Blasts from the Past: Rugby at King’s

‘Rugby football was restarted at the beginning of last term. A marked improvement was observed in the play generally as the term went on, which would have been still more marked if fellows had turned up in greater numbers to the practices. There was a time when King’s was one of the strongest Schools (as far as Rugby was concerned) in London, and there is no reason why it should not regain its lost position. There are many boys who would evidently, if only they practised more, make good players.’

(School magazine, February 1897)

I was recently asked by the new head of rugby to put on a display about the history of the game at King’s. It was an area about which I knew very little. Finding evidence that King’s had indeed been ‘one of the strongest Schools (as far as Rugby was concerned) in London’ proved to be tricky. I turned, first of all, to ‘Duggie’ Dalziel’s booklet about the first 100 years of the sport at King’s only to find that even pinning down our first match was impossible.

We know that, in December 1864, a King’s College School team played its first recorded game of ‘football’. It is not known whether this was rugby football or association football but as their opponents were Forest School in Walthamstow – which had been involved in the formation of the Football Association in 1863 – it seems likely it was the latter. Given this, the first game of rugby in the school’s history is more likely to be that played in February 1866, against Richmond Football Club’s 2nd XV. Unfortunately, the school lost by three goals to nil! Nevertheless, pupils at King’s persisted and by the 1870s were not doing too badly. It should be remembered that games was not, at this date, compulsory. Possibly even more importantly, the school did not have its own sports ground. There was not much outdoor space on the Strand, so home matches were played at first at Battersea Park, then close to Lordship Lane in Dulwich and then at pitches near Turnham Green. Only in 1883 did the school finally hire its own ground. The nearest station was Wormwood Scrubbs Station. It was far from ideal. But things were to get even worse. The drastic decline in pupil numbers soon meant it was almost impossible to get a team together. By the early 1890s, the situation was pretty bleak. In the autumn of 1894, having lost the first five matches of the season, things came to a head: the following term, they would switch to playing association football.

This great change brought about – well, pretty much nothing. We were no better at association than rugby football. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that a school Rugby Club was quickly reformed, by a pupil with the wonderful name Lloyd Hyacinth Field. At the start of 1897, association football was abandoned completely and rugby became, once more, the sole winter game at King’s. Five matches were played and lost. Not an auspicious start. Things were about to get better, however. Only a few months later, the school moved to Wimbledon. Finally, there were pitches at the school and, by 1898, rugby and cricket had become compulsory.

Successes soon followed. Impressive wins against challenging opponents, pupils who would go on to play for England, overseas tours. Reading through all the various match reports, from the early 1900s to the present day, there have been definite peaks and troughs. Some teams were outstanding, others never quite seemed to find their stride. In part, the increase in minor sports at King’s must have had an impact; not all those who were sporty would necessarily play rugby. But, reading though the team reports, it became clear that winning wasn’t actually the point. Or, at least, not the whole point. Striving against adversity and building camaraderie are recurrent tropes for a reason. I thought of the words of a former pupil who had joined the junior school in 1951 aged not quite 11; a scholar, his fees were paid by Surrey County Council:

‘I don’t remember feeling isolated, and I think probably sport would have had a major say in that. Once you started playing rugby – I’d never played rugby before – but once I started, I was good to average… You started meeting groups of friends. It’s a bit of a cliché isn’t it, at independent schools. The sort of tribal effect of playing sport.’

A group, a gang, a tribe – playing in a team is one of the ways in which to feel a sense of belonging at school. Win or lose, you have each other’s backs.  

As ever, please do email if you have stories to share or questions about the school archive: I can be contacted at archive@kcs.org.uk. Or click here to complete a written questionnaire if you have memories you would like to submit to our Recollections of King’s project.

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist