and his brother Denis became Marksmen at Mark II (St George’s Square, Pimlico) in 1926. Denis would remain there for several years and be an active member of various Toc H sports teams including the Rugby First Fifteen and the athletics team where he was a high jumper and a hurdler. I wrote more about Batchelar here.
Of the others mentioned, Treacy went on to have the most well-known career, though not as a sportsman. Born in London, he was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School and at King’s. In 1932 he was ordained deacon in the Church of England and priested a year later, serving as curate at Liverpool parish church from 1932 to 1934. After visiting Lime Street station to meet some of his parishioners, Treacy took up railway photography. His work was regularly published, until the war interrupted things. On the 12th of March 1940, he was commissioned as Chaplain to the Forces 4th Class. After the war, he became Rector of Keighley, and in 1949 was appointed Archdeacon of Halifax.
Toc H First XV Winter 1928, at Folly Farm
Rugger under John Mallet and Tom Beech blossomed. They recruited 60 new players in the summer (bringing the club total to over 100) and were able to field five XVs. They used the gym at 42 to train; recruited players through the School’s Section; gave talks at Marks and Branches; and got a lot of support from Tubby who took a personal interest.
On the 23rd of April 1927 (postponed from the 9th of April) eleven teams of seven from Marks I, II, VII, and the Brothers’ House, as well as several London branches, competed in the Sevens tournament.
Competitors in the 1927 Rugby Sevens competition
The first tournament took place at the Toc H Sports ground in Barnet on Saturday 23rd April 1927 and eleven teams took part. They included teams from Marks I, VII, XIII (The Brothers’ House), branches from Barnet, Enfield, Ealing and Hampstead as well as two teams from Mark II. The second 7s tournament took place on the 14th of April 1928 when Mark II retained the Dodd Cup beating Mark VII.
For the 1928/29 season William A Dodd was Chairman whilst Harry Green was Captain and Denis Arber, Vice Captain. Beech remained as General Secretary whilst Mallett stayed as Team Secretary.
Dodd was a Foundation Member and Secretary of Mark II who on 1st March 1930 was married at Beaulieu, by Tubby, to Grace Butler. Grace – whose brother was a Marksman at Mark II – and her friend, Stuart Clayton (Tubby’s niece) were the hostesses at Little Hatchett, Tubby’s former family home, now a guest house for the use of Toc H members. Talk about a family affair!
So strong was the support now, that five teams could be run up to Christmas, with four for the rest of the season after the break. There were five First XV’s for whole 1929/30 season. It continued at this sort of level for most of the 1930s
Meanwhile, the Sevens tournaments recurred annually. On the 6th of April 1929 Mark II beat Mark VII in the final of the sevens (all becoming a bit predictable). Then, at last, in the fourth sevens tournament, on the 5th of April 1930, Mark I beat the previously unscored against Mark II in the final. The following year, Mark II’s oldest rivals, Mark VII defeated them in the final. On the 27th of February 1932 Mark II returned to glory, emerging victorious whilst on the 18th of March 1933 Mark VII beat Northampton (who had never played Sevens rugby before this day). The eighth competition on the 14th April 1934 was very wet and muddy but Mark VII won (again). The following year, on the the 13th April 1935, Tower Hill became the first non-Mark team to lift the W. A. Dodds Cup, beating another non-Mark team in Northampton. The reign of the Marks was over (although Mark II did make the final in 1936, losing to Enfield and Grange Park).
The Rugby Club, like most Toc H sport, was ended by the outbreak of World War II. It did try to revive itself in 1945, and again in the late fifties but it never quite stuck. The same could not be said though, for the most successful Toc H Sports team outside of the capital. Mark IV at Manchester (along with members of Salford Branch) started a rugby team for the 1924/5 season. The first match was played against the Manchester Y.M.C.A. The following week the same men played a hockey match but decided to keep to rugger in the future. They found a ground at Didsbury, close to the River Mersey, in 1926. Some of their key players have been Charles Slow (later capped for England when playing for Northampton), Oswald Jessop, J Etteridge, and C Chapman.
Just before the war Toc H Manchester fielded three teams, and out of a strength of 59 no less than 56 saw service with the armed forces. After the war, play was resumed in September 1945, and one fifteen was turned out throughout the season. The club flourished and soon four teams were being fielded every week, helped and encouraged by old players. They continued as such until 1986 when they were renamed Didsbury Toc H to reflect where they played (even though they moved there sixty years earlier!). And they are still playing today, and still at the ground they found 98 years ago.
