England v Scotland 1899

England v Scotland, Villa Park, 08.04.1899

The England XI for this match was made up of 10 professionals and 1 amateur. These men illustrate the social gulfs that were bridged by the game in Victorian Britain.

Player 'a' is Raby Howell, of Liverpool. Howell was a Sheffield born Roma.
Player 'b' is Gilbert Oswald Smith. Smith was a Charterhouse pupil and went on to Oxford University. After graduating he played for Corinthians and Old Carthusians. He won 20 caps and scored 11 international goals in the period 1894 to 1901. 
This was the deciding match in the British Home Championships. 
In their games against Wales and Ireland Scotland had scored 15 goals and England 17! 
England ran out winners at Aston lower Grounds. G.O Smith's 20 yard lob went in off the post after 25 minutes and Settle had an easy finish after a good cross from Athersmith 5 minutes before the break. 
Hamilton pulled one back in the 52nd minute after a scrimmage had floored Jack Robinson.

GK	Jack Robinson	Southampton
FB	Harry Thickitt	Sheffield United
	Jimmy Crabtree	Aston Villa
HB	Frank Forman	Nottingham Forest
	Raby Howell	Liverpool
	Ernest Needham	Sheffield United
F	Charlie Athersmith	Aston Villa
	Steve Bloomer	Derby County
	G.O Smith	Old Carthusians
	Jimmy Settle	Bury
	Fred Forman	Nottingham Forest

GK	Ned Doig	Sunderland
FB	Nicol Smith	Glasgow Rangers
	Davie Storrier	Celtic
HB	Neil Gibson	Glasgow Rangers
	Alexander Christie	Queen’s Park
	John Robertson	Southampton
F	John Campbell	Celtic
	Robert Hamilton	Glasgow Rangers
	Robert McColl	Queen’s Park
	Hugh Morgan	Liverpool
	Jack Bell	Celtic

Gentlemen and Players

I have been lucky enough to play against nearly all the League teams, and have, therefore, met many professionals. They are a very nice set of men, not only to meet on the football field, but off it. It is quite an exceptional thing to find foul play amongst the leading professional clubs. When you meet second-class professional the case may be different; but the first-class professional rarely descends to shady tricks, and plays the game in the spirit in which it ought to be played.

G.O. Smith 1896

Old Carthusians 1903

The Dunn Cup was introduced in 1903 for clubs for former Public Schoolboys, and  Old Carthusians enjoyed a good run of success (they were winners  in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1908 and 1910).

This line up features 3 'full ' internationalists (G.O Smith, Maurice Stanborough and Charles Wreford-Brown), as well as a couple of amateur internationals (Rowlandson, Timmis).
Captain William Simpson was a leading referee (he had taken charge of the 1896 FA Cup Final).  
Haig-Brown, O.E Wreford-Brown and Rowlandson were killed in the 1914-18 War.

Corinthians for England

Corinthian FC were formed very much along the lines of an Old Boys club. A de facto England XI for ex Varsity men, who were invariably products of the public schools' system.
Corinthian came into being in 1882. Professionalism was still outlawed, but the influence of the  northern and midland clubs who gave assistance to their working class players was on the rise. 6 of the England team to face Scotland in 1882 came from Lancashire, Sheffield or midlands clubs- the regions in which professional football was about to flourish.
N.L Jackson's reasoning for the founding of Corinthian FC is often reported as being to ensure that England were able to keep pace with Scotland on the international front. Their role, however, was also to preserve an amateur foothold in the higher reaches of the English game.
Amateurs, of course, could play for whomsoever they wished to. We read of England XIs in the 1890s as being 'entirely Corinthians' but one could be a member of Corinthian FC and play occasionally or go on tour with them whilst still being primarily a member of another club.
There have, however, been 17 men who represented England whilst Corinthian was their primary club.


Cecil White (left half) 

	apps
1888	2

Henfrey

Arthur Henfrey (half back / forward) 

	apps	goals
1891-96	5	2

Anthony  Hossack (right half) 

	apps
1892-94	2

Smith

Gilbert Oswald Smith (centre forward) 

	apps	goals	capt
1893-1901	20	11	14

Smith has been described as the greatest player of the 19th century.

Lodge 

Vaughan Lodge (fullback) 

	apps
1894-96	5

Lodge's parents were Welsh. It appears that he drowned himself whilst suffering from depression.

W.J. Oakley (fullback)   

	apps		capt
1895-1901	16		1

Middleditch 

Bernard Middleditch (right half) 

	apps
1897	1

Geoffrey Wilson (inside left) 

	apps	goals
1900	2	1

Foster

• Reginald Erskine 'Tip'  Foster  (inside forward) 

• 	apps	goals	capt
  1900-02	5	3	1

  
  
• The only man to captain England at football and cricket.

Fry

C B Fry (right back) 

	apps
1901	1

The legendary great all rounder.

Corbett

Bertie Corbett  (outside left)

	apps
1901	1

Corbett was the author of The Annals of the Corinthian F. C. (1906).

K.E Hegan (outside forward)

	apps	goals
1923	4	4

Later to become Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Edward Heg

Norman Creek (forward) 

	apps
1923	1

Creek was a  decorated pilot from the 1914-18 war and the author of  The History of the Corinthian Football Club (1933) 

  Basil Patchitt  (fullback or half back)

	apps
1923	2

Bower

Alfred George 'Baishe'  Bower (fullback)

• 	apps		capt
  1923-27	5		3

  
  

Bower was the last amateur to captain England and the last amateur to play for England in the Home Championship.

Doggart

Graham Doggart (inside left)

	apps	goals	capt
1923	1		1

I read a description of Graham Doggart as being a 'useful' footballer. His goalscoring record for Corinthian (1919-1933) suggests a degree of understatement there:  appearances 203 goals 207.

Ashton

• Claude Ashton (centre forward)   

• 	apps		capt
  1925	1		1

• 
  

G.O Smith

G.O Smith transformed the role of the centre-forward from that of an individual striker into a unifier of the forward line, indeed the whole team.

 The Dictionary of National Biography

He was a maker rather than a scorer of goals.

The Times 

G.O Smith was widely held to be the greatest centre forward of his age and the greatest player of the 19th century.
Smith was an amateur who played for Oxford University , Old Carthusians and Corinthians. 
He made a total of 20 appearances for England (scoring 11 goals), between 1893 and 1901.

Match							Goal
1	25.02.93	England	6	1	Ireland	Perry Bar	1
Smith, playing as inside right, scored England’s 4th goal on 43 minutes. 20 years, 92 days on debut.
2	12.03.94	Wales	1	5	England	Racecourse
Smith was at centre forward.
3	07.04.94	Scotland	2	2	England	Celtic Park
John Goodall was at centre forward, Smith reverting to inside right.
4	05.03.95	England	1	1	Wales	Queen's Club
Smith was at centre forward. He played the rest of his internationals in this position.
5	07.03.96	Ireland	0	2	England	Solitude, Belfast	2
Smith scored England’s first on 40 minutes, there were 3 years between his 1st and 2nd international goals.
6	16.03.96	Wales	1	9	England *	Cardiff Arms Park	4
Smith’s first game as captain saw him score England’s 1st (15 min) and 5th (44 min).
7	04.04.96	Scotland	2	1	England*	Celtic Park
8	20.02.97	England*	6	0	Ireland	Trent Bridge, Nottingham
9	29.03.97	England*	4	0	Wales	Bramall Lane, Sheffield
10	03.04.97	England*	1	2	Scotland	Crystal Palace
11	05.03.98	Ireland	2	3	England*	Solitude, Belfast	5
Almost 2 years since his previous international goal Smith equalised with England’s opening goal on 37 minutes.
12	28.03.98	Wales	0	3	England*	Racecourse	6
Smith opened the scoring in the 9th minute.
13	02.04.98	Scotland	1	2	England	Celtic Park
Charles Wreford-Brown replaced Smith as captain.
14	18.02.99	England *	13	2	Ireland	Roker Park, Sunderland	10
Smith put England 4-0 ahead in the 32nd minute and added 3 rapid goals (59, 60 and 63) at which point England led 11-0.
15	20.03.99	England*	4	0	Wales	Ashton Gate, Bristol
16	08.04.99	England*	2	1	Scotland	Villa Park	11
Smith opened the scoring on 25 minutes, his  1st goal against Scotland in 5 starts.
17	17.03.00	Ireland	0	2	England*	Lansdowne Road, Dublin
18	26.03.00	Wales	1	1	England *	Cardiff Arms Park
19	07.04.00	Scotland	4	1	England*	Celtic Park
20	30.03.01	England*	2	2	Scotland	Crystal Palace

* denotes that Smith was captain. His record as captain was:

P	W	D	L
14	9	2	3

  A 64% win rate.

 The British Home Championships in seasons when Smith was captain:

season	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pos.
1895-96*	3	2	0	1	12	3	2
1896-97	3	2	0	1	11	2	2
1897-98*	3	3	0	0	9	3	1
1898-99	3	3	0	0	19	3	1
1899-00	3	1	1	1	4	5	3

*captain in 2 games.