Old Wandsworthians Memorial Trust

Wandsworthians Rugby Football Club

A Brief History - Part 1

By Bob Hammond

Sixty years ago, I played my first game for the Old Wandsworthians, just before my conscription into the Royal Air Force. The rugby club had been formed only 16 years earlier and was restarting after a long war. Few, if any of those founders, but maybe some of those 'returning warriors' remain with us today. Before all is confined to history, may I look over my shoulder from my early days with the O.W.'s and reminisce about those to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude.

It is now 100 years since the first of the school leavers from the Wandsworth Technical Institute came together in association to further the friendships enjoyed at school. Little is known of the history of the O. W. Association in those early days but if any reader should have in his archives, records or photographs of those times, maybe left by an elderly relative, I am sure the editor would welcome such historical evidence. The School's milestones can be read at Google: Wandsworth School History.

Those first school leavers were quickly off the mark to form their Association in 1906. In the absence of records one can only hazard a guess that they would perhaps have met occasionally for formal luncheons or dinners, or representing Old Boys at school functions. Whatever were their plans for the future, within a decade all their dreams were shattered. In 1914 they were asked to put on hold their jobs and their aspirations. They answered the nation's call to fight for King and Country in the Great War of 1914-18. The memorial plaque, currently stored with David Pollard who rescued it from a burnt out Clubhouse, records the supreme price that ninety-eight Wandsworthians paid in the defence of their country. Over five hundred had answered the call to arms.

Those who were fortunate to return from the carnage of that war joined with the next generation of school leavers to re-establish the Association. Ten years later, and a decision was taken to formalise their sporting activities. And so was born in 1928 the Old Wandsworthians Rugby Football Club.

As I was born that same year in South West London, there was every chance that by the time I was of school leaving age, there would be a flourishing local rugby club for me to join. But those founders of our rugby club were living in the most difficult of economic times, a period we now know as the Great Depression. The working week was five-and-a-half days or more, income was low, car ownership virtually unknown. The club's fixtures would therefore need to be reachable by bicycle or by public transport, and within an hour or so of work ending on a Saturday morning.

I have seen a fixture list of that period, and it reflected that rugby players were as likely to play for a company side as for an Old Boys team. At 12 noon on a Saturday it would be easier for a player to go with work colleagues to the firm's sports ground. The facilities, the refreshments, perhaps even travel costs might well have been subsidised. And above all, representing the company or organisation could perhaps enhance promotion prospects!

It was no surprise then, when I saw this OW fixture list for the mid 1930's to read that our 1st XV opponents included many sides from banks and insurance companies, and the first XV of companies such as Hoover, J.Lyons and Harrods. Some other Old Boys' clubs who had a long established lead on our predecessors offered to us their A XV.

Who were these men who accepted the challenge to place the Old Wandsworthians alongside the clubs to be respected among Old Boys teams in the south-east? I was still only half way through my primary education at this time, so it is difficult for me to pay a full tribute to all who made possible our launch into success. But I can say that, from eventually playing alongside some of these veterans, and sharing with them some of the responsibilities of the offices that they once held, that without the likes of Les Turtle, of Ron Duncan, of Sid Cooper and Les Finbow, and of many others, we would not have achieved the heights we did.

But once again a World War brought all this to a halt in 1939. I had joined the school, now in its Woking home following evacuation, on the 1st September of that fateful year. As the war years passed by, I was to know personally of senior boys who were not destined to be with us when another new start could be made in 1945. The aforesaid memorial plaque also records those Wandsworthians who fell in this second conflict.

With peace restored, we now had these hardened veterans, together with younger school leavers after their Service experience, to reform the rugby section of the O.W.A. Optimism was high and the fixture secretary went for the big names. Though those pre-war inhibitions still applied - Saturday morning work, reliance on public transport, etc. - within a couple of years the fixture list was predominantly filled by Old Boys sides and distance was becoming less of a barrier. The business houses were now being offered to our AXV who would now win most of these games. The pattern had changed and Old Boys clubs were now in the ascendancy.

On my return from the Services in 1949, I discovered that a typical Saturday could well be my morning's work in Whitehall followed by a quick snack in Joe Lyons or the ABC tearooms. Food rationing was still in force, and in any case pub food was limited to a packet of Smiths Crisps, an arrowroot biscuit or a pickled egg! If the match was north of London, e.g. at Old Hertfordians, Old Albanians, Old Fullerians or maybe Letchworth, then a hired coach was en route from Southfields to scoop up the Central London workers at Hyde Park Corner. The five-and-a-half day week petered out in the early 1950's but as car ownership was still limited, we continued with the use of coaches to get to the more distant places such as Gravesend, Dartford, Chelmsford and Westcliff-on-Sea.

Despite the strength of the fixture lists, our successes on the field allowed the Fixture Secretary to obtain ever stronger opponents. During the years 1949 to 1953, in three of those seasons the First XV lost just 12 games in 77 played. Who were the post-war heroes who joined with the aforementioned Wandsworthians to launch us into an era of success and into our own Memorial Ground? A list of all who aided would be far too long, but my memory goes straight to Reg Finch and Phil Hinchcliffe, to Arthur Dicker and Peter Bull, joining the long serving officers Ron Duncan and Les Turtle, not forgetting the ever present patriarch of the Association, Stan Fairey.

To complement this nucleus, there was also a rich vein of younger talent coming through, but who had firstly to do their National Service. This amalgam was to take the club rapidly forward in less than a decade. But further reminiscences can wait a while.

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