Dulwich Hamlet before the Isthmian League

Dulwich Hamlet joined the Isthmian League, currently sponsored by Ryman, at the commencement of the 1907/08 season. And they have remained there ever since. 

A season by season record can be found at the Dulwich Hamlet page of the Football Club History Database. 

The club has had some ups and downs along the way, and even a re-election, but it is still there in the Isthmian Premier League. However, that could well change in the next year or two if the team under the direction of Gavin Rose continues its rise.

The following lists the club's earliest movements in the local leagues and the various successes it achieved.

Dulwich Hamlet First Team before entering the Isthmian League

1892/93 Friendlies began in the second half of the season. All games were lost.

1893/94 Friendlies

1894/95 Camberwell League

1895/96 Camberwell & Brixton League B Division

1896/97 Camberwell & Brixton League Senior Division WON TITLE

1897/98 Southern Suburban League Division 2 WON TITLE (Dewar Shield)

Finalists of the London Junior Cup – lost second replay to Commercial Athletic.

1898/99 Friendlies and London Junior Cup

1899/1900 Dulwich League WON TITLE (Not all games completed owing to bad winter)

Winners of the London Junior Cup – beat Waverley.

Won 20 of 21 games played. Lost the final game of the season.

1900/01 Dulwich League WON TITLE

1901/02 Southern Suburban League Senior Division WON TITLE

1902/03 Southern Suburban League Runners-up.

Winners of the Surrey Charity Shield – beat Weybridge

1903/04 Southern Suburban League Division 1 WON TITLE

1904/05 Southern Suburban League Division 1

Winners of the Surrey Senior Cup – beat Redhill

1905/06 Southern Suburban League Division 1– unable to complete fixtures and withdrew from competition.

Winners of the Surrey Senior Cup – beat Croydon after second replay
1906/07 Runners up Southern Suburban League

Semi detached Suburban ...Mr Smith

Semi detached 
Suburban … Mr Smith

"You collect Dulwich Hamlet stuff, don’t you.” asks Jamie Wyatt at a Bognor Regis Town tea bar. “Some things.” I say.  After a few more enquiries he dropped into my hand a jiffy bag containing a 1906/07 Southern Suburban Football League winner’s medal. Over a century ago it had been awarded to a Dulwich Hamlet player. The reverse of the medal reads “WINNERS – DIV.1 WEST – 1906-7.” These were ancient days when Hamlet players were better known by their nicknames, ‘Doddy’, ‘Badger’, ‘Wozzle’, and ‘Tyke’. Jamie purchased the medal via Ebay and wanted it to stay with the club. Good man.

A closer study revealed that a part of the medal is missing. The crest of the Southern Suburban League should sit in the centre, but the piece has been lost along the way. Still, it is a nice artefact of Hamlet history.

Further study also reveals that the Dulwich Hamlet Reserves competed in that division at the time. The league dated back to 1897 and ran for about forty years. In the early days, and prior to joining the Isthmian League – where the club remains to this day – the Hamlet’s First XI, Reserves and ‘A’ teams all partook in the competition at different times and in different divisions. This all adds to the confusion.

The influence of Mr Lorraine ‘Pa’ Wilson, (pictured below) the founder of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club, spread far and wide. Even today one of the scholarships at Dulwich College is named in his honour. He was a leader in a number of other South London sporting societies and organisations, one of these being the Southern Suburban Football League.

Among its members in the early years were some of the best amateur sides in the south east: Wimbledon Old Centrals, Charlton Athletic, Sutton United, Croydon, Bromley, Tooting Town, Old Kingstonians, Carshalton Athletic, Nunhead, Metrogas, West Norwood, Cray Wanderers and Dulwich Hamlet.

On its foundation Pa Wilson was nominated as the Honorary Secretary, a position he held for the first three years. The league enjoyed a very successful start. The first season comprised of 19 clubs, and this was extended to 28 the following year, when a nicely compiled handbook was produced. Originally, member clubs had to be within a ten mile radius of Crystal Palace, but the criteria was soon changed to allow Redhill FC entrance.

But during the third year things began to take a decided turn for the worst. Problems seem to have stemmed mainly with the top division. This consisted of just five clubs – Bromley, Foots Cray, Old Askeans, West Croydon and the 3rd Kent Vol. Artillery.  West Croydon and Foots Cray soon resigned and Bromley were suspended, which led to the competition being abandoned and many fixtures unfulfilled. After such embarrassment, the officials were actually about to call it a day and disband the league altogether.

In stepped the extraordinarily gifted Sydney Smith, who devoted himself to getting things back on track. Smith, along with Pa Wilson, entirely reformed the League by amalgamating with the recently defunct Camberwell & Brixton League (another of Pa Wilson’s creations), and the South London League. Smith and Wilson were clearly soul brothers – each one a guiding light, philosopher and friend. Countless junior footballers in South London owed these two men a huge debt of gratitude.

The league also had its own representative side. (See picture below: copies of which can be obtained from AW Durrell Photographers, 157 Norwood Road, SE. Priced two shillings and sixpence.) Hamlet men who represented the Southern Suburban League include Jack Thompson, Arthur Newman, Percy Morris, CW Jones, David ‘Doddy’ Wight and Arthur ‘Badger’ Knight





By 1904, with Pa Wilson now the league’s President, it was reputed that the management and organisation of the Southern Suburban League was unrivalled in England. “Aiming at being something more than a mere collection of clubs banded together to play one another for points and trophies, the management takes a very lively interest, not only in the fortunes of the clubs competing, but also in the well-being of individual players of the various teams.” (South London Press, 2 November 1904) This was typical of Wilson, whose tireless work as the founder, secretary and president was acknow-ledged when he was awarded a gold medal and an illuminated address from the league.

In the very first season, 1897/98, Dulwich Hamlet finished top of Division 2. Eight teams competed in this division, and of the fourteen Dulwich games they secured twelve wins, with one draw and one defeat.

The Dulwich Hamlet first team were champions of the Southern Suburban League Senior Division in 1901/02 and 1903/04 (Oliver Isaacs Shield). In the season between they finished level on points with West Norwood.  A play-off between the two teams took place at Herne Hill Track where the home side were victorious.

Towards the end of the 1905/06 season Dulwich Hamlet withdrew from the Southern Suburban League. They had been ordered to play their final 4 games in the next 4 days. An impossible task: Two of those days were already given over to the replay of the London Senior Cup Final and the second replay of the Surrey Senior Cup Final. The club felt it would be unfair to the teams they had already played if they were to field the Reserves in some of the remaining games. And besides, the Reserves were competing in their own section of the League anyway – which they won, and with it the Dewar Shield. The 1906/07 season saw the Reserves win the Division 1 West section of the Southern Suburban League …which, you may remember, is where we came in.
_________________________________________________

South London Press, 24 April 1897

Football – The New League

At a meeting of senior South London clubs held in London, on Tuesday, it was resolved to form a Southern Suburban League, consisting of three divisions, of eight clubs in each division embracing an area of 10 miles from the Crystal Palace, the chief advantage of the League being as follows:

1.    To promote friendly rivalry among senior and junior South London clubs.

2.    To enable the supporters of the competing clubs to follow their respective teams in ‘away’ league matches at a minimum cost.

The following 8 clubs are expected to join the First Division: Annerley, Bromley, Deptford Town, West Croydon, Wandsworth, Vampires, West Norwood, Old Wilsonians or 3^rd Grenadier Guards.

Mr Lorraine Wilson of Lynton Lodge, Dulwich, was appointed Secretary (pro. tem.) and after framing the rules the meeting was adjourned until May 3, at 6.30pm, in order to select clubs for the respective divisions, as well as to appoint office bearers. Strong clubs desirous of competing are invited to communicate with Mr L. Wilson from whom copies of the rules and other details are obtainable. Such clubs are invited to attend the meeting on May 3, and can obtain admission cards on application.

South London Press, 1 May 1897

The Southern Suburban League delegates meet on Monday evening to discuss the final preparations for the floatation of the League. It is to be hoped the venture will meet with every success, Mr W.O. Mackley may perhaps accept the secretaryship – a good man too.


Original article from HH27 Spring 2015

Copyright © Jack McInroy,

Edgar Kail - the man with the grey stockings

Article kindly supplied by Jan Stover of Altona 93

“Edgar Kail - the man with the grey stockings.”

Those were the words the Altona 93 club paper [matchday programme] used to describe the legendary Edgar Kail to its readers in April 1925. The club, along with other regional papers, praised the actions and the goals of the famous Dulwich player in the match against Altona 93 on Good Friday. This match was the first of three Dulwich Hamlet played in Germany during the Easter holiday. The results were:

Altona 93 1 Dulwich Hamlet 4

Gelsenkirchen 1 Dulwich Hamlet 1

Düsseldorf 3 Dulwich Hamlet 1

In the last few years Mishi Morath and I have tried to find out more about this early friendly match by searching through newspaper archives. In the 1920s most of the German newspapers were associated with political parties. All the left-wing and working class papers did not mention the clubs from the German Football Association (DFB) because their clubs were organised in another football association!

Altona was an independent city until 1937. That is the reason why only three newspapers are important for us: Altonaer Nachrichten, Hamburger Nachrichten and Hamburger Anzeiger. There were also some football magazines at that time as well, but they were devoted to West and South Germany and are not located in Hamburg.

The mid 1920s saw a first boom of football as a spectator sport in Germany. Famous teams like Altona 93 and Hamburger SV played in front of thousands of people. There was no (official) professional football and the leagues had been so regional that every match was a local derby. But the biggest crowds could be reached if teams from far away were invited. Especially sides from Great Britain. These matches were unique and generated much public interest. Both Altona 93 and Dulwich Hamlet had internationals in their teams. That’s why the Dulwich Hamlet match in Altona – which wasn't a part of Hamburg in that time – was advertised in several newspapers. For example:

Altonaer Nachrichten, 14. Jg. (1925), Nr.80 (4.4.)

Hamburger Anzeiger, 38. Jg. (1925), Nr.81 (6.4.)

Altonaer Nachrichten, 14. Jg. (1925), Nr.84 (9.4.)

 

In English: “Don’t miss the game Altona 93 v Dulwich Hamlet FC”

Hamburger Anzeiger, 38. Jg. (1925), Nr.84 (9.4.)

On Thursday both newspapers published articles about the up-coming match as well. They informed the readers about the quality in the Dulwich Hamlet side, all the titles Dulwich Hamlet had won in the 1920s, the clubs’ recent results (Dulwich Hamlet had beaten London Caledonians 5-0, Altona 93 had lost the North German Championship 4-5 against HSV) and the expected line-ups. This one was published in the Altonaer Nachrichten:

The team from Altona 93 was almost at full strength. Only the goalkeeper Erich Wentorf, who also played for the German national team, could not play due to health reasons. The Altona 93 club paper later informed us that Williams wasn't the first choice Dulwich Hamlet goalkeeper either. The Dulwich Hamlet yearbook 1925/26 added: “We were without two of our regular halfbacks and two regular forwards.”

A funny episode happened on the journey from London to Hamburg. One of the Dulwich players went missing for a couple of hours somewhere in Saxony. He had fallen asleep on a platform in the station of Osnabrück and missed his train, eventually turning up later in the evening.

The German journalists had been astonished about the fact that Dulwich Hamlet FC had 300 members and a kind of freeze on admissions. The match itself was watched by 6,000 to 7,000 people. Although there had been a strike in the public transport sector, the trains from Hamburg ran with additional wagons.

The main points of the match:

 (Altona 93 had a goal disallowed for offside: Warnecke)

0-1 Kail

0-2 Kail

(Warnecke missed a penalty given for handball)

Halftime

0-3 Nicol

(Dulwich Hamlet had a goal disallowed goal for offside)

0-4 Kail

1-4 Jäger

All the journalists were impressed by the combinations and the technical skill the Dulwich Hamlet side showed over 90 minutes. Altona 93 could not keep up with the speed of the game, and a lot of spectators were confused that all the Dulwich players defended in their own half when Altona had the ball. The Dulwich strikers were very quick paced and, supported by some defenders, were soon on the counter attack and back in front of the Altona 93 goal.

The first goal was a strong 20m shot from Edgar Kail, the second and third were results of defensive mistakes and the fourth was a great Kail solo goal.  The only Altona 93 player who could keep up with the Dulwich side was Adolf Jäger, who scored the late consolation goal following some dribbling from his teammate Oswald. In summary it was a well-deserved win for Dulwich Hamlet, despite Altona 93 winning a lot of corner kicks during the match.

