IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1753 PFC
Held at: University of Westminster
Title: Polytechnic Football Club
Date(s): 1882-1984
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 box
Name of creator(s): Polytechnic Football Club
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The philanthropist Quintin Hogg (1845-1903) was convinced of the health-giving and character-building qualities derived from organised sport, and was himself a keen footballer. He saw sport as an integral part of the work of his foundation, the Youths' Christian Institute, and its successors the Young Men's Christian Institute and Polytechnic Institute, later Regent Street Polytechnic. Hogg's friend Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1847-1923, 11th Baron Kinnaird) was a famous gentleