Tickets are selling fast for the bantamspast museum’s annual 1911 dinner which takes place on Saturday at Bradford City AFC’s 1911 Club.
The organisers of the bantamspast museum host an annual dinner on 26 April, the anniversary of Bradford City’s famous FA Cup triumph of 1911. That feat is all the more poignant given that 2014 marks the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, a conflict in which two of the cup winners, Jimmy Speirs and Robert Torrance, were killed.
This year the anniversary falls on a Saturday and so it is appropriate that the dinner will taker place in Bradford City’s 1911 Club overlooking the Valley Parade pitch on which the likes of Speirs and Torrance played during the club’s golden era in the years before the Great War. Diners will enjoy a three-course carvery dinner and then listen to the stories of the nine City players killed in the Great War and proposals of how the club, and its supporters, could mark the centenary of the conflict.
The dinner takes place on Saturday 26 April, 7.30pm for 8pm at the 1911 Club, Valley Parade. There are less than twenty places remaining and the event is expected to sell out. Tickets are available by telephone from the 1911 reception on 0871 978 200.
Showing posts with label FA Cup 1911. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FA Cup 1911. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 April 2014
Friday, 7 February 2014
The 1911 Annual Memorial Dinner
26 April 2014
1911 Club, Valley Parade
Ever since the success of the dinner that commemorated the centenary of Bradford City’s FA Cup triumph, the organisers of the bantamspast museum have arranged an annual dinner on 26 April, the date when Jimmy Speirs' headed goal won the famous trophy for the Bantams. This year the 103rd anniversary falls on a Saturday, so it is appropriate that the host venue will be Bradford City’s own 1911 Club.
The evening will comprise a three course carvery dinner and an after dinner speaker. The cost is, perhaps appropriately, £19.11. As we approach the centenary of the Great War, the bantamspast museum’s David Pendleton will speak about the impact of the conflict on the football club and will reveal plans in place to commemorate the centenary. Nine City players died in the war, including the captain and goal scorer in the FA Cup final Jimmy Speirs and the man-of-the-match Robert Torrance.
The dinner takes place on Saturday 26 April, 7.30pm for 8pm at the 1911 Club, Valley Parade. There are only sixty places available, so the event is expected to sell out. Tickets are available from the 1911 Reception.
The evening will comprise a three course carvery dinner and an after dinner speaker. The cost is, perhaps appropriately, £19.11. As we approach the centenary of the Great War, the bantamspast museum’s David Pendleton will speak about the impact of the conflict on the football club and will reveal plans in place to commemorate the centenary. Nine City players died in the war, including the captain and goal scorer in the FA Cup final Jimmy Speirs and the man-of-the-match Robert Torrance.
The dinner takes place on Saturday 26 April, 7.30pm for 8pm at the 1911 Club, Valley Parade. There are only sixty places available, so the event is expected to sell out. Tickets are available from the 1911 Reception.
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Belgian Blog - Day Two
Glorious sunshine greeted the second day of the bantamspast trip to the battlefields of the Great War. In the morning we left a football, used in the warm up at Wembley this year, at the site of the 1914 Christmas Day truce when British and German troops played football in no man's land. The site is marked by a wooden cross where visitors regularly leave footballs. Bradford City chairman Mark Lawn kindly supplied a ball and he wrote a message of remembrance from all at Valley Parade.
The day was to be dominated by thoughts of City's captain and goal scorer in the 1911 FA Cup Final Jimmy Speirs. A chance meeting at the site of one of the huge British mines exploded on the Messines Ridge with a group of Scottish doctors, who were undertaking a cycling tour of the Ypres area, gave us an insight into the fate of Jimmy Speirs. One of the doctors had written a book entitled 'War Surgery 1914-1918' examining the treatment of wounds during the conflict. Jimmy Speirs was shot through the thigh during the Battle of Passchendaele. The doctor explained that he would have suffered a broken femur. By 1917 the rapid strapping of such wounds, using a specially developed strap, vastly improved survival rates. However, it had to be applied almost immediately and as Jimmy was shot advancing across an open field it is probable that such a procedure was unlikely. His fate was probably sealed the moment he was shot. The muddy shell hole he was placed in lessened even further the chances of survival as infection was probable. In the end Jimmy was left in the shelter of the shell hole as his company continued their advance. The intention was to return, but sadly they were unable to and Jimmy was never seen alive again. In all probability he died an agonising and lonely death.
In the afternoon we visited the exact spot where he died, The two farms, named Iberian and Gallipoli by the British troops, from where the German's opened fire on Jimmy's company are still in existence - although they were probably rebuilt after the war. The open field over which Jimmy advanced offered little cover. We looked across the windy farmer's field where our great cup winner met his untimely end, it was difficult to visualise how it would have looked during the war. Appropriately we ended our trip at the graveside of Jimmy Speirs. Once again Bradford remembered.
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Bantams’ History Week in Review
The inaugural Bantams’ History Week ended on a high note at the Midland Hotel on Friday night. Exactly 102 years to the day since Jimmy Speirs walked onto the balcony of what is now the Forster Suite, diners enjoyed a fabulous meal and listened to The Guardian’s David Conn describe his journey from terrace fan to football’s leading financial investigative journalist.
History was brought back to life when bantamspast museum’s curator David Pendleton described the scenes on the packed streets of Bradford when the Bantams brought the FA Cup back to the city in which it had been designed. From our view from the Forster Suite we looked across the street to the location of Fattorini’s where W. N. Norman drew the design of the iconic trophy. Next door was the headquarters of Sports & Pastimes who produced thousands of football shirts, including those worn by the Bantams’ players in the FA Cup Final of 1911. We looked out of the french windows from where Speirs emerged with the glittering trophy and imagined the sea of cheering faces packed onto the streets below. Bradford City chairman Mark Lawn brought along Speirs’ FA Cup winners’ medal – probably the first time it had been into the hotel since Speirs himself carried it, and the cup, into the hotel on the evening of 26 April 1911.