Back in London the South London Press reported on the match:

DULWICH HAMLET IN GERMANY

Equally share Aggregate Points with Their Opponents

Dulwich Hamlet, in the course of their tour in Germany, played three matches, winning one, drawing one and losing one. They opened on Good Friday against Hamburg Altona, one of the leading teams of North Germany, and won easily by four goals to one, Kail being in irresistible form. For the second encounter only four first team men were available and, to make matters worse, Bunce twisted an ankle after twenty minutes' play. A draw of one-all therefore was not out of place. In the third game, the tourists were a distinctly tired side, and although the score was 1-1 at half-time, the speed and ball control of the Germans proved too much, and the home team won by three goals to one.

Hopefully there'll be a return match between our first teams someday.

All to nah – Jan

Original article from HH26 Winter 2014

Copyright © Jan Stover

West of East Dulwich - North of Tierra del Fuego

The more one mines the history of the Dulwich Hamlet Football Club the richer that history seems to become. 

We have spoken about the Buck brothers on several occasions. Most notably in Roger Deason’s scholarly article about Tom Rose in issue number 15 of the Hamlet Historian.  There were seven brothers in all – from George to Septimus – and four of them were in the Dulwich Hamlet first team. The Bucks, as their name might suggest, were swaggering dandies, no less, who hailed from East Dulwich, and played an important part in the growth of the club during the first decade of the twentieth century. 

In an earlier day they turned out for local rivals Townley Park FC. Indeed, Joseph Buck was one of the founder members of the club. Sadly, due to an internal rift, they eventually left under a cloud, but not before a very successful period. In 1903 and 1904 Townley Park won the Surrey Senior Cup two years in succession. The Hamlet achieved the same feat in 1905 and 1906. The latter of which saw the Bucks feature in the Hamlet side.

Townley Park at the start of the 1904/05 season

Fred, Harold and Sidney Buck (pictured on cover of HH27) joined Dulwich Hamlet at the start of the 1905/06 campaign, and this band of brothers was a mainstay of the side for the next three years. The calendar people had already arranged that the two teams meet in a friendly at Burbage Road in mid-September. However, just weeks after switching allegiance, none of the Buck brothers were selected for the match. It was probably their choice. The relationship between the two leading clubs in the area was actually very good. Every Boxing Day they met for the annual charity fundraiser, where over the course of seven years hundreds of pounds were raised.  

In their second season at Champion Hill, the free-scoring Bucks were responsible for over forty first team goals between them, including two hat tricks for 21 year old Sidney. 1907/08 saw the introduction of Seppy Buck, the baby of the family, into the Hamlet forward line – which now numbered four Bucks – and a collective thirty odd goals.

However, it appears that the family became a bit of a thorn in the side. And just as they did with their former club, they left Dulwich en masse in September 1908 as the new season was about to get underway. For the first time in three years there would be no Bucks in the team. The feeling is that they were trying to establish too firm a foothold in the running of things; even holding the club to ransom. The man in the know at the South London Press reported, “A very difficult situation was created and [one] which Dulwich Hamlet – with a just regard for its dignity – could not accept. It has been whispered to me by a little bird that the Hamlet will have no more use for the services of the Bucks.” Cryptically he added, “A committee must be in a position to judge for itself without being placed in a similar position to the coach and the highwayman.” 
Five years later they were remembered fondly in the DHFC club handbook: “The Brothers Buck …were with us at our zenith and only left us through their loyalty to each other.”

The next thing we hear, at the beginning of October 1908, is that three of the Buck brothers were assisting the Sidcup club New Crusaders. Pa Wilson breathed a sigh of relief. 

Seeking to broaden his horizons, in the New Year Sidney Buck took up a job opportunity that arose in Uruguay, and departed from Southampton on January 8th, 1909. The South London Press the following week, records: “Sidney Buck sails for Buenos Aires to take up a business position. He will doubtless find football to suit him in South America.” 

And how right they were! Sidney Buck found a suitable position amongst the forwards of the Montevideo Wanderers FC in Uruguay. He can be seen in the 1909 team photograph (back row second player from left). The Wanderers apparently took their name from England’s very own Wolverhampton club. Incidentally, around the same time another Hamlet man, Billy ‘Colsey’ Millward, took up a post in the region and turned out for Belgrano Athletic.

Montevideo Wanderers 1909

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay is about a hundred miles downstream of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires. The River Plate separates the two countries. 
The Uruguay – Argentina fixture was really the only international match these two national teams played at the time. Brazil did not yet have a team, and so the two neighbours were content to meet two or three times per year for one trophy or another. Between 1902 and 1915 they contested 34 matches. One coveted prize was the Copa Newton. The Newton Cup only dated back to 1906 but ran almost continuously until 1930, and then only sporadically until 1976 when the competition was scrapped. The 1909 match took place in Montevideo and resulted in a 2-2 draw. As was the custom in the event of a draw, the visiting team held the trophy for the year.  

Remarkably, featuring on the right wing in the Uruguay side was none other than the former Dulwich Hamlet man Sidney Buck! So, within nine months of arriving in South America he had managed to get himself included in the most important international match on the entire continent. It also makes Sid Buck one of the earliest former Hamlet players to win international honours. 
In May 1910 Chile was invited to send a team to Argentina to make up a triangular tournament. This was to commemorate the centenary of the May Revolution. It was the first time the two teams had ever met. In fact it was Chile’s first ever international. The tournament was almost a precursor to the Copa America and surely laid the foundation to the competition that we still have today. Again Sidney Buck was chosen for Uruguay’s two games, and scored the third goal in the three nil win over Chile.  His third and final international appearance for Uruguay was in the decider, a 4-1 defeat by Argentina.

It is difficult to keep tabs on Sidney Buck’s movements. He was certainly back in Inglaterra in the Townley Park side in April 1911 as his name appears on a team sheet.

The Townley Park ground 1905

He then returned to South America later in the year and was soon found captaining the Quilmes Atlético * side in Buenos Aires. This was the season they won their first ever domestic championship – Argentina’s Primera Division – pipping Racing Club, Estudiantes, Belgrano and River Plate, all still at the top a century later. The very first encounter between Quilmes and Racing Club saw Buck among the goals, and in their first ever victory over their rivals in July 1912 he bagged a hat trick. He finished the season as the club’s leading marksman. The Argentine newspaper, Modern Times, wrote in glowing terms of Buck’s talent. “Sidney Buck needs no introduction. The majority of fans will remember him from the Uruguayan international team which was always most feared. Buck, on the football field, is the prototype of the English amateur.” The paper continued its praise holding him up as a role model for budding footballers. “It is worth studying his style: his dribbling skills and the control he has over the ball.” Once again Buck’s familiar face can be seen in the Quilmes team photograph …wearing a cricket jumper.

The Quilmes team in 1912

* Pronounced Kill’mez

Nicknamed ‘the Brewers’ and with strong British links, Quilmes was originally formed by players of the legendary Alumni Athletic Club. The Alumni were on a par with our very own Corinthians and on occasions supplied the bulk of the Argentine team. Quilmes continued that tradition. And in their ranks was R. Lionel Peel-Yates, whose description: “Vigorous, of medium height and sporting an enormous moustache.” warms one to him.  Not only did Peel-Yates make four appearances for Argentina the previous year, but he was an Alumnus, a Quilmesman, and an old team mate of Sid Buck’s from their Townley Park days in Dulwich a decade earlier.

Having been so successful for Quilmes, in August 1912 Buck was chosen to wear the blue and white stripes of Argentina against Uruguay for the Copa Premier Honor, another of those trophies contested by the two sides. It put Sidney Robert Buck among that elite group of athletes who had the honour of representing two separate countries at the same sport.  Uruguay won the match 3-0.  

Within twenty years Uruguay triumphed in two Olympic football tournaments (1924 Paris, 1928 Amsterdam). In the latter they defeated their old rivals, silver medalists Argentina. And then two years later as host nation of the very first World Cup, they did exactly the same thing on their home turf in front of a crowd of 93,000. 

I wonder if any of the players on the Estadio Centenario pitch that day had studied Sidney Buck’s style as young boys. If they had …it was well worth it.

Original article from HH27 Spring 2015 
Copyright © Jack McInroy