St Helen’s ArchivePreserving the past for the future
Item
PQ016
Object ID
PQ016
Type
Rights Holder
CIC
Provenance
Swansea RFC
Season
Description
Stained wood commemorative plaque with gold lettering. Swansea RFC Rugby 1st XV Captains 1874-75 to 1981-82. Presented to the club by the SRFC Ladies' Committee, 1982.
Info
This commemorative plaque lists the Swansea RFC 1st XV Captains 1874-75 to 1981-82, the former date being the first full season during which Swansea played under Rugby Union laws instead of Association Football rules.
The plaque was dedicated at St Helen's during an evening celebrating the 75th anniversary of the rugby section of the Swansea Cricket & Football Club (see news cutting: NC025). This took place on Friday 9th October 1948 in the St Helen's Pavilion. Twenty-five former 1st XV captains attended the event, the earliest being W J Bancroft and most recent being the then incumbent Bryn Lewis. The plaque had been presented by brothers Griff and Reg Jeffreys of the town.
Recent research has found that the captain for the first season (under Association rules) was W R Randall. C C Chambers was captain during 1873-74. During 1878-79 A H Richardson was the 'elected' captain but did not play, C C Chambers skippering the team more often than any other player. Richardson again captained Swansea during 1880-81 though only playing 2 matches, F F Meager filling the post for the remainder. The 1883-84 season lists E S Richards as captain but G L Morris in fact held the post. Other names and dates are all correct. From the details we can see that two players: W J Bancroft and W J Trew each captained the First Fifteen for six seasons, which is a club record shared with Sam Kiley during the semi-professional era (see PQ17).
Including the two earliest (Association football) seasons not on the plaque, the correct early sequence of captaincy is as follows:
1872-73 - W R Randall
1873-74 - C C Chambers
1874-75 - C C Chambers
1875-76 - C C Chambers
1876-77 - F F Meager
1877-78 - F F Meager
1878-79 - A H Richardson/C C Chambers
1879-80 - A H Richardson
1880-81 - A H Richardson
1881-82 - G L Morris
1882-83 - G L Morris
1883-84 - G L Morris
After this the original plaque reads correctly. Records lost during the war prevented the earliest statistics to be confirmed. A new history of the early days of the club corrects these errors. See "White Gold - Swansea RFC 1872-1887" by David Dow in the 'PUBLICATIONS' section of this website.
The plaque was dedicated at St Helen's during an evening celebrating the 75th anniversary of the rugby section of the Swansea Cricket & Football Club (see news cutting: NC025). This took place on Friday 9th October 1948 in the St Helen's Pavilion. Twenty-five former 1st XV captains attended the event, the earliest being W J Bancroft and most recent being the then incumbent Bryn Lewis. The plaque had been presented by brothers Griff and Reg Jeffreys of the town.
Recent research has found that the captain for the first season (under Association rules) was W R Randall. C C Chambers was captain during 1873-74. During 1878-79 A H Richardson was the 'elected' captain but did not play, C C Chambers skippering the team more often than any other player. Richardson again captained Swansea during 1880-81 though only playing 2 matches, F F Meager filling the post for the remainder. The 1883-84 season lists E S Richards as captain but G L Morris in fact held the post. Other names and dates are all correct. From the details we can see that two players: W J Bancroft and W J Trew each captained the First Fifteen for six seasons, which is a club record shared with Sam Kiley during the semi-professional era (see PQ17).
Including the two earliest (Association football) seasons not on the plaque, the correct early sequence of captaincy is as follows:
1872-73 - W R Randall
1873-74 - C C Chambers
1874-75 - C C Chambers
1875-76 - C C Chambers
1876-77 - F F Meager
1877-78 - F F Meager
1878-79 - A H Richardson/C C Chambers
1879-80 - A H Richardson
1880-81 - A H Richardson
1881-82 - G L Morris
1882-83 - G L Morris
1883-84 - G L Morris
After this the original plaque reads correctly. Records lost during the war prevented the earliest statistics to be confirmed. A new history of the early days of the club corrects these errors. See "White Gold - Swansea RFC 1872-1887" by David Dow in the 'PUBLICATIONS' section of this website.
Keywords
plaques, captains,
Item sets
Linked resources
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| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
 NC025 |
Keywords | Text |
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