DULWICH HAMLET IN PRINT
Pa Wilson, the founder of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club, perceived early on that his young players might like to see their names in print. A keepsake, something to file away in a drawer or in a scrapbook and show their parents and friends. After all, most of them were still teenagers.
Pa arranged for local printers Lydall & Sons to print the matchday programmes with team line-ups, and a paragraph or two introducing the visitors and a brief report of the previous week’s game. And when his charges went off to war Pa produced regular information sheets – ‘News of the Pink and Blue Brigade’ – which were mailed to the Hamlet boys on the Western Front. Lydall’s was there from the club’s inception right through to the 1970s churning out the annual handbooks, season tickets, stationery and all other club literature.
Pa Wilson was long gone by the fiftieth anniversary of his club. By then another world war was raging. Celebrations were understandably muted, and as far as I am aware there was nothing printed up. That had to wait for another 25 years.
The ‘75th Anniversary’ book was published in 1968, with over a hundred pages of text charting the history of the Dulwich Hamlet Football Club from its beginnings in the late Victorian period to the swinging sixties. The book is split into three sections: ‘The Growth of the Club’ tells the story of the early days, and the rise from a junior side to become one of the most respected teams in the south east. The ‘Success Between the Wars’ chapter shows Dulwich Hamlet as arguably the finest Amateur club in the country. In ‘The Struggle After the War’ the club is in real decline, having to seek re-election on more than one occasion to remain in the Isthmian League.
The book’s content is really made up of text from the annual handbooks, and in many cases verbatim. All the Hamlet results in the Isthmian League from the 1907/08 to 1966/67 season are documented. Players’ individual honours are also listed, as are the names of every club officer from 1893. The foreign tours record long forgotten wins against some well-known European clubs like Borussia Monchengladbach, Ajax and Athletic Bilbao.
The preface by Sir Stanley Rous, Head of FIFA, who in his earlier days had refereed at Champion Hill, shows he held Dulwich in very high regard, despite the barren period they were going through.
This publication is well worth seeking out and adding to your collection.
It was a further quarter of a century before the next official publication. The ‘100thAnniversary Centenary Brochure 1893 – 1992’ was a great disappointment and a wasted opportunity. The booklet, A4 in size, gave a potted history of the club and reproduced a handful of rare photographs. But 18 of those 32 precious pages …were advertisements! Presumably to pay for the printing.
The centenary ushered in a new era for Dulwich Hamlet, and took place at the time of demolition of the old Champion Hill ground and the building of the present one.
At this point it may be worth mentioning John Lawrence. John took over producing the programme in the early 1970s, and until his recent ill health had faithfully written all the copy, updated all the stats, arranged the printing, and so on for nigh on 50 years. His sterling efforts have been very much appreciated far and wide and if anyone is worthy of the moniker Hamlet Historian, it is JL. We trust he makes a speedy recovery.
In the 1980s another club legend, the young Mishi Morath took it upon himself to produce, almost single-handedly, a fanzine dedicated to Dulwich Hamlet. After a couple of attempts he came up with the ‘Champion Hill Street Blues’, the king of the Hamlet fanzines, a title that ran for over a decade. CHSB was far from official, and was initially sub-titled ‘the independent supporters magazine.’ It allowed contributors to make fun of the club, the players, officials and fellow fans, as well as make necessary or unnecessary criticism. And there was always the right to reply, which Mishi would always publish. Sometimes we went over the top – it seemed like fun at the time – and we may now be slightly embarrassed at one or two of the things we published.
Other notable fanzines include Four Goals With His [H]’ead, Thinkin’ Pink n’ Talkin’ Blues, Pink n’ Booze and The Moral Victory.
By the mid-nineties I had started to gain an interest in the history of the club. I read the 75 Year book at the Local Studies Library at the Borough, and dug deep through untold microfilms of old local newspapers. This resulted in my first professionally produced book ‘The Story of a Season’ about the 1919/20 campaign when Dulwich won the Isthmian League and FA Amateur Cup double. The print run was 600 and to our amazement they sold out.
I followed this up with something similar about the ‘1912/13 Season’. Produced on the office ink duplicator, collated and stapled, with a print run of 100, it went like hot cakes. It was clear there was an interest in the history of the Hamlet. What better time to produce a magazine called the Hamlet Historian. Again, this was another of Mishi’s initiations. ‘The occasional magazine for those interested in the history of Dulwich Hamlet’ as he called it, was exactly that. I am extremely proud of my association with the HH, especially some of the books that have sprung from it.
The ‘war dead’ books by Roger Deason (When Shall Their Glory Fade) and Steve Hunnisett (For Freedom) commemorated over two dozen players who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the two World Wars. These books were notable for delivering fresh information of the lives and service records of those whose names we only really knew from the bronze war memorial located in the foyer at the entrance to the present ground. It is now in the boardroom and was originally above the players’ tunnel at the old ground.
Roger’s interest in the period, combined with his excellent research skills, saw him put together much information about football at Champion Hill during WWI, when Dulwich were depleted of playing staff and eventually had to rely on a group of teenagers. Led by the legendary Edgar Kail the youngsters filled the boots and pink and blue shirts of those on active service. The result was another book ‘Quite Wrong To Do So’. Although this was published independently, the HH did commission Roger to write a book about the football teams in Dulwich in the 1870s and 1880s before a certain Dulwich Hamlet FC was formed in 1893. ‘Before The Hamlet’ is a welcome addition to the library.
The Only Way Is Up’ is a lovely book, recounting the extraordinary Isthmian League Division One South championship winning season of 2012/13. It has a proper fanzine feel about it, with its different styles of writing and contributions from both nouveau and old school Rabblers.
A handsome full colour photo essay ‘Home – Dulwich Hamlet 10 Months In Exile’ by club photographer Duncan Palmer, chronicles the club’s fight with property developers to remain at Champion Hill, and the tenure at Tooting & Mitcham United’s Imperial Fields. It was there, at the home of our bitter rivals, that Dulwich won the Isthmian League play-off final and promotion to the National League South in 2018.
For another HH project we teamed up with former Finnish footballer Harri Laine to recount the amazing career of one of Finland’s pioneer sportsmen. ‘Niilo Tammisalo – Hamlet Stroller to Hall of Famer’ is a concise biography of the acclaimed bespectacled goalkeeper, who spent several months in England in 1922 and made a number of appearances for the Dulwich Hamlet Reserves and the Strollers team.
‘Edgar and Adolf’ by Phil Earle and Michael Wagg is a fictional account of Dulwich Hamlet’s greatest son and the friendship he had with his Altona 93 counterpart. Kail and Jager did actually play against each other in 1925 – between the wars – in a friendly match during the Hamlet’s Easter tour of Germany. The book is aimed at teenagers but is just as easily enjoyed by adults. Almost a century after that original game took place the two celebrated figures names still live on. Altona 93 play at the Adolf Jager stadium whilst the Dulwich ground is located at Edgar Kail Way. Even more importantly is the wonderful friendship which has developed over the past decade between the two clubs following the chance meeting of Mishi and Jan Stover.
Most of the above books from recent times are out of print and very difficult to find. The exception is Waggy and Phil’s book which is available on Amazon and from all good booksellers. However, my ‘Hussein Hegazi – Dulwich Hamlet’s Egyptian King’ from 2019 has taken on a life of its own. Hegazi was a pre-First World War sensation at Champion Hill and marvelled fans at home and abroad with his great skill and trickery. Aside from Dulwich he also represented Cambridge University, the Corinthians and the English Wanderers. On his return to Egypt he was one of the key figures in the development of Egyptian football. Earlier this year an Egyptian publisher made a request to translate the book into Arabic. We gave them permission and it has now been showcased at the Cairo International Book Fair and in Abu Dhabi. Absolutely amazing!
Jack McInroy,
June 2023.
www.thehamlethistorian.blogspot.com
