Thomas Cook's Rugby Club

Thos. Cook & Son's RFC
Founded	1910 -1966 (1910 -1966)
Location	Ravensbourne, Kent, England
Ground(s)	Ravensbourne Kent

Club Jersey

Thomas Cook’s amateur Rugby Football Club was founded in 1910 as part of a wider sports club established by the company in 1897, with the ground at Ravensbourne in Kent.
The first club president was Frank Cook (eldest grandson of the company founder),^[1] who had played his rugby at Mill Hill School.
It ceased playing during both World Wars, and like many ‘house’ rugby clubs it no longer exists. At its most popular the club ran two XV’s until it closed in 1966. During its lifetime the club played against well over 100 different clubs in London and the South East.
It also established a regular Easter tour to the Netherlands in 1958 playing RC Hilversum^[2] which helped to promote Dutch rugby during the 1960s. The original tour fixture was filmed for Dutch cinemas and television,^[3] in front of crowd of over 2,600 at the AGOVV Apeldoorn stadium in Apeldoorn.

A small group of ex-players were able to celebrate what would have been its centenary season in 2010 with a lunch at the Clarence pub^[4] in London’s Mayfair.^[5] Another reunion took place at 'Langan's Brasserie' ^[6] Mayfair in September 2014.

Thomas Cooks Sports Club

Established in 1897, initially known as the ‘Ludgate Circus Athletic Club’, (after the company’s first London Head Office) when the existing football and swimming clubs amalgamated. The new club had four sections – football, swimming, cricket and tennis – and the playing facilities scattered across London. Despite having no ground, it proved popular and by 1902 the club was simply known as the ‘Ludgate Circus Club’. The company purchased land at Ravensbourne Kent and laid out a sports ground and erected a Pavilion. By 1905 it had become one of the finest private athletic grounds near London.^[7] By the summer of 1911 the sports club had over 600 members.

The rugby section was established in 1910 as the Ludgate Circus XV. After the First World War a new pavilion was built in 1922 opened by Thomas Cook's eldest grandson, the club's president Frank Henry Cook (1862-1931). The rugby club changed its name to Thos. Cook & Son's RFC in 1926 after the company moved to its new London Head Office in Berkeley Street Mayfair. During this time the annual summer Sports Day was held at Ravensbourne which became a popular date in the company's social calendar.

After the company moved its Head Office to Peterborough in 1977 and it was renamed Thomas Cook Sports and Social Club. The ground at Ravensbourne Kent was acquired by the Lewisham Council and is now known as Summerhouse Playing Fields part of Beckenham Place Park estate.

Rugby Club

Thos. Cook & Son’s RFC (Est. 1910)
45 Berkeley Street, London W1 Telephone: GROsvenor 4000

First Club President
Frank Cook – Grandson of founder Thomas Cook

Club Colours
Royal blue jersey, white collar, broad yellow (gold) hoop with chocolate brown keylines, navy blue shorts

Post war Club Presidents
Stanley Adams, Chairman (1953–59)
Sir John Elliot (railway manager), Chairman (1959–67)

Affiliations
Rugby Union, Kent County Rugby Football Union,
Kent Society of Rugby Football Union Referees

Club Ground (Est. 1905)
Ravensbourne Avenue, Beckenham, Kent Telephone: RAVensbourne 6713

Honours caps
Introduced in the 1920s in common with rugby tradition of the time.These were awarded to outstanding players (by common concent) at the end of each season at a club dinner. After the World War Two club revival the practice had discontinued along with club dinners.

Resident Stewards
1953-1956 Annie & William Dyer
1956-1975 George & Gladys Gladdy

Club XV Captains 1953 - 1966

1953-4 Roy Dangerfield
1954-5 Roy Dangerfield
1955-6 Roy Dangerfield
1956-7 Don Keston
1957-8 Don Keston
1958-9 Hugh Dalzell
1959-60 Hugh Dalzell
1960-1 Hugh Dalzell (later Mike Lidbetter)
1961-2 Mike Lidbetter
1962-3 Bob Maidment
1963-4 Dave Isaac (later Jim Munnick)
1964-5 Mike Lakin
1965-6 Jim Munnick

Club Players

There are over 100 player names recorded; 40 or so from 1910-1939 period, and over 70 together with notes and some potted biographies from the post war seasons 1953-1966. They feature in the club history book.

A summary of the club fixture list 1953 - 1966

Note: Many clubs featured have changed their names, amalgamated or ceased to exist. The links relate to clubs in their present form.

Major rugby clubs:
London Irish, London Scottish F.C., Rosslyn Park F.C., Saracens F.C., London Wasps

Old Boys:
Abbotstonians,^[8] Anchorians,^[9] Askians,^[10] Beccehamians,^[11] Caterhamians,^[12] Cestrians,^[13] Colfeians,^[14] Creightonians, Dunstonians,^[15] Elthamians,^[16] Elysians (William Ellis School), Elthameians,^[17] Hamptonians,^[18] Hermits, Isleworthians,^[19] Ignatians,^[20] Loughton,^[21] Masonians,^[22] Mitchamians,^[23] Purleians,^[24] Olavians,^[25] Shootershillians,^[26] Tottonians,^[27] Woolverstonians

Minor clubs:
Brighton Football Club (RFU), Ealing,^[28] Esher RFC, Grasshoppers,^[29] Hendon,^[30] Merton & Morden,^[31] Osterley, Rochester, Ruislip, Shirley Wanderers, Sidcup,^[32] Streatham,^[33] Sudbury Court,^[34] Twickenham (Exiles), Wanstead,^[35] Westcombe Park,^[36] Wimbledon

Colleges & Polytechnics:
Battersea College, Borough Polytechnic, Goldsmiths College, King Edward VII Nautical College, Kingston Technical College, Northern Poly, College of St Mark & St John, Southall Technical College, University College London, Woolwich Poly

Military, Naval & Police:
Battersea Ironsides (ex.42nd Royal Tank Regiment Cadets XV),^[37] HAC (Honourable Artillery Company),^[38] HMS President (London Division RNR), Metropolitan Police,^[39] U.S. Marines (based at their London Embassy)

Insurance Companies:
Cuaco (Commercial Union Assurance Co.), Ibis (Prudential Assurance), Royal Exchange Assurance, Sun Alliance ^[40]

Government & Institutions:
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Civil Service Rugby Club, Customs & Excise,^[41] Foreign Office, London Fire Brigade, London Transport, PLA (Port of London Authority),^[42] Vet Lab (Government Central Veterinary Laboratory), National Coal Board (NCB)

Manufacturing & Business Houses:
AEC, AEI (Woolwich), CAV,^[43] Decca,^[44] Firestone, Ford, GEC, Harrodian,^[45] Hoover, Lensbury (Shell), Lyons,^[46] Meadhurst BP (British Petroleum), Unilever, Smiths Industries (Clocks), Siemens, Standard Telephones,^[47] V.C.D (Vickers)

Hospital Medical and Dental schools:
King’s College Hospital,^[48] London Hospital, Royal Dental Hospital, Royal Free,^[49] University College Hospital, St Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts and the London RFC) (played in 1925/6 season)

UK Banks & Foreign Exchange:
Bank of England,^[50] Barclays, Lloyds, National Provincial, Westminster, Forex (London Foreign Exchange)

Overseas Banks:
Chartered Bank of India, Bank of London and South America, Bank of West Africa, Standard Bank of South Africa (Standard Bank (historic))

Airlines, travel:
Silver Wings (BEA-British European Airways),^[51] Speedbird (BOAC), Swans Tours

Railways:
Great Western Railways (GWR),^[52] London Midland Scottish Railway (LMS), Southern Railway (SR)^[53]

Misc. clubs:
Centymca (Central YMCA),^[54] Fairbairn House (East-End Boys Club), Juno, Plebs, Princes Gate, Toch H, RAMS

Exiles clubs:
London French RFC, London New Zealand^[55]

Overseas clubs:
(Netherlands) RC Hilversum,^[56] RC 't Gooi (Naarden), ASRV Ascrum (Amsterdam),^[57] possibly Delft and or Leiden Universities

Club History

A limited centenary edition Kicked into Touch was produced in 2010. Since then a more extensive revised edition adding new material has been published. It includes details of the company and club history, its players, including many anecdotes together with (previously unpublished) images and full appendices:

Thomas Cook’s Rugby Club’ its life and times 1910 – 1966,by John Dann, Fastprint Peterborough, published in 2013 ISBN 978-178035-656-3

Easter tours to the Netherlands

The club was amongst the first English clubs to tour the Netherlands in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A match against RC Hilversum in 1958 was filmed for Dutch cinemas and television to promoting the game through the Netherlands, it was a great success. For video clip -see link below.

References

External links

Thomas Cook's Archives, The Thomas Cook Business Park, Coningsby Road, Peterborough, PE3 8SB, Archivist: Paul Smith (All book research material including photos held by archive)
First Dutch Tour Match Easter 1958, Thos. Cook & Son's RFC v RC Hilversum. Video clip:

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, October 07, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.