Gazers at blazers

The Dulwich Hamlet Pop-Up Museum was a great success, with about 60 or 70 people coming along to see some of the things we had on show. The highlights included an England cap of the legendary Edgar Kail, the shirt that Ernie Toser wore in the 1937 Amateur Cup Final and the winner’s medal that he won three years earlier in the same competition.

The walls of the boardroom are decorated with pictures as it is, and first time visitors were in for a treat. Added to that there was also a chance to view a number of rarely seen team photographs, programmes, picture cards, posters, autograph books, handbooks and other ephemera from my own small collection. 

The most popular item on show was Sid Simpson’s pink and blue striped cricket blazer. Some suggested that if we were to reproduce them they would be a big hit on the terraces at Champion Hill. 

Another highlight was a newspaper report after the 1932 Amateur Cup Final when Edgar Kail put on one of his greatest displays. The relevant section can be seen below.

It was a great joy to flick through a series of scrapbooks from the 1940s and 50s that Alex Crane brought along, and chat with young and old about the rich and glorious history of the Dulwich Hamlet Football Club. 

There was a wide range of visitors from 96 year old Bill Kirby, our most senior supporter, down to one year old babe in arms Oisin Molloy-Vaughan. Although Bill first saw Dulwich in the 1930s, more than half of those who signed the visitors book saw their first Hamlet match in the 21st Century.