Robert George Graham (born

Hinxton Hinxton is a village in South Cambridgeshire, England. The River Cam runs through the village, as does the Cambridge to Liverpool Street railway, though the village has no station. Hinxton parish's southern boundaries form the border between Ca ...

, Cambridgeshire, 1 January 1845, died

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

, Middlesex, 6 April 1922) was a British sportsman and businessman.

Early life

Graham was born on New Year's Day 1845, the son of the Rev. John Graham of

Vicarage, Cambridgeshire. He attended

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

between January 1861 and June 1862.

Sportsman

Footballer

Graham played for

Barnes Football Club __NOTOC__ Barnes Football Club is an association football club in Barnes, London. The club had great importance in the development of the game in the nineteenth century and was the first team ever to win a match in the FA Cup. History Origins T ...

between 1865 and 1869 as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, captaining the club in a match against Crystal Palace in January of that year. He also played for the "Surrey and Kent" team in the first inter-county football match under association rules, in November 1867. Graham captained the Surrey team in separate matches against Kent and Middlesex in 1868. In 1869, he also played for

Crusaders FC Crusaders Football Club is a professional Northern Ireland, Northern Irish association football, football club, playing in the NIFL Premiership, highest level of the Irish League. The club, founded in 1898, is based in north Belfast and plays ...

Football administrator

Through Barnes FC and the London Rowing Club, Graham came into contact with Robert Willis, who would serve as second secretary 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 ...

from 1866 to 1867. From 1867 to 1870, Graham himself served as both secretary and treasurer of the Football Association. The future for the FA did not look promising at this time: only ten clubs were members, resulting in low attendance at the 1867 annual meeting. During the next year, Graham attempted to increase membership by writing to every known club in the country. This increased membership to thirty by 1868, but did not prevent the association from running out of money, with the officers having to cover expenses out of their own pockets. After his resignation as secretary in 1870, Graham continued to serve on the FA's committee from 1870 to 1871. He also served as secretary of Barnes FC in 1868. An obituary in the ''

Athletic News The ''Athletic News and Cyclists' Journal'' was a Manchester-based newspaper founded by Edward Hulton in 1875. It was published weekly, covering weekend sports fixtures other than horse racing, which was already covered by the ''Sporting Chronicl ...

'' described Graham as "one of those gentlemen who tackled the chaos in which football existed and from which the Football Association came into being".

Other sports

Graham was also a keen rower, competing for the

London Rowing Club London Rowing Club (LRC, or colloquially, 'London') is the second-oldest of the non-academic active rowing clubs on the Thames in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1856 by members of the long-disbanded Argonauts Club wishing to compete at ...

at the

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

of 1865. He won the English pole jump championship in 1869. In 1895, he invented a captive golf-ball game, known as "Linka".

Later life

Graham worked as a stockbroker and company director. He was "allowed the office of broker" by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London in March 1869. For the last 36 years of his life, he also served as volunteer captain of the fire brigade of Hampton upon Thames, where he lived. His knowledge of firefighting came from his friend Eyre Massey Shaw, first chief of the

London Fire Brigade The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the fire and rescue service for London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1865, under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. It has 5,992staff, in ...

. In 1893, his comedy ''Our Play'' was performed at the

Vaudeville Theatre The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on the Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each ...

in London's West End, to poor reviews.

Family

Graham married Alice Hackblock on 15 September 1869. The couple had two daughters, the younger of whom was prolific novelist and anti-Mormon campaigner

Winifred Graham Winifred Graham (born London 21 April 1873; died Hampton-on-Thames 5 February 1950) was an English novelist and anti-Mormon activist. Childhood Matilda Winifred Muriel Graham was born on 21 April 1873 in South Kensington, London. She was bapt ...

. After Robert's death, Winifred produced two books supposedly communicated by her father via

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...

. Graham's elder sister, Helen, married Robert Willis in 1867.

Death

Graham died on 6 April 1922. He was survived by his widow Alice and his two daughters.