John Charles Thring (11 June 1824 – 3 October 1909), known during his life as "Charles Thring" or "J. C. Thring", was an English clergyman and teacher, notable for his contributions to the early history of
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
.
Early life
Thring was born 11 June 1824 in
Alford,
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
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, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, the fifth son of the
rector
Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to:
Style or title
*Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations
*Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
, Rev. John Gale Dalton Thring and Sarah .
He studied at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
,
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury.
Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...
and
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
, graduating as a Bachelor of Arts in 1847. The next year, he was appointed as an assistant curate to his brother
Godfrey Thring
Godfrey Thring (25 March 1823 – 13 September 1903), was an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer.
Life
Godfrey Thring was born at Alford, Somerset, the son of the rector, Rev. John Gale Dalton Thring and Sarah née Jenkyns. He was brother of Th ...
at
Alford-with-Hornblotton, Somerset. He was ordained
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
in December 1849. From 1855 to 1857, he served as curate in
Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
,
then from 1857 to 1859 at
Overton and
Fyfield, Wiltshire.
He married Lydia Meredith in May 1858.
In 1859, Thring was appointed assistant master of
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson (rector), Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oa ...
,
joining his brother
Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
who was headmaster there.
Sportsman
Shrewsbury
At the time Thring attended (1836–1843), Shrewsbury School played its own distinctive code of football, of which Thring later provided one detail: "the goals at one end of the field were marked on a wall". According to a description of the game dating from 1863, it disallowed all handling of the ball except for catching, and used an exceptionally wide goal of 40 feet, with a goal allowed to be scored at any height.
No record exists of football matches from Thring's time at Shrewsbury, but he is known to have played on the school
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
team in 1842 and 1843.
Cambridge
While at Cambridge, Thring's involvement in football continued. According to
N. L. Jackson, in 1846 "two old Shrewsbury boys, Messrs
H. de Winton and J. C. Thring, persuaded some Old Etonians to join them and formed a club. Matches were few and far between, but some were played on
Parker's Piece
Parker's Piece is a flat and roughly square green common located near the centre of Cambridge, England, regarded by some as the birthplace of the rules of association football. The two main walking and cycling paths across it run diagonally, an ...
. Unfortunately, the game was not popular at the 'Varsity then, and the club did not last long". According to Thring's own account, written in 1861:
This was among the first of several known attempts to formulate
a set of "compromise" rules of football at Cambridge between alumni of different schools. In his ''History of the Football Association'', Geoffrey Green describes it as "the first positive step to create an identity of views and a common code of laws
f football
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
acceptable to as many as possible", and laments the absence of a plaque "to commemorate this historic moment".
Uppingham
Rules of football for Uppingham School had been created under the supervision of Charles Thring's brother Edward in 1857. They allowed the ball to be carried in a similar fashion to the Rugby rules.
"The Simplest Game"
During his time as a resident master at Uppingham (1859–1864), Charles Thring became intensely involved in efforts to create a common code of football. His interest seems to have been stimulated by the publication in the 14 December 1861 issue of ''
The Field'' of an article calling for such a common code. Thring immediately responded with a letter criticising the Rugby code in strong terms, referring to its allowance of "hacking" (kicking opponents' shins) as "a blot", "thoroughly un-English", and "barbarous". In its place, Thring urged the following as the "very first principles of football":
* the ball should be kept on the ground as much as possible
* players should be "always behind the ball" (Thring objected to the Rugby
offside law as being too lax, since it allowed an offside player to rejoin play after an opponent touched the ball)
Thring went on to describe in some detail the features of his proposed game, which featured a round ball, a "barrel-shaped" playing area, a goal scored by kicking the ball under rather than over the bar, and an extremely strict offside law.
During the first half of 1862, Thring continued to engage in discussion of the merits of different rules of football via correspondence published in ''The Field''. This culminated in his publication, later in 1862, of a pamphlet entitled ''The Rules of Foot-ball: The Winter Game. Revised for the use of schools''. The pamphlet proposed a set of laws for what Thring called "The Simplest Game":
Football Association
In a letter to the ''
Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' of 24 September 1863, Thring urged the formation of a "parliament
hat
A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
could sit with sufficient authority to issue a new code of laws" for football.
When the formation of the
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
was announced shortly afterwards, Thring responded enthusiastically, sending voluminous correspondence to the Association's secretary
Ebenezer Morley
Ebenezer Cobb Morley (16 August 1831 – 20 November 1924) was an English sportsman. He is regarded as one of the fathers of the Football Association (FA) and modern football.
Early life
Morley was born at 10 Garden Square, Princess Street in ...
. In a letter dated 13 November, Thring wrote that Uppingham School was "extremely desirous of joining" the association. In another communication dated the following day, he promised to send the necessary subscription. These letters made a notable contrast with the generally negative attitude of other public schools (
Charterhouse
Charterhouse may refer to:
* Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order
Charterhouse may also refer to:
Places
* The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery
* Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey
London ...
and
Harrow had both refused to participate, Shrewsbury would subsequently do so, and Rugby, Eton and Winchester failed to reply at all).
Thring offered several suggestions as to the rules the FA ought to adopt. He advocated for the use of a crossbar, and objected to the draft rules' allowance of hacking and carrying the ball.
The FA would go on to remove hacking and carrying from its draft rules, under the influence of the
Cambridge Rules of 1863. Thring's suggested crossbar was not, however, included in the FA's 1863 laws, which allowed a goal to be scored at any height; a tape (corresponding to the crossbar) would not be introduced until the second edition of the FA's laws, in 1866. Thring's objection to the use of the term "touch" (for the area that was out of play on either side of the ground) was also ignored.
The offside rule from ''The Simplest Game'' was unanimously adopted by the FA at its meeting of 17 November 1863, and appeared in the first draft of the rules created by Morley, but it was replaced in later drafts with a modified version of the equivalent law from the Cambridge rules.
Thring requested permission to include the FA's rules (along with the Cambridge rules of October 1863), in an expanded reissue of ''The Winter Game''.
He would go on to bring out this second edition of his work in December 1863.
In 1867, Thring sent another letter to the FA's general meeting. He repeated his objection to the use of the term "touch", and also expressed disapproval of the FA offside law, which had been relaxed the previous year. These objections were once again ignored.
Thring also objected to the "
touch down" tie-breaker which had been introduced by the FA in 1866; this was removed from the laws as the result of a proposal by
Wanderers FC
Wanderers Football Club was an English association football club. It was founded as "Forest Football Club" in 1859 in Leytonstone. In 1864, it changed its name to "Wanderers", a reference to it never having a home stadium, instead playing at v ...
.
Legacy
Despite his enthusiasm, Thring was ultimately unsuccessful in persuading Uppingham School to participate in the Football Association. He wrote on 20 November 1863:
"I am sorry to hear that Uppingham was not represented on Tuesday. They say the time is very inconvenient, but the fact is they do not like to do so, as all the other schools have refused, and there is talk of a school congress, which they hope to attend". In a list of FA members from January 1864, the name of Uppingham School is crossed out, along with a note: "withdrawn by desire of their captain".
The extent to which Thring's principles were actually put into practice at Uppingham is not clear. Contemporary descriptions of Uppingham football from 1863 and 1864 indicate that the ball was oval rather than round, a "bully" was a method of scoring,
awarded when the ball was touched down behind the goal-line,
and the ball could be "caught" and "carried".
The 1871 edition of Uppingham's rules was broadly similar to the 1857 version, and continued to permit Rugby-style running with the ball. Uppingham would eventually abandon its own code of football for rugby in 1889.
Writing in 1899, N. L. Jackson drew attention to the manner in which Thring's "Simplest Game" anticipated many later developments in the FA's code, even going so far as to credit it with being "the groundwork on which the
ootballAssociation code was built". Thring's set of laws is also acknowledged as the inspiration behind the title of
Paul Gardner's 1976 book ''The Simplest Game''.
Later career and death
Thring continued to serve as master at Uppingham until 1868 or 1869,
but in 1864, following a dispute with his brother Edward, he and his wife ceased to live at the school, instead residing at the Chantry House at
Bradford-on-Avon
Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon or Bradford upon Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset, which had a population of 9,402 at the 2011 census. The town's canal, historic buildings, s ...
. In January 1866, Thring captained Bradford Football Club in a match against local rivals
Trowbridge
Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England, on the River Biss in the west of the county. It is near the border with Somerset and lies southeast of Bath, 31 miles (49 km) southwest of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) southe ...
.
From 1870 to 1874, Thring again served as curate at Alford.
From 1875 to 1891, he served as chaplain to the Bradford Union (a
workhouse
In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
for the poor in Bradford-on Avon).
He subsequently moved to
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...
, and then to
Dunmow, Essex for the last decade of his life.
He died there in 1909.
He was survived by his widow Lydia, five sons, and three daughters.
One of his sons was the cricketer
Charles Thring.
Works
*
*
Notes
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thring, Charles
Football people in England
1824 births
1909 deaths
Laws of association football
People educated at Winchester College
People educated at Shrewsbury School
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge