Flamingoes F.C.

The Flamingoes was a 19th-century rugby football club that was notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the Rugby Football Union.

Flamingoes
Full nameFlamingoes Football Club
UnionRugby Football Union
Nickname(s)Flamingoes
Founded1866[1]
Disbanded1877[2]
LocationBattersea Park, London, England
Ground(s)Battersea Park

History

The Flamingoes were founded in 1866 and played in Battersea Park.[3] In the first season (1866–67), along with the other Hospitals, West Kent, and Clapham Rovers they were already deemed a major fixture for the St Mary's Hospital RFC.[4]

The team were still deemed one of the major teams in London in 1879 as listed by Charles Dickens Jr in his Dictionary of London.[3]

Amongst their many notable fixtures were the Wasps[5] and the Harlequins[6] as well as many teams who were prominent at the time including the Royal School of Mines although by 1877 the club was showing signs of having poor attendance.[7]

Foundation of the RFU

On 26 January 1871, 32 members representing twenty-one London and suburban football clubs that followed Rugby School rules (Wasps were invited by failed to attend) assembled at the Pall Mall Restaurant in Regent Street. E.C. Holmes, captain of the Richmond Club assumed the presidency. It was resolved unanimously that the formation of a Rugby Football Society was desirable and thus the Rugby Football Union was formed. A president, a secretary and treasurer, and a committee of thirteen were elected, to whom was entrusted the drawing-up of the laws of the game upon the basis of the code in use at Rugby School. F. Hartley represented The Flamingoes was one of the thirteen original committee members.[8]

Later years

The club disbanded in 1877,[2] with many of its players joining the Harlequin Football Club.[2]

Notable players

Despite their early foundation and close association with the foundation of the RFU, the Flamingoes did not produce an international player.

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References
  1. Montague Shearman, James Edmund Vincent, Football: its history for five centuries, Page 72, 1885
  2. Dick Tyson, London's Oldest Rugby Clubs, p39 (JJG Publishing), 2008
  3. Charles Dickens, Dictionary of London: An Unconventional Handbook 1879, p103
  4. St. Mary's Hospital Gazette, by St. Mary's Hospital (London, England) - Medical - 1898, p143
  5. The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household, Sales - 1926, Page 517
  6. The Athletic world and journal of English sports, Page 342
  7. Royal School of Mines magazine (Great Britain), 1877
  8. Marshall, Francis, Football; the Rugby union game, p68, (1892) (London Paris Melbourne, Cassell and company, limited)
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