1st Battalion Rifle Brigade - Football team 1907-08

In a week when the England football team has fallen at another World Cup hurdle, here's a team photo from another era. As the caption states, these men all belong to the 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade football team, and they won the Irish Army Cup by beating the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers 3.0 at Dublin in April 1908.

Helpfully, the photo names the players and I have added more details to some of these men, as follows:

Sgt William James Jelley (subsequently commissioned)

5111 Acting Corporal John Mears

3408 Acting Corporal George Vaughan Laidler

7423 Acting Corporal Walter Kempton

Lieutenant Christopher William Cookson

Rifleman A Knott

Acting Corporal T Smith

Sergeant Major Leonard Eastmead

7375 Acting Sergeant Fred Midlane

9578 Bandsman Joseph Gilbert

6180 Rifleman Frank Horrocks

6158 Rifleman Sylvester Carey

6926 Acting Corporal Arthur Patrick

Corporal T Gregory

In each case I searched for the men on my British Army Ancestors website and was able to identify the men from their regimental numbers or surviving records in various series. The longest serving man here was George Laidler who enlisted in 1894. Joseph Gilbert was the most recent recruit, enlisting in January 1903.

Incidentally the "Acting" ranks were, as far as I know, peculiar to the Rifle Brigade at this time. "Acting" in the Rifle Brigade would have been "Lance" in other regiments.

Rifle Brigade Chronicles - For Sale

Tragically, Lieutenant Cookson died the year after this photogrpah was taken. His obituary appears in the Rifle Brigade Chronicle for 1909:

Christopher William Cookson joined the Regiment from the Militia, 20 May 1905, and served with the 1st Battalion in Malta and Ireland.

The tragic circumstances of  his deatrh are still fresh in the minds of Riflemen. On 7 April 1909 he went with a brother officer to fish in Maine Water, Randalstown, which had been rented by the battalion from Lord O'Neill. He appears to have fallen into a deep hole and the water in his wading boots rendered swimming impossible, there was also a very swift current running, and his companion was powerless to help him, nearly losing his own life in his efforts to save his friend.

He was only 26 years of age, and was a very popular and promising officer.

Military Books for sale

I've added another tab to this site so that I can offer military books for sale.

The sudden and untimely death of my next door neighbour at the age of 51 has made me think quite a lot about what would happen to my effects were I to peg-it tomorrow. Would my books be sold on and achieve their true value or would they be taken to the nearest charity shop? Worse still, would they simply be thrown out?

Having had some of my books on shelves for the best part of 40 years, I'd be horrified to think that such a fate should befall them and so I'm going to start weeding them out and passing them on to a new audience.

I will add to the Books for Sale list as I go on. In the meantime, I've started with a great collection of Rifle Brigade Chronicles from 1890 to 1932. All of the 1890s volumes were sold within a few hours but there is still a huge amount of information to be found in those volumes which remain.

Regimental annuals and regimental chronicles provide a massive amount of detail and, if you're very lucky, may even include your other-rank ancestor's name as well. For even if, by chance, a service record does happen to survive for the person you are interested in, it is unlikely to mention that he took part in a tug-of-war match, or was a member of the 1st Battalion football team, or won a shooting medal.

The Rifle Brigade chronicles are full of fascinating information (and the trivia vbeloved of our Victorian and Edwardian ancestors) and most of them are profusely illustrated as well. Each battalion of the regiment submitted annual returns and so here you'll see who the officers were, where the battalion was stationed and what it was doing. Quite simply, they're essential reading but I have two sets, one complete set which stretches from 1890 to 1965 and the other which covers 1890 to 1932 (with a few gaps). They take up a lot of room and so I'm pleased to offer them for sale.

All of the photos on this page are taken from various issues of the Rifle Brigade Chronicle.