The Marlborough Nomads was a 19th-century English
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
club that was notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the
Rugby Football Union. They also supplied a number of players for the sport's early international fixtures.
History
The Nomads were founded in 1868 by James Bourdillon, a member of the
Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
and F. I. Currey, who became the first secretary, and was later captain. It was founded as a club for former pupils of
Marlborough College who had moved to live and work in London but still wanted to actively play football. Hence it was referred to in some quarters as Old Marlburians.
The club's first match was played in 1868 against the well established
Richmond FC
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Vi ...
, at Richmond's ground in the Old Deer Park and in this fixture the Nomads were beaten. The Nomads themselves originally played on Blackheath on the opposite side of the road to
Blackheath F.C.
Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham in south-east London.
The club was founded in Blackheath in 1858, and is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Dublin University Fo ...
, except when the latter had a match away, when they utilised their ground. The ground at Blackheath was unenclosed, and the spectators often trespassed on the ground. True to their name they moved and settled later in Surbiton at a private ground. They became very well established and their fixture list included a regular match with
Blackheath FC
Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham in south-east London.
The club was founded in Blackheath in 1858, and is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Dublin University Fo ...
who they finally beat in 1882, thanks principally to A. Kaye Butterworth and Harry Vassal.
Other opponents, besides Blackheath and Richmond, included
West Kent
Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation.
Prehistoric Kent
Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe sku ...
,
The Gipsies and
Ravenscourt Park
Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award. Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations ar ...
. They also played both their old school, Marlborough College as well as
Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to:
Australia
* Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
** Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia
China
* Haileybury International School, an internatio ...
ona regular basis.
Later secretaries of the club included H. Stanhope Illingworth, R. F. Isaacson, and J. D. Vans Agnew. Of the men associated with the club Hamersley, Freeman, A. K. Butterworth, Vans Agnew, and F. I. Currey all served on the committee of the Rugby Union, and the latter held the secretaryship in 1874, during
A. G. Guillemard's temporary absence abroad. Currey later became president of the RFU from 1884 to 1886.
Foundation of the RFU
On 26 January 1871, 32 members representing twenty-one London and suburban football clubs that followed
Rugby School
Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England.
Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...
rules (Wasps were invited by failed to attend) assembled at the
Pall Mall Restaurant
The Pall Mall Restaurant was a hostelry situated at Number 1 Cockspur Street, Westminster, London, just off Pall Mall and near Trafalgar Square. The site was subsequently the offices of the White Star Line, and was then occupied by a Tex Mex res ...
in
Regent Street. E.C. Holmes, captain of the
Richmond Club assumed the presidency. It was resolved unanimously that the formation of a Rugby Football Society was desirable and thus the
Rugby Football Union was formed. A president, a secretary and treasurer, and a committee of thirteen were elected, to whom was entrusted the drawing-up of the laws of the game upon the basis of the code in use at Rugby School. F. I.Currey represented The Nomads and was one of the thirteen original committee members.
[Marshall, Francis, ''Football; the Rugby union game'', contribution by W Parker, (1892) (London Paris Melbourne, Cassell and company, limited)]
The First Internationals
The first international rugby match was played between Scotland and England in 1871 and The Nomads provided the future England captain,
Alfred St. George Hamersley. Fred Mills, back ; Harold Freeman, three-quarter ; and A. St. G. Hamersley and F. I. Currey, forward, played in the second match in 1872. Hamersley, Freeman, and Mills also played in 1873 with Hamersley captaining an England side in 1874 that also contained two other Nomads, Sydney Moore and W. H. Milton against a Scotland side that contained the Nomad, H. M. Hamilton.
Later years
In 1911
Rosslyn Park F.C.
Rosslyn Park Football Club is a rugby union club based in south west London.
History
Founded in 1879 by cricketing friends in north London, at the end of their first season, Charles Hoyer Millar proposed forming a football club to keep the p ...
invited the club to join them with the acceptance of the Marlborough Nomads the club went out of existence. Rosslyn Park then became the London club of choice for old Marlburians.
[Dick Tyson, ''London's Oldest Rugby Clubs'', p46 (JJG Publishing), 2008] The Nomads remain today as a vibrant social and international touring side within Rosslyn Park playing league matches in London Merit Table 3.
[ ]
Notable players
A number of Nomads represented the national sides, most prominently
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
:
*
Alfred St. George Hamersley ''(first capped 1871; captain of England in 1874)''
*
Fred Mills ''(first capped 1872)''
*
Harold Freeman ''(first capped 1872)''
*
Frederick Currey ''(first capped 1872)''
*
Sydney Morse ''(first capped 1873 playing for
Law FC
Law, or The Law Club as it was also known, was a 19th-century football club that fielded teams playing by rugby football codes. It is notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the Rugby Football Union and for producing in a very ...
, capped whilst a Nomad in 1874)''
*
William Henry Milton
Sir William Henry Milton (3 December 1854 – 6 March 1930) was the third Administrator of Mashonaland, played rugby for England and was South Africa's second Test cricket captain.
Born in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and educated at Marlbo ...
''(first capped 1874)''
*H. M. Hamilton ''(first capped 1874)''
*
Francis Hugh Fox ''(first capped 1890)''
*W Mortimer ''(first capped 1899; earlier toured South Africa with
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
in 1896)''
*
Gerald Kyrke ''(part of the 1908
Anglo-Welsh
Welsh writing in English ( Welsh: ''Llenyddiaeth Gymreig yn Saesneg''), (previously Anglo-Welsh literature) is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers.
The term ‘Anglo-Welsh’ replaced an earlier atte ...
tour of Australia and New Zealand)''
Additional notable players include:
*W. M. Tatham ''(first capped 1882 while playing for Oxford University)''
*
Harry Vassall
Henry Vassall (22 October 1860 – 5 January 1926) was an English rugby union player, writer, and master of Repton School, Derbyshire. He was best known as a centre for Oxford University. Vassall played international rugby for England in the ea ...
''(first capped 1881 while playing for Oxford University)''
*A. J. Hill ''played cricket for England''
References
{{Rugby Football Union Founding Clubs
English rugby union teams
Rugby clubs established in 1868
Defunct English rugby union teams
Rugby union clubs in London