This year is the 150th anniversary of the Football Association and we have received lots of interest from TV and Radio from all over the world wanting to find out more about Barnes Rugby Club and its relationship with the FA through the founder of both The Barnes Club and The Football Association, Barnes resident, Mr Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who moved to Barnes from Hull in 1858.

Before the FA was formed in 1863 there was only one code of the game - that established at Rugby school in 1823 when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it.

After Ebenezer moved to Barnes he was a busy man, a lawyer, a JP and founder of The Barnes Club in 1862. The significance of this date is very important, as it was the year before the FA was formed, and whilst there was only one code of the game. Indeed, the earliest recorded result was in November 1862 of The Barnes Club versus Richmond, played at Barn Elms, which is of course still our home today. Barnes won that match, and the replay that followed later in the year although the score is not known. This is proof that The Barnes Club was “a rugby club” in the original form of the code, before our friend Ebenezer decided to create a new code in 1863, when the ball was to be kicked and not handled.

There is little recorded information after that until the 1900’s and Peter Boyd, our club scribe, has confirmed with the RFU that the first registration of the Harrodian Rugby Club with them was in September 1912 at the start of 1912/1913 season, the Club Secretary being Mr F. G. Kerswell.

We also know that a Barnes RFC did play at some time in the 1870s, from a photocopy of a letter from Harlequins RFC to a player asking if he was available to play against Barnes RFC at Barn Elms, which was found by a Harlequins researcher and sent to club stalwart Wally Freeman. In the other code of the game, the round ball code, Barnes Football Club participated heavily, appearing in the first FA Cup in the 1871/72 season. Barnes Rugby Club also appeared In the 1893/4 & 1894/5 seasons, according to the sports pages of the Surrey Comet Newspaper for those years, but there is no official record with either Surrey Rugby or the RFU.

Sir Richard Burbidge, 1847-1917, a self-made man and the Managing Director of Harrods, established the Harrodian Sports Club in Barnes on a property in Lonsdale Road, which he had donated to the firm in 1894, and which was expanded to include Mill Lodge and adjoining land in 1904, The Sports Club closed in the early 1990’s, and is now owned by the Harrodian School (which young Charlie Rhino has attended for the last 11 years).

So onto today, the first RFU match that we really can prove occurred so far, comes from the pages of the Surrey Comet. On Saturday October 4th 1913, Molesey 2nd XV played against Harrodian RFC at Fifth Cross Road, Twickenham – alas we do not know the result yet!

With the 1st XV moving between National League 2 and National League 3 over the last few years, we continue to attract a raft of talented players to our 1st and 2nd XV squads as well as to our 3rd XV. Our Mayfair Occasionals team, the Occies, play an attractive barbarians style of rugby whilst the old boys in the Vets still have great rugby brains, although their bodies have given up years ago. Our resurgent Ladies XV plays most Sundays to complete our six adult teams.
Our minis section started only five years ago, but now has in excess of 200 enthusiastic kids every weekend, with the unique feature that the children train on Saturdays, when there are no festivals or competitive fixtures, and with players of all abilities from 5 to 13 this is the real future of Barnes rugby.

We are all proud of our wonderful club and its history and if you can help us continue our rugby journey by becoming a sponsor, or simply want to make a donation or become a volunteer please do email our sponsorship manager, Robbie Orr, today at sponsorship@barnesrfc.org
Barnes RFC is your club, and it is steeped in history as you can see and we are all set for the next 100 years, and hopefully more!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield

Chairman - Barnes RFC