William Sullivan Gosling (19 July 1869 – 2 October 1952) was a
British Army officer and
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player who competed in the
1900 Olympic Games
The 1900 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1900, link=no), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 1 ...
.
Biography
Gosling was the younger brother of
Robert Gosling
Robert Cunliffe Gosling DL (15 June 1868 – 8 April 1922), was a Victorian-era footballer who played as a speedy inside forward for the renowned amateur clubs Old Etonians and the Corinthians. He captained the England team on one, possibly tw ...
, both were educated at
Eton College and were members of a wealthy
Essex family. He was commissioned a
Second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
in the
Scots Guards on 4 March 1891, was promoted
Lieutenant on 5 February 1896, and
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
on 7 October 1899. He served twice in the
Second Boer War, with the 1st Battalion 1899–1900, when he took part in the march to
Bloemfontein in March 1900; and secondly in 1902 when he was in command of reinforcements of 250 officers and men of the 3rd Battalion leaving
Southampton in the transport ''Dilwara'' 15 April 1902 to arrive in South Africa the following month.
He was invalided home after contracting
typhoid fever and after the war resigned his commission from the Scots Guards in 1903 when he transferred to the
Essex Yeomanry, from which in turn he resigned in 1912.
[''The Men of Myddle Parish in the Great War 1914–1918'', page 110, compiled and published by The Myddle War Memorial Restoration Committee (2018). As "Major W.S. Gosling" he is on the list of those who served and returned home from service.]
At the 1911 census he was living at Lovells Court,
Marnhull
Marnhull ( ) is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies in the Blackmore Vale, north of Sturminster Newton. The resort towns of Bournemouth and Weymouth are approximately south. Marnhull is sited on a l ...
,
Dorset.
In about the same year he purchased Marton Hall near
Myddle
Myddle—also formerly known as Mydle, Middle, , M'dle, Meadley and Medle—is a small village in Shropshire, England, about 10 miles north of Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire. Myddle lies in the parish of Myddle, Broughton and Harmer H ...
,
Shropshire and was living there until he returned to Essex although he owned the hall until his death. In
World War I he returned to serve with the 3rd Battalion of the Scots Guards and was mainly stationed at their depot in
Wellington Barracks, London although he was on duty for ten days in France in January 1917. He was demobilised in May 1919 with rank of
major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
.
[
Upon his brother's death in 1922, he took over at the family's Hassiobury Farm estate near ]Bishops Stortford
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated popu ...
.[Family history titled "Gosling of Hassobury" (''sic'').]
Gosling married, on 12 November 1903, Lady Victoria Alexandrina Alberta Kerr, fifth daughter of Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian and a god-daughter of Queen Victoria,[Family history Marquess of Lothian.] and by her had four sons.[
]
Football career
Gosling was a regular full-back for Old Etonians, Casuals and Chelmsford and had appeared in a representative match for London against Sheffield in 1892. In the 1900 Paris Olympics, during an interval between his periods of service in South Africa, he won a gold medal as a member of Upton Park club team picked to represent Great Britain, although an injury during the games put him off the field for part of the Olympics.[
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosling, William
1869 births
1952 deaths
People from Bishop's Stortford
People educated at Eton College
English footballers
English Olympic medallists
Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
Olympic footballers of Great Britain
Footballers at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Olympic medalists in football
Medalists at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Association football defenders
Chelmsford City F.C. players
Casuals F.C. players
Upton Park F.C. players
Essex Yeomanry officers
Scots Guards officers
British Army personnel of the Second Boer War
British Army personnel of World War I