It was a fitting end to a wonderful week. From the opening walk the previous Saturday which raised £85 for the Burns Unit; the pulling of the first pint of the specially brewed Baines blonde by Mark Lawn at the Sparrow (the beer sold all 210 pints inside four hours); a tour of Undercliffe Cemetery, where a small collection gave £38 towards the upkeep of the vast cemetery, which is undertaken almost entirely by volunteers; and finally the dinner.
We would like to thank those who enabled the history week to go ahead: Turls Green (Wetherspoons); Sparrow Bier Café; Bradford City AFC; Friends of Undercliffe Cemetery; Midland Hotel; John Ashton; John Dewhirst; Gary Peacock; Glyn Watkins; Andy Tyne; Mark Lawn; David Conn; David Pendleton and, of course, everyone who took part and attended the events.
We'll be back next year bigger and better!
History was brought back to life when bantamspast museum’s curator David Pendleton described the scenes on the packed streets of Bradford when the Bantams brought the FA Cup back to the city in which it had been designed. From our view from the Forster Suite we looked across the street to the location of Fattorini’s where W. N. Norman drew the design of the iconic trophy. Next door was the headquarters of Sports & Pastimes who produced thousands of football shirts, including those worn by the Bantams’ players in the FA Cup Final of 1911. We looked out of the french windows from where Speirs emerged with the glittering trophy and imagined the sea of cheering faces packed onto the streets below. Bradford City chairman Mark Lawn brought along Speirs’ FA Cup winners’ medal – probably the first time it had been into the hotel since Speirs himself carried it, and the cup, into the hotel on the evening of 26 April 1911.
It was a fitting end to a wonderful week. From the opening walk the previous Saturday which raised £85 for the Burns Unit; the pulling of the first pint of the specially brewed Baines blonde by Mark Lawn at the Sparrow (the beer sold all 210 pints inside four hours); a tour of Undercliffe Cemetery, where a small collection gave £38 towards the upkeep of the vast cemetery, which is undertaken almost entirely by volunteers; and finally the dinner.
We would like to thank those who enabled the history week to go ahead: Turls Green (Wetherspoons); Sparrow Bier Café; Bradford City AFC; Friends of Undercliffe Cemetery; Midland Hotel; John Ashton; John Dewhirst; Gary Peacock; Glyn Watkins; Andy Tyne; Mark Lawn; David Conn; David Pendleton and, of course, everyone who took part and attended the events.
We'll be back next year bigger and better!
Monday, 22 April 2013
Bantams' History Week So Far
The Bantams' History Week commenced under clear blue skies with a walk through the history of the city centre. A good number of walkers took in sights related to the football club's history. A new display in the Midland Hotel's Spirit of Bradford bar tells the story of the links between the hotel and Bradford City's FA Cup triumph of 1911. The walk ended at the Sparrow Bier Café on North Parade where displays show how John Baines of North Parade reshaped global football culture with his invention of football collectors' cards. A collection from the walk raised £85 for the Bradford Burns Unit and finally Bradford City chairman Mark Lawn pulled the first pint of a specially brewed Baines Blonde to offically launch the history week. The beer was produced by the Saltaire Brewery and all 210 pints were drunk within four hours on Saturday - we suspect City's victory which ensured a place in the play-offs may have been a contributory factor.
On Sunday a well attended guided walk of Undercliffe Cemetery was used to tell a few of the personal stories of individuals with strong links to the Bantams. Two former chairmen are buried within a handful of yards of one another: the well known Stafford Heginbotham, who twice helped save the club from closure and led the Bantams through the dark days following the fire disaster; Alfred Ayrton, the man who oversaw the change from rugby to football in 1903 and, when asked what the new football club was to be named, replied 'Bradford City'.
There are a few tickets left for the final event of the Bantams' History Week which is a dinner at the Midland Hotel on Friday 26 April - the anniversary of Bradford City's FA Cup triumph. The guest speaker will be David Conn of the Guardian. The two course meal costs £18, to book a place please email bantamspast.
On Sunday a well attended guided walk of Undercliffe Cemetery was used to tell a few of the personal stories of individuals with strong links to the Bantams. Two former chairmen are buried within a handful of yards of one another: the well known Stafford Heginbotham, who twice helped save the club from closure and led the Bantams through the dark days following the fire disaster; Alfred Ayrton, the man who oversaw the change from rugby to football in 1903 and, when asked what the new football club was to be named, replied 'Bradford City'.
There are a few tickets left for the final event of the Bantams' History Week which is a dinner at the Midland Hotel on Friday 26 April - the anniversary of Bradford City's FA Cup triumph. The guest speaker will be David Conn of the Guardian. The two course meal costs £18, to book a place please email bantamspast.
Saturday, 30 March 2013
26 April 1911 Anniversary Dinner
Midland Hotel, Bradford
Forster Suite
7pm for 7.30pm, meeting in Spirit of Bradford Bar (turn immediate left on entering the hotel).Dress code: tie for gentlemen, dress for ladies is preferred, but smart-causal will suffice.
Guest speaker: David Conn of the Guardian
Two course dinner £18 per person
Choices must be pre-booked (and received the week prior to the dinner) from the following:
Starters
- Ham hock terrine, Yorkshire piccalilli, olive bread
- Chicken and Asparagus Salad finished with golden Croutons and Caesar dressing
- Yorkshire goats Cheese Tart, Red Onion Chutney, sun blush tomato bread (v)
- Pan Fried Chicken breast with Lemon & Herb wrapped in Parma ham, Served with a White Wine Chervil Sauce
- Fillet of Lemon Sole seared Spinach finished with Grapes and Chardonnay Sauce
- Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Crepes, flavoured with a rich Yorkshire Blue Cheese sauce (v)
Toasts will be made to the great team of 1911. Our guest speaker will be the Guardian’s David Conn. Well known for his investigative journalism into football’s finances, his latest book, Richer than God, tells the story of Sheik Mansour’s arrival at Manchester City and its impact on English football.
Spaces are strictly limited to forty diners, so early booking is advised.
Cheques for £18 should be made payable to ‘bantamspast’ and sent to:
bantamspast
PO Box 307
Shipley
BD18 9BT
Special rates are available for any diners who may wish to stay at the hotel:
£65 single bed and breakfast, £75 double bed and breakfast
Please contact the hotel direct to make a booking on 01274 735735
Monday, 28 January 2013
Up for the Cup Edwardian Style
As travel plans are made for the League Cup Final, it is remarkable how similar the experience will be to our last appearance in a major cup final – the FA Cup Final of 1911. Although a large proportion of the 31,000 supporters heading south will be travelling by road, a significant number will use the railways. Thankfully, an overnight journey in toiletless carriages has been left behind us. For the team, they will, like their 1911 counterparts, travel to London prior to the day of the match. However, it is unlikely that they will be staying at the Midland Hotel at St Pancras. City fans with an eye to history could stay at the hotel, which has recently been spectacularly refurbished, but as well as an interest in history, they would have to have deep pockets, as the cheapest room is over £220 per night!
We take the following text from David Pendleton’s Glorious 1911 book, which is still available from Waterstones in the city centre and will be restocked in the club shop shortly.
To the Palace for the Cup
A staggering two hundred trains poured fans into London from all over the country. The Great Northern Railway, which served both Bradford and Newcastle, ran 43 trains into Kings Cross. Twenty trains, including one conveying the City team, ran into St Pancras on the Midland Railway. City had something of a special relationship with the Midland, not least because the company leased Valley Parade to the club. The Midland Railway Company’s carriage works in Manningham made a silver horseshoe, which they presented to the team. A large crowd gathered to witness the departure of the official party, including the fifteen players from whom the team would be selected, as they left Forster Square at half past three on the afternoon of Friday 21 April 1911. Driver Luck, who had driven the team’s train to the semi-final, was once again at the controls as the train pulled away from Forster Square, past Valley Parade and towards the distant capital. The great invasion of London had commenced a few hours earlier with the departure of the reserve team from Forster Square.
Eleven trains conveying some six thousand City fans followed in their wake. The streets of Bradford were busy all through the night. Streams of supporters made their way to Forster Square and Exchange stations. Along the route vendors sold claret and amber ‘favours’ that trippers placed in their lapels or attached to hats. As each train started, cheers went up and the fans began singing the popular City song ‘Hello Hello’ which echoed down the platforms as the trains departed into the night. The first train disgorged its bleary-eyed travellers onto the capital’s streets at half past four in the morning! The first team party arrived at St Pancras at quarter past eight in the evening. Waiting at the hotel for the team was a good luck horseshoe, sent by the men of Bradford’s Tramways. The team visited the Euston Empire Theatre, a short walk from their base at the Midland Railway’s fabulous St Pancras Hotel. Given the huge number of fans of both clubs arriving at St Pancras and the adjacent Kings Cross in the early hours, it may not have just been pre-match nerves that kept the City players awake in their hotel rooms above the great station.
We take the following text from David Pendleton’s Glorious 1911 book, which is still available from Waterstones in the city centre and will be restocked in the club shop shortly.
To the Palace for the Cup
A staggering two hundred trains poured fans into London from all over the country. The Great Northern Railway, which served both Bradford and Newcastle, ran 43 trains into Kings Cross. Twenty trains, including one conveying the City team, ran into St Pancras on the Midland Railway. City had something of a special relationship with the Midland, not least because the company leased Valley Parade to the club. The Midland Railway Company’s carriage works in Manningham made a silver horseshoe, which they presented to the team. A large crowd gathered to witness the departure of the official party, including the fifteen players from whom the team would be selected, as they left Forster Square at half past three on the afternoon of Friday 21 April 1911. Driver Luck, who had driven the team’s train to the semi-final, was once again at the controls as the train pulled away from Forster Square, past Valley Parade and towards the distant capital. The great invasion of London had commenced a few hours earlier with the departure of the reserve team from Forster Square.
Eleven trains conveying some six thousand City fans followed in their wake. The streets of Bradford were busy all through the night. Streams of supporters made their way to Forster Square and Exchange stations. Along the route vendors sold claret and amber ‘favours’ that trippers placed in their lapels or attached to hats. As each train started, cheers went up and the fans began singing the popular City song ‘Hello Hello’ which echoed down the platforms as the trains departed into the night. The first train disgorged its bleary-eyed travellers onto the capital’s streets at half past four in the morning! The first team party arrived at St Pancras at quarter past eight in the evening. Waiting at the hotel for the team was a good luck horseshoe, sent by the men of Bradford’s Tramways. The team visited the Euston Empire Theatre, a short walk from their base at the Midland Railway’s fabulous St Pancras Hotel. Given the huge number of fans of both clubs arriving at St Pancras and the adjacent Kings Cross in the early hours, it may not have just been pre-match nerves that kept the City players awake in their hotel rooms above the great station.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
We Remember
Of the players, in the Great War the club lost: Jimmy Speirs, Robert Torrance, Evelyn Lintott, Ernest Goodwin, George Draycott, Gerald Kirk, Jimmy Conlin, James Comrie and Harry Potter. In the Second World War we lost Alfred Keeling and guest players Sidney Pugh and Ernest Tuckett.
A roll call of the club’s supporters killed in conflicts is obviously impossible to collate. However, those who took part in this year’s trip to the Somme were particularly affected by the fate of the Bradford Pals. We visited the grave of Manningham born Arthur Greenwood, a private in the first Bradford Pals who was killed on the 1st July 1916 – the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Among his personal effects were several postcards of Bradford City teams, including those great FA Cup winners of 1911.
We will remember them.
Saturday, 26 May 2012
There’s Only One Harry Hampton!
When I was growing up as a Bradford City fan, the club’s history was passed down to me by the family elders with great pride. Stories of 1911 and the like were passed around the fireside on many a night. The great players: the Bonds, Torrances, Speirs, O’Rourkes and the rest. As I picked up my copy of Shoot magazine, or the like, there would be a potted history of a club each week and when it was Citys turn I already thought I knew all the important facts about my club but, a couple of things didn’t ring true.
It said that City’s most capped player was one Harry Hampton with nine caps for Ireland between 1910 and 1914. Nothing wrong with that, but by then I knew the FA Cup winning team off by heart and Harry wasn’t there so who was he? He must have been a decent player to gain international caps yet he wasn’t in the Cup final team. Could he have been injured or suspended and then left out as the star winger Dickie Bond was? Surely such an important player would be an integral part of the team? Imagine my confusion when it also said he also played for Aston Villa and had won several medals with them? How could we leave this lad out?
A couple of weeks later it was Aston Villa’s turn for the potted history and under the famous players was Harry Hampton, an ENGLISH international! This was getting really confusing now, and for many years the misinformation continued either through confusion or lazy journalism. To set the record straight, Villa’s Harry Hampton was three years older was indeed a great English international. He did win many medals with Villa and was, and still is, rightly regarded as a true Villa great.
As a Bradford City fan, our Harry Hampton interests me more. His career was far more modest by comparison but I think he deserves recognition in his own right, after all he held a club record for the most international caps for over seventy years until it was broken by Jamaican Jamie Lawrence in the 1990s.
Henry Hampton was born in Dublin, Ireland, one of six children to Henry Hampton Snr. and Ellen Manders. Henry Snr. was in the British Army and after his discharge he went to America where he met Ellen Manders in Illinois. Two children were born there before the family returned to Dublin and then to Scotland. Sadly, Henry Snr. died and left his widow with five children. She applied for poor relief, but had to give up two children to the Mossfield Industrial School. Glasgow was no place for a widow with a large family. These were schools that fed and educated poor children and tried to keep them on the straight and narrow. Sport was a major part of their education and young Harry must have shown promise as a footballer as according to family history he was taken on as a trainee at Glasgow Celtic. Celtic would have tried many hopefuls from the huge Irish Catholic population in Glasgow and, although he didn’t make it at Parkhead, he must have caught the eye whilst playing probably junior football as he was signed by Dundee FC.
Dundee at this time were a top side twice finishing runners-up to Celtic in the league and winning the Scottish Cup in 1910, so the young Harry understandably found it hard to make his mark at the club. Someone had noticed him though. When Bradford City’s England International half back Evelyn Lintott suffered a lengthy injury, City’s wily Scottish manager Peter O’Rourke used his extensive knowledge of the game north of the Border to bring the 22 year old Harry Hampton to Valley Parade.
Several players had been tried before Harry got his chance in the away fixture against Sheffield Wednesday in March 1910. The game was lost but Harry impressed enough to keep his place in the side until the end of the season. The following campaign would turn out to be the most momentous in the history of Bradford City; the glorious 1910-11 season. Lintott was still suffering from his long term injury and Harry managed to start ten of the first fourteen games and was paired with the versatile James Blair. An injury then meant he lost his place to a certain up and coming Robert Torrance and the muscular signing from Rangers David Taylor; both destined to be members of City’s cup winning side. Such was their consistency, and the moving of Jimmy McDonald to the half- back spot, that Harry was to remain a squad player for the rest of the season. Taylor was moved with great success to left back to cover the illness of Scottish international George Chaplin who had contracted TB and was out of the game for around two years.
One bonus for Harry was his selection for the Irish national team for the Home International fixture against Wales on 28th January 1911. He kept his place for the games against England and Scotland in the series and although all three games were lost he had made a step up to international football. He only played three more league games as the City team concentrated on winning the FA Cup. He did appear in the second round tie against Norwich City at Valley Parade, but then let Jimmy McDonald back in for the rest of the cup run.
The following 1911-12 season came with City one of the country’s leading teams in the wake of the FA Cup win and the strong fifth place in the league; which could have been better but for the resting of players for the more prestigious FA Cup competition. Harry managed a creditable thirteen appearances plus two FA Cup games as the deputy for the ever dependable stalwart George Robinson as the club tried valiantly to hold on to their prized trophy. He also gained two further caps for the Irish team being selected for the Wales and England games.
The following season saw a further eleven appearances for City, once again deputising for George Robinson at half-back and he was also an ever present in the year’s home internationals, appearing in all three games for the Irish team.
Above is a photograph of the Irish national team, Harry is stood left hand side on the back row next to the suited gents. Interestingly, this picture has two other City connections: with flying winger and FA Cup hero Frank Thompson seated on the front row far right; the keeper in the hooped shirt was the somewhat eccentric Fred McKee who made one single appearance for City on New Year’s Day 1912 at Liverpool. He won many honours for both Linfield and Belfast Celtic. The following year saw Harry make only three appearances as his squad place came under threat from John Brennan and the young highly promising Joe Hargreaves. He also made his ninth and final appearance for Ireland. Although aged only twenty six, injuries were taking their toll and, with his place in the City squad coming under threat, Harry decided it was time to move and he went to Ireland to sign for Distillery in May 1914 just as the world was on the brink of war. He married Elsie Knight in Bradford and they had a daughter Caroline Edith, but he left them in Bradford as he tried to continue his career over the water. He managed seven games for Distillery before war broke out and he returned to Bradford where he worked for the Labour Corps. He also managed one final game for City in late April 1916 during a wartime league game against neighbours Leeds City. He continued his war work until 1919 when an old knee injury caused him to quit. Bradford City still held his registration and had retained an insurance policy in case of such an injury. After the war in 1919 he was discharged from Clipstone camp and set up home in Derby, never returning to Bradford and leaving his wife and child behind.
He started a new family in Derby which produced twin girls and a boy. I can’t say, or judge, what made him do this but after the carnage of the war was anyone thinking straight in those days? He lost two Brothers in the conflict, he had seen several playing colleagues killed in the horror of the trenches, he would have heard of the horrors of team mate Dickie Bond being a P.O.W. and Jock Ewart being gassed. Who knows how the horrific war affected anyone. These are just facts, not an excuse, I am not privy to his thought processes.
Whilst in Derby where he found work with the electricity board. His playing days were over and such was his plight that he sold several of his international caps just to make ends meet. Remember this was a time where the whole country’s infrastructure was having to come to terms with losing a whole generation of young men, not to mention the economic cost of five years of unforgiving warfare. He continued to live out his days in Derby until his death in 1946 from lung cancer and heart failure
His legacy was one of a young boy brought up in very hard circumstances and making something of himself. He managed to rise to the top of his chosen profession only to be hit by the tragedy of the generation he was born into having to face the horrors of the Great War; it surely had an affect on his way of thinking.
He was a part of a squad playing at the height of the English professional game for one of the top clubs of the period. Not only that but for almost four years he was a regular Irish international side when they were home international Champions for the first time. His record of nine caps whilst a City player was a record which stood for almost seventy years until finally broken by the hugely popular Jamie Lawrence and his caps for Jamaica.
Aston Villa may have had their Harry Hampton, but we at City had our own Harry. He may not have been a huge household name but he was a significant part of the club in its Golden Era and his story is here for all to see. Can I credit, and say a huge thank you, to Mrs Christine Duttine for her massive help and assistance in this piece. She is a member of the Hampton family who also wanted Harry’s story to be told and I am glad to be of help.
I would also like to thank Christine for her kind loans of family documents and information and the picture of Harry’s Irish Cap which happily remains with the family to this day.
Ian Hemmens
It said that City’s most capped player was one Harry Hampton with nine caps for Ireland between 1910 and 1914. Nothing wrong with that, but by then I knew the FA Cup winning team off by heart and Harry wasn’t there so who was he? He must have been a decent player to gain international caps yet he wasn’t in the Cup final team. Could he have been injured or suspended and then left out as the star winger Dickie Bond was? Surely such an important player would be an integral part of the team? Imagine my confusion when it also said he also played for Aston Villa and had won several medals with them? How could we leave this lad out?
A couple of weeks later it was Aston Villa’s turn for the potted history and under the famous players was Harry Hampton, an ENGLISH international! This was getting really confusing now, and for many years the misinformation continued either through confusion or lazy journalism. To set the record straight, Villa’s Harry Hampton was three years older was indeed a great English international. He did win many medals with Villa and was, and still is, rightly regarded as a true Villa great.
As a Bradford City fan, our Harry Hampton interests me more. His career was far more modest by comparison but I think he deserves recognition in his own right, after all he held a club record for the most international caps for over seventy years until it was broken by Jamaican Jamie Lawrence in the 1990s.
Henry Hampton was born in Dublin, Ireland, one of six children to Henry Hampton Snr. and Ellen Manders. Henry Snr. was in the British Army and after his discharge he went to America where he met Ellen Manders in Illinois. Two children were born there before the family returned to Dublin and then to Scotland. Sadly, Henry Snr. died and left his widow with five children. She applied for poor relief, but had to give up two children to the Mossfield Industrial School. Glasgow was no place for a widow with a large family. These were schools that fed and educated poor children and tried to keep them on the straight and narrow. Sport was a major part of their education and young Harry must have shown promise as a footballer as according to family history he was taken on as a trainee at Glasgow Celtic. Celtic would have tried many hopefuls from the huge Irish Catholic population in Glasgow and, although he didn’t make it at Parkhead, he must have caught the eye whilst playing probably junior football as he was signed by Dundee FC.
Dundee at this time were a top side twice finishing runners-up to Celtic in the league and winning the Scottish Cup in 1910, so the young Harry understandably found it hard to make his mark at the club. Someone had noticed him though. When Bradford City’s England International half back Evelyn Lintott suffered a lengthy injury, City’s wily Scottish manager Peter O’Rourke used his extensive knowledge of the game north of the Border to bring the 22 year old Harry Hampton to Valley Parade.
One bonus for Harry was his selection for the Irish national team for the Home International fixture against Wales on 28th January 1911. He kept his place for the games against England and Scotland in the series and although all three games were lost he had made a step up to international football. He only played three more league games as the City team concentrated on winning the FA Cup. He did appear in the second round tie against Norwich City at Valley Parade, but then let Jimmy McDonald back in for the rest of the cup run.
The following 1911-12 season came with City one of the country’s leading teams in the wake of the FA Cup win and the strong fifth place in the league; which could have been better but for the resting of players for the more prestigious FA Cup competition. Harry managed a creditable thirteen appearances plus two FA Cup games as the deputy for the ever dependable stalwart George Robinson as the club tried valiantly to hold on to their prized trophy. He also gained two further caps for the Irish team being selected for the Wales and England games.
The following season saw a further eleven appearances for City, once again deputising for George Robinson at half-back and he was also an ever present in the year’s home internationals, appearing in all three games for the Irish team.
He started a new family in Derby which produced twin girls and a boy. I can’t say, or judge, what made him do this but after the carnage of the war was anyone thinking straight in those days? He lost two Brothers in the conflict, he had seen several playing colleagues killed in the horror of the trenches, he would have heard of the horrors of team mate Dickie Bond being a P.O.W. and Jock Ewart being gassed. Who knows how the horrific war affected anyone. These are just facts, not an excuse, I am not privy to his thought processes.
Whilst in Derby where he found work with the electricity board. His playing days were over and such was his plight that he sold several of his international caps just to make ends meet. Remember this was a time where the whole country’s infrastructure was having to come to terms with losing a whole generation of young men, not to mention the economic cost of five years of unforgiving warfare. He continued to live out his days in Derby until his death in 1946 from lung cancer and heart failure
His legacy was one of a young boy brought up in very hard circumstances and making something of himself. He managed to rise to the top of his chosen profession only to be hit by the tragedy of the generation he was born into having to face the horrors of the Great War; it surely had an affect on his way of thinking.
He was a part of a squad playing at the height of the English professional game for one of the top clubs of the period. Not only that but for almost four years he was a regular Irish international side when they were home international Champions for the first time. His record of nine caps whilst a City player was a record which stood for almost seventy years until finally broken by the hugely popular Jamie Lawrence and his caps for Jamaica.
Aston Villa may have had their Harry Hampton, but we at City had our own Harry. He may not have been a huge household name but he was a significant part of the club in its Golden Era and his story is here for all to see. Can I credit, and say a huge thank you, to Mrs Christine Duttine for her massive help and assistance in this piece. She is a member of the Hampton family who also wanted Harry’s story to be told and I am glad to be of help. I would also like to thank Christine for her kind loans of family documents and information and the picture of Harry’s Irish Cap which happily remains with the family to this day.
Ian Hemmens
Saturday, 25 June 2011
France-Belgium 2011 - Robert Torrance
As you walk down the gravel path to the Tyne Cot Cemetery halfway up the Passchendaele ridge, a soft woman's voice reads a name, regiment and age at the time of death. It's a beautiful litany of the 300,000 men who died in the infamous Battle of Passchdaele. Tyne Cot is the largest British and Commonwealth war cemetery in the world. Over twelve thousands graves and an additional 36,000 on its Memorial to the Missing. This truly is the Silent City.Among the names on the Memorial to the Missing is that of Robert Torrance. Probably Bradford City's greatest defender. The auburn haired centre half was the man-of-the-match in the 1911 FA Cup Final replay. Seven years later he lost an arm during an artillery barrage near the Belgian town of Ypes. The field hospital he was taken to was then shelled and Robert was blasted into oblivion. His body was never found. Today he may still lie undiscovered under a Belgian field, or he may lie in a grave marked simply 'known unto God'.
Monday, 6 June 2011
France-Belgium 2011
The final event to commemorate the centenary of the 1911 FA Cup triumph took place this weekend when twenty people visited the final resting places of the nine Bradford City players killed in the Great War. We also took in the graves of the the two Bradford Park Avenue players and the Serre area where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Further images and a report will follow.
Speaking of events, this is the absolute final week of the When The FA Cup Came Home exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum. It all finishes next Sunday 12 June. If you've not visited, shame on you! But there's still time - just.
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Another Little Mystery
A member of Robert Torrance's family has kindly loaned a number of images to us, including this one. The big question is, who is it?
We know that a comedian by the name of Sammy Shields recorded a humorous sketch around the time of the 1911 Cup Final win. Could it be him? Unfortunately the internet doesn't provide much of a clue - there's very little information given regarding Mr Shields.
Can anyone out there help?
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Glorious 1911 and BBC Look North
Well, we're all still getting over the fantastic celebrations of last Tuesday, 26 April 2011, the centenary of the epic FA Cup win. As many readers will know, both the BBC and Yorkshire TV covered the various events throughout the day on their local news programmes.
Thanks to the BBC's Martin Armstrong and Look North Editor Tim Smith, here is what was broadcast on Look North, some of it live from the Midland Hotel.
Video courtesy of BBC Look North
Thanks to the BBC's Martin Armstrong and Look North Editor Tim Smith, here is what was broadcast on Look North, some of it live from the Midland Hotel.
Video courtesy of BBC Look North
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Happy Birthday FA Cup! One Hundred Today
Tuesday 26th April 2011 is the centenary of Bradford City’s greatest feat: the winning of the FA Cup. A club only eight years old, having already established itself as one of the top five clubs in the country, won the greatest and most coveted prize of the age. It was an achievement almost without parallel.
Designed and produced by Bradford company, Thomas Fattorini, the current trophy (the third) was first presented to Bradford City captain, Jimmy Speirs, after the team's 1-0 victory in a replay against Newcastle United at Old Trafford, Manchester (itself then only a year old, thus its first big fixture) on 26 April 1911.
The celebrations for this significant footballing event reach a climax today when the trophy will be coming home to the city of its creation.
From 11am to 3pm it will be on display in front of a life-sized display of the team image above, as part of the exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home at Bradford Industrial Museum. Also on display are six of the players' winning medals, two shirts from the final, the original Fattorini hand-drawn design for the trophy and much more.
Skipton’s Aireville School are welcoming representatives from Bradford City, bantamspast museum, the Yorkshire Regiment and the PFA. A replica of the FA Cup will be at the school and pupils who are undertaking a pilgrimage to the battlefields of the Great War, including the final resting place of Jimmy Speirs, will be presented with replica shirts from the Edwardian era.
A centenary dinner will take place at the Midland Hotel during the evening. The FA Cup will be at the hotel exactly one hundred years to the minute when the Bradford City players returned from Old Trafford to the Midland itself with the Bradford designed FA Cup. Speeches and toasts will be made over the course of the evening.
Many players from Bradford City’s FA Cup quarter final of 1976 will be in attendance (incidentally, it is 35 years since that remarkable achievement) as well as representatives from Bradford City. Finally, Stuart McCall, one of few former City players who have appeared in both the English and Scottish Cup Finals, will be one of our most honoured guests. It will be an evening to remember and a commemorative programme will be on sale. The dinner itself is a complete sell out.
Friday, 22 April 2011
A letter to Jimmy Speirs
On 19 April 1911, Newcastle United captain, Colin Veitch was staying in The Alexandra Hotel and Hydro, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, in preparation for the FA Cup Final the following Saturday. Using the hotel's headed notepaper, he replied to a letter from Bradford City captain, Jimmy Speirs:
Thanks for your letter, which expresses in sound terms the spirit of comradeship, and the proper sentiments one would expect to see associated with the sportsman and the sport.
Please express to your colleagues the admiration which we all feel for your kindly thoughts for the injured players. You will be pleased to hear that recent reports are not so unfavourable in the case of Albert Shepherd, whilst Willis has improved so rapidly during the Easter weekend that there is every chance of him appearing on Saturday.
I trust we will have a splendid game at the Crystal Palace, and by our united efforts, serve to bring the professional side of football even more prominently in front of the public, as the essence of everything good in the sport.
May the best team win, as you say.
Again thanking you for timely and kindly letter.
I remain
Yours sincerely
Colin Veitch
Thanks for your letter, which expresses in sound terms the spirit of comradeship, and the proper sentiments one would expect to see associated with the sportsman and the sport.
Please express to your colleagues the admiration which we all feel for your kindly thoughts for the injured players. You will be pleased to hear that recent reports are not so unfavourable in the case of Albert Shepherd, whilst Willis has improved so rapidly during the Easter weekend that there is every chance of him appearing on Saturday.
I trust we will have a splendid game at the Crystal Palace, and by our united efforts, serve to bring the professional side of football even more prominently in front of the public, as the essence of everything good in the sport.
May the best team win, as you say.
Again thanking you for timely and kindly letter.
I remain
Yours sincerely
Colin Veitch
Sunday, 20 March 2011
When the FA Cup Came Home - Now Open
The exhibition celebrating the centenary of Bradford City's epic FA Cup win is now open! First comments are most encouraging. If you're going to Bradford Industrial Museum to see it, be sure to take your camera so you and your loved ones can be pictured with the team.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Glorious 1911 - Visit to France & Belgium 2011
If Glorious 1911 was Bradford's finest hour, then the years 1914-18 were the bleakest the city has ever faced. The fate of Bradford City's FA Cup winning captain Jimmy Speirs perhaps epitomises the era. In 1911 he held the glittering FA Cup aloft to the cheers of 100,000 people packed onto the streets of Bradford; six years later he lay dying in a muddy shell hole.
As we celebrate the centenary of Bradford City's greatest triumph we will also remember the nine Bradford City players who lost their lives in the Great War. As we have seen among that number was the captain and goalscorer in the 1911 FA Cup final, Jimmy Speirs. Also killed was the man-of-the-match of the FA Cup final Robert Torrance. Sadly, Torrance has no known grave and is thus commemorated among the 36,000 names on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing near Ypres, Belgium. Others with no known final resting place include City's England internationals Jimmy Conlin and Evelyn Lintott.
Bradford City fans will have an opportunity to visit the last resting places of the nine players during a trip to France and Belgium in June. As well as the nine players the visit will also take in Serre where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and the grave of Bradford Park Avenue's Donald Bell - the only professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
The trip will take place between Thursday 2 June and Sunday 5 June 2011. People can book an early bird price of £270 if they pay before April. It includes all travel to and two nights accommodation in Lille and one night in Arras (including breakfast). The trip is strictly limited to twenty places and will be sold on a first come first served basis. To register interest please contact David Pendleton by email davidpendleton1@gmail.com or drop into the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade prior to home games.
As we celebrate the centenary of Bradford City's greatest triumph we will also remember the nine Bradford City players who lost their lives in the Great War. As we have seen among that number was the captain and goalscorer in the 1911 FA Cup final, Jimmy Speirs. Also killed was the man-of-the-match of the FA Cup final Robert Torrance. Sadly, Torrance has no known grave and is thus commemorated among the 36,000 names on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing near Ypres, Belgium. Others with no known final resting place include City's England internationals Jimmy Conlin and Evelyn Lintott.
Bradford City fans will have an opportunity to visit the last resting places of the nine players during a trip to France and Belgium in June. As well as the nine players the visit will also take in Serre where the Bradford Pals attacked on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and the grave of Bradford Park Avenue's Donald Bell - the only professional footballer to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
The trip will take place between Thursday 2 June and Sunday 5 June 2011. People can book an early bird price of £270 if they pay before April. It includes all travel to and two nights accommodation in Lille and one night in Arras (including breakfast). The trip is strictly limited to twenty places and will be sold on a first come first served basis. To register interest please contact David Pendleton by email davidpendleton1@gmail.com or drop into the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade prior to home games.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Working on the FA Cup Came Home Exhibition
Things are really hotting up at Bradford Industrial Museum in readiness for the exhibition about Bradford City’s FA Cup triumph 100 years ago. On Tuesday we went across to Preston, to the National Football Museum (currently in the process of moving to Manchester) to collect a splendid Newcastle United shirt from the game.Having been loaned the pristine City shirt of centre forward Frank O’Rourke, we now have an example from each team. How splendid they look!