Slow, was not the only Toc H International, We have already met Bob Collis, who played for Ireland but Philip Edward ‘Pop’ Dunkley (Mark II) played for England against Ireland, was chosen to play against Scotland then in 1936 – when Warden of Mark XX – played for England against All Blacks (4 Jan) and Wales (18 Jan).
As well as rugby, 1921 had also seen the emergence of Toc H’s cricket team. It opened its first season badly, on Saturday 21st May, at Vincent Square (Westminster School’s playing fields just off Vauxhall Bridge Road), when the school thrashed them by an innings and 235 runs. Harry Turton was the highest scorer for Toc H, claiming 24 of their 55-run total.
In June 1922 they played the City of London School on the school’s ground at Catford. Toc H now had a reasonable pitch at Folly Farm and were preparing a list of fixtures, many of them at home. However, in September they played at the much grander Lords against the Cross Arrows (a team originally made up only of MCC employees).
Toc H had their pitch at New Barnet returfed over the winter of 1922/3, and a new program of fixtures was prepared but the team was struggling to gain traction. By April 1923, Charlie Thompson was appealing for new players to fulfil the first XI’s ambitious fixture list over the summer. So optimistic were they, that they had even scheduled a couple of games for a second XI. Reg Croucher – who we met earlier – was secretary. They scraped together enough players to make their games (just) and managed to beat Bunny Farnfield’s XI, St Thomas; Hospital, and the City of London School in May/June, whilst drawing two more games.
By Spring 1924 Robert Martin Cromwell Dell, of Mark I, was Honorary Secretary but the club limped on this way until 1928 when a fresh attempt at starting it began. The Toc H Cricket Club was formally formed, and at their second meeting in Apr 1928, the Rev Grahame Herbert Perry (Mark II) was elected with Major Pope (Mark VII) elected Vice Captain. Trial matches were planned at New Barnet for 5th and 19th May with a limited fixture list starting on 12th May. The secretary was R C Smith of Mark VII.
The fresh start seemed to make no difference and they struggled to field an XI for all their matches. By 1929 they had 45 members but still couldn’t always get 11 together on match day. They did manage to win three quarters of their games though. C W Harvey had now taken over as secretary.
They appear to turn a corner in 1930 under W T Irish’s secretaryship and threatened to field three XIs for the first half of the season but if they did, it was short-lived. Although many branches fielded teams successfully, the national, or rather London Cricket Club just didn’t fly. In fact, there was such a lack of interest it’s hard for me to say whether it soldiered on until the war like the other sports clubs, or withered on the vine before then.
The one bit of post war Cricket glory for Toc H was vicarious – Stuart Sheppard, early hero of the Toc H Sports Clubs, had a son, David, who played cricket for Essex and England before delighting Tubby by being ordained and becoming Bishop of Woolwich. Sadly, Tubby did not live long enough to see David become Bishop of Liverpool.
David Sheppard, son of Stuart
The cricket club produced other proficient players such as H L ‘Hughie’ Dales who played for Middlesex. On one occasion, playing against Somerset, Dales was caught behind the wicket by the Rev F E Spurway, who just happened to be Chaplain of the Taunton Group.
Another cricket connection is that one of Tubby’s ADCs was Arthur Richardson, who played first-class cricket for Derbyshire between 1928 and 1936, captaining the team between 1931 and 1936. It was during this period that he was Tubby’s ADC, although he had to fit it around his cricket. Indeed, a note written by Tubby on a guest list of ADCs for a reunion party, stated “Holiday periods only but likes to be included”.
Whilst Tubby had been known to wield a cricket bat himself, his great sporting passion was actually tennis. This stretched back to his days living with his family in the New Forest, and when he was a curate at Portsea from 1910. In October 1913 at the second AGM of the Bohemians Lawn Tennis Club, held in Southsea, Tubby was elected President, and in July of 1914, he took part in the New Forest Lawn Tennis Association annual tournament. As well as some of his fellow clergy, Tubby’s siblings Isobel and Hugh were also competing – the family home was of course quite nearby. Tubby competed in the Men’s Singles (Club Championship) and comfortably got through the first round in straight sets but was beaten in the second round. He also competed in the Gent’s Doubles Handicap with fellow curate Alfred Llewellyn Jones (More of whom later) but they were knocked out 7-5, 6-2 in the first round.
For Toc H, there were early beginnings to tennis when the Rector of Stanmore allowed members, who were camping in his grounds, to use his courts. However, with the coming of Folly Farm, attention switched there. Two courts were initially installed with two more promised for the summer 1922 but I don’t think these happened. In the spring of 1924, four courts were promised, with more if membership warranted it.
The Lawn Tennis section of the Sports Club started its third season on the 2nd of May 1925 with four courts available to it. The secretary was Herbert James Mellows. The fourth season started on the 1st of May 1926. A report says two extra courts were brought into play last season bringing total to five, so a bit of conflicting information somewhere, however when the next season opened on the 7th of May 1927, there were five courts. A tournament was planned. An additional court had been added by the time the new season began on the 5th of May1928.
If the Tennis Club failed to do as well as it might, one of the reasons was that Tennis was easily arranged by individual Groups and Branches. Enfield even organised a tennis tournament that included Wimbledon class players.
By the end of the 1920s, the London Tennis Club was petering out fast. Although Tennis remained a popular activity it was more social than competitive. The decline of the courts at Folly Farm is not recorded and I have found no photographic evidence of their state of decay. It is possible they were used by non-Toc H clubs and players from the Barnet area.
The other big sport organised by the Toc H London Sports Club was athletics; a variety of track and field sports. It was not until the First Annual Sports and Athletic Meeting at Barnet on the 18th of June 1927, that it came to prominence. Held jointly with New Barnet Athletic Club, Tubby gave out the prizes. As they did in other sports, Mark II dominated.
Denis Batchelar (right) leading in a hurdles race
The event was repeated in 1928 on Saturday the 28th of April, at the Queen’s Club, Kensington, and on Saturday the 4th of May 1929, the third Toc H Annual Athletic Meeting was held at the Duke of York’s Headquarters, Chelsea. Largely organised by Mus, London Marks and branches dominated but groups from as far away as Ipswich and Leighton Buzzard took part. Events were traditional and included the 100 Yards, 440 Yards Relay, Long Jump, and High Jump. The Prideaux-Brune Cup was awarded for the Mile Relay (, whilst the Bermondsey Challenge Cup went to the Mile Team and Individual winners. Mark II were overall winners retaining the Fleming Trophy (In memory of Herbert Fleming) that they already held. One has to wonder what happened to all these trophies.
Athletics medal awarded to R North at the 1935 Championships
John Mallett organised the fifth Athletic Sports Meeting, again at the Duke of York’s HQ, on the 2nd of May 1931, and they continued annually; once more the war put a stop to them.
Toc H London Sports i.e. an Athletics Day was revived in the early 1950s and continued in some form or the other until the late 70s, usually in Battersea Park
The first signs of golf in Toc H, arose in 1920 when Clarisse Eva Bischoffsheim – of the wealthy Jewish Banking family – allowed a few favoured Toc H members access to her private 9-hole Warren House Course near Wood Lane, Stanmore until her death in October 1922. After her death this privilege was extended to all Toc H members through the generosity of her grandson Sir John Fitzgerald.
John Manclark Hollis took on the golf secretariat. Captain Hollis was an incredible man who deserves his own blog someday. An early member of the reborn Toc H after the war, in which he lost an arm, Hollis was on the Central Executive, and the Guard of the Lamp. It was he who organised the Lamp Lighting ceremonies. His greatest achievement though, was the establishment of Enham Village Centre, a community for disabled ex-servicemen.
Not surprisingly, Golf never took on the same competitive elements of other sports in Toc H, and it was generally regarded as a social event.
The first boxing was organised by Charlie Thompson, who was heavily involved with Toc H sports activities and was briefly on staff as Sports Secretary and Social Welfare Secretary.
In the autumn of 1922, he organised a Gym and Boxing Clubs for members in St George’s Hall, about half a mile from Mark III on Westminster Bridge Road. The building had held boxing matches before the war and in 1921 was bought by the National Sailors and Fireman’s Union as their headquarters. Although Charlie didn’t live in the Mark, because of its proximity to Mark III the gym became ‘owned’ by the hostellers.
There were two sessions every Tuesday (6.30-7.30pm and 8.30 to 9.30pm). In early 1923, because of a lack of interest from Toc H members, it was turned into a single class at 8pm incorporating boys from St John’s Boys Club.
A Bermondsey Boy, Charlie met had served with 22 London regiment during the war, and afterwards joined the Oxford and Bermondsey Boys’ Club where he developed a keen interest in the work of Boys’ Clubs, and also met Toc H men such as Alec Paterson, and Barclay Baron.
2nd Lt Charles Thompson at the end of WWI (Photo courtesy John Field)
Like so many returning soldiers, Charlie struggled to find employment. Luckily one of his many contacts in London, suggested him to Tubby and he was offered the paid job responsible for organising sports for Toc H. This was the beginning of a life long association with Toc H and friendship with Tubby Clayton.
Tubby took him on in 1922 as Boys’ Club Adviser, and Sports Secretary. He was based at the Toc H headquarters, at that time in Mark II. Charlie remained in this role for about two years, but by May 1924 he was set up as a sports’ outfitter – C. R. Thompson – more of which later.
As well as organising things – and Tubby insisted the teams had a good mix of people and were not just ex-public schoolboys – Charlie also played for the soccer and cricket teams.
In 1924, Charlie set up his Sportswear business, C.R. Thompson’s at 56 Jamaica Road, very close to the 22nd Regiment’s Drill Hall, and Mark XXII. It later moved to Station Approach, London Bridge. Charles’ extensive sporting contacts in London grew it into a successful business, which was only sold in the 1970s.
In December 1928 he married Constance Bradon at All Hallows but the service was taken by Charles Hutchinson. Tubby was apparently rather put out that he wasn’t asked to officiate when Charles married Constance. To make amends they asked Tubby to Christen their daughters, Mary and Diana at All Hallows-by-the-Tower.
Constance as a trained seamstress, designed ties and scarves for the many sporting clubs in the city. These were sold through the shop, along with ties and scarves for Toc H.
During World War II he served in the Army Physical training Corps, returnintg to his business when he was demobbed in 1945
Charlie died in 1989 and is at rest with Constance and his friends of a lifetime in the serene Toc H Chapel, All Hallows-by-the-Tower.
I’m grateful to John Field, Charlie’s grandson, for additional information on his grandfather. And it’s worth adding a little extra from John here.
The family had always assumed that Charles came into contact with “Tubby” Clayton and Toc H during the First World War, when he served with the 22nd London Regiment. However, in a recorded interview with a Toc H researcher in the 1980’s Charles says that he never visited Talbot House, as his regiment was too far away from Poperinge. Amazingly Charlie did get to visit with his son in law, Marshall Field and grandson Richard Field in the late 1980’s.
Their daughter, Mary remembers Tubby visiting them in Farnborough, Hampshire after the Second World War for tea, accompanied by his faithful dog and a driver of the moment. Tubby always relied on this many friends to drive him everywhere.
Boxing tended to be a fixture of the many Boys Clubs and Rover Scout units that Toc H ran, rather than a Toc H sport in its own right. Similarly, it was a mainstay at the multitude of Service men’s Clubs Toc H ran during WWII. Additionally, when Toc H acquired Talbot House (42 Trinity Square) on Tower Hill, they constructed a gym in one of the larger rooms and boxing was an integral part of the activities there, though again this was more usually aimed at training young people including the local Scouts.
In March 1923, an appeal went out for members to join a swimming club to be formed in the summer. J Burton of Mark III was to be secretary. They were still trying to get such a club off the ground in 1925 and secretary was now John Goodwillie of Mark II.
Like boxing, swimming was easier to get going in conjunction with Boys Clubs, than as a Toc H Sports Club per se (in Govan, the Harmony Row (Toc H) Amateur Swimming Club for Boys had over 200 members). However, at a meeting at Mark II on the 29th of September 1927, it was finally agreed to start a Swimming Section of the London Sports Club with Goodwillie remaining as Secretary. It was formed on the 1st of November, and met at St George’s Baths, Buckingham Palace Road on Monday evenings, and at Great Smith Street Baths on Wednesday evenings. By January 1928 this was extended to Mondays and Tuesdays at St George’s whilst West London members swam at Lime Grove Baths on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Whilst the nights and venue changed, swimming briefly prospered and a gala was organised for the 11th of October 1928 at Great Smith Street Baths. Inter branch and group races were planned and it was hoped that the LWH could compete too. The Trevelyan Thomson Challenge Cup was put forward; Thomson was a Liberal MP, early member of Toc H, and personal friend of Tubby, who had died earlier in the year.
A few Water Polo matches were also arranged and the club were invited to join the London Water Polo League. Then a secondannual swimming gala took place on Thursday the 10th of October 1929, and a third on the 9th of October 1930. These galas included swims at varying lengths. There was also a Challenge Cup, open to all Boys’ Clubs run by Toc H Branches and Groups. In addition, there was a Display of Fancy Diving by members of the Amateur Diving Association, and a Water Polo Match between teams of the Royal Air Force and the Metropolitan Police.
The gala was recorded in the Mark I diary:
Thursday, October 10. The eagerly awaited Swimming Gala at Great Smith Street Baths, to which nearly everyone went. Our first and second teams both got into the final, but the first there had to bow their knees to our old rivals, Mark II. We don’t like parting with the Cup, but it was a good race and we were fairly and squarely beaten by a slightly faster team, whom we heartily congratulate. The second team came in fourth (out of four—but a diarist is nothing if not tactful). For the benefit of posterity we give the teams: — First IV.: Kid Bridger, Tony Cooper, Paddy McKee, John Kenyon; Second IV.: Billy Grose, Hamilton Halpin, Joe Webster, Grandad Wilson. Apparently something came unstuck with the works, for the show did not end till nearly midnight, and in consequence we all got home lateish. The one completely satisfactory part of the evening was (or were) the scrambled eggs which Mrs. Broad produced in the small hours—voted one of the prettiest scramblings within living memory. For this fare, no less for the sporting spirit which impelled Mrs. Broad, we are truly thankful.
I can’t ascertain if there was a gala in 1931 but the following year it took place in October at the Great Smith Street Baths. The Journal reported:
Kennington unsuccessfully defended the relay cup so unexpectedly acquired last year. The programme was of the usual high Standard associated with this event, and it was a great pity that more support was not forthcoming from the membership in general, although the number of spectators appeared to be no less than normal. The Tower Hill demonstrations did one’s heart good to watch, and the terrific water-polo tussle between the Polytechnic and the Otters affected that particular organ in a similar manner. А great deal of effort is required each year to make the Gala a success, and if there is any London member who has had the grim tenacity to read as far as this, let him make a vow not to miss it next year.
Swimming, or at the very least the reporting of it, seemed to fade away after the 1932 gala, and it seems it stopped being a major part of the London Sports Club.
I mentioned in my introduction, that about the only Toc H sport I had taken part in was the Flemish version of pub skittles. Well, traditional skittles had a place in Toc H sport too, thanks largely to the skittle alley in the basement of Talbot House (42 Trinity Square). It was, like so many of the sports, more a social activity than a serious sporting challenge, but had its moments. In 1938 the BBC sent the commentator C.W. Garner to cover a Dock Workers vs City Clerks match at the Talbot House alley.
I’m tempted too, to add Pancake Races to my list, as Tubby’s Annual Shrove Tuesday event was legendary for a time. Perhaps I will look at this in a separate short blog one day.
Of course, times change. Several of the Toc H clubs were already declining through the 1930s as we have noted above. Then, the dispersal of teams due to the outbreak of war in 1939, and the deaths of driving forces Stuart Sheppard and William J Musters in 1937 and 1941 respectively, pretty much did for Toc H sports at any national level.
Folly Farm was not left to rack and ruin as the London Sports Club declined. It’s pitches and facilities were used by other groups in the 1930s and 1940s.
At the end of the war, much of the site was compulsory purchased for housing, and later, a school was built on most of the remaining site, its own pitches replacing those of Toc H.
When the land was bought by the council, Tubby lamented the fact they were recompensed in cash rather than an alternate ground; presumably the lure of cash in difficult times made it too difficult for Toc H to ringfence the money for a new ground.
Writing in 1949, Tubby said that the Toc H Sports Club had all but disappeared by then. He singled out Sheppard and Musters for its early success but to their names he added Herbert Cook, and the Farnfield brothers. Everywhere they went, he said, they were able to spread Toc H without a pulpit. Proud schools were glad to play them every season.
The focus on healthy activities, post-war seemed to turn to rambling and outward-bound type activities (peaking perhaps with Loch Eil and Port Penrhyn).
Finally then, this article has focussed mainly on the Toc H London Sports Club. We have mentioned the Manchester Toc H Rugby Club, which survives today as Didsbury Toc H, where as well as the rugby teams, they also have a cricket team, and a running club.
Manchester Toc H Rugby Club 1958
And internationally, there are other survivors too. There still exists today, in the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand, the Papanui Toc H Athletic Club Inc. It was formed in 1982 from the amalgamation of the Papanui Redwood Athletic Club, and the Toc H Track and Field Club both of which had a strong history with the sport. The Toc H Harrier club added its strength to this club in 1987. Today the club still continues to be a strong force in athletics and has achieved success across all aspects of the sport.
The Harrier Club was itself founded in 1962, following an inaugural meeting in the men’s changing rooms at Rugby Park in November 1961, attended by distance runners from the sister Toc H Athletic Club
There is also a totally unrelated Toc H Harriers in Waimate, some 120 miles south west of Christchurch.
But the focus of this article – , the Toc H London Sports Club – existed only for a couple of decades in the earliest days of Toc H reborn. What glorious years they were though, and Folly Farm, was no folly after all.
Acknowledgments
As always, I have a few people to thank for the help with this article. In particular John Field (the grandson of Charlie Thompson), and Laura Kidner and her colleagues at Christ’s Hospital School.
The caricatures used are by Mel (John Barradale Melhuish) unless otherwise acknowledged
One hundred years of Toc H 