The Pilgrims was a touring

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 ...

side extant during the early 1900s. The Pilgrims was formed as an amateur representative touring team and had no connection with the club of the same name that entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

earlier. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' has regular accounts of 'The Pilgrims' including tours of the US and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1905 and the US in 1909 led by

Fred Milnes Frederick Houghton Milnes (26 January 1878 – 1946) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Leicester Fosse and Sheffield United. Career Milnes was born in Wortley, South Yorkshire Wortley is a village and civil pa ...

, a

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

-based amateur player, with them hosting reciprocal US visits. In 1929 the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

was reported as having presided at a dinner given by The Pilgrims to a visiting team from

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

References

Defunct football clubs in England {{England-footyclub-defunct-stub

Further reading

References