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Bradford City FA Cup Winners 1911 Centenary Celebration Dinner
26 April 2011
7pm
Midland Hotel, Bradford
On the evening of 26 April 1911 Bradford City’s FA Cup winning team arrived back in the city following their 1-0 victory over Newcastle United in a replayed FA Cup Final at Old Trafford, Manchester. The scenes which greeted their arrival in Bradford were unprecedented. An estimated 100,000 people were on the streets to welcome their heroes; an incredible third of the entire population of the city.
The team arrived at Bradford Exchange station. Two horse-drawn charabancs took the players across the city centre to the Midland Hotel where they were to celebrate their famous victory. Sat alongside the driver of the first charabanc was Bradford City’s captain, and goalscorer in the FA Cup final Jimmy Speirs. On his lap was the brand new Bradford designed FA Cup. In an astonishing coincidence 1911 was the first year the current FA Cup was used. It had been designed by the Bradford jewellers Fattorini’s. Thanks to a first half header by Jimmy Speirs the FA Cup made a rapid return to the city of its birth.
Speirs held the cup aloft to deafening cheers as the charabancs crawled through the packed streets. Down Bridge Street, around Town Hall Square and along Market Street should have taken only a matter of minutes – the journey took over three quarters of an hour. When the players arrived in the sanctuary of the Midland Hotel, a mass of humanity crammed themselves into the streets outside the hotel. Speirs appeared at an upper window of the hotel to give the crowds a final glimpse of the silver trophy. Speirs must have looked down on a sea of cheering faces. What a moment it must have been. Without doubt the biggest celebration in the city of Bradford’s history.
Exactly one hundred years since those momentous events the FA Cup itself will return to Bradford will be in pride of place during a centenary celebration dinner which will take place at the Midland Hotel. One hundred years to the very hour when Speirs and his players arrived at the Midland Hotel in triumph diners will be raising a glass to their remarkable triumph. During the three course meal speeches made on that unforgettable night will be recreated and a brass band will play tunes from the Edwardian era. The Saltaire Brewery is producing a batch of Glorious 1911 vintage ale based on the same recipe that was drunk by the players in 1911. The real ale will be on sale in the Midland’s bar during the course of the evening.
The event has been organised by the bantamspast team at Valley Parade comprising Dave Pendleton, John Dewhirst and John Ashton. During the last year there has been fund raising through the sale of enamel badges and a cheque for £5000 will be formally presented to Professor David Sharpe and his staff from the Burns Unit.
On the night diners will have the opportunity to purchase a number of limited edition collectibles which are being produced to commemorate the evening including a programme, rosette and enamel badges with proceeds donated to the Bradford Burns Unit. Copies of David Pendleton’s book Glorious 1911 will be on sale and the author will be on hand to sign copies. Directors of Bradford City AFC have been invited and several former players have promised to attend.
The evening is close to being a sell out but a few tickets are still available. They are £25 a head and can be ordered by sending a cheque payable to:
BANTAMSPAST
PO BOX 307
SHIPLEY
BD18 9BT
Further details, email glorious1911@paraders.co.uk and/or from the websites www.paraders.co.uk or www.bantamspast.co.uk
Details also available from the bantamspast team in bantamspast museum above the club shop before kick off on match days.
Dress: jacket and tie for gentlemen, dress for ladies.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
When the FA Cup Came Home
There are just 66 days until the opening of the exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home.
This will be the undoubted highlight of our celebrations marking one hundred years since Bradford City won the FA Cup. You’ve seen the film, read the book and now it will not be long before you can visit the exhibition. On display will be several FA Cup winners’ medals, shirts from the era as well as a host of other memorabilia never seen before.
In preparation for the exhibition several exhibits, including the FA Cup Final ball, have been moved from the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade to Bradford Industrial Museum. As a result it will remain in a state of flux until the end of the season. However, 90% of our items remain on display and we hope that our regular visitors will bear with us until next season when the entire bantamspast museum will receive a much needed facelift.
The exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home is being hosted by our good friends at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill. The scale and cost of staging the exhibition meant that we could not hold it at bantamspast. However, many of the displays will move to Valley Parade in time for the 2011/12 season.
When the FA Cup Came Home
Saturday 19 March 2011 to Sunday 12 June 2011
Admission free
Bradford Industrial Museum
This will be the undoubted highlight of our celebrations marking one hundred years since Bradford City won the FA Cup. You’ve seen the film, read the book and now it will not be long before you can visit the exhibition. On display will be several FA Cup winners’ medals, shirts from the era as well as a host of other memorabilia never seen before.
In preparation for the exhibition several exhibits, including the FA Cup Final ball, have been moved from the bantamspast museum at Valley Parade to Bradford Industrial Museum. As a result it will remain in a state of flux until the end of the season. However, 90% of our items remain on display and we hope that our regular visitors will bear with us until next season when the entire bantamspast museum will receive a much needed facelift.
The exhibition When the FA Cup Came Home is being hosted by our good friends at Bradford Industrial Museum in Eccleshill. The scale and cost of staging the exhibition meant that we could not hold it at bantamspast. However, many of the displays will move to Valley Parade in time for the 2011/12 season.
When the FA Cup Came Home
Saturday 19 March 2011 to Sunday 12 June 2011
Admission free
Bradford Industrial Museum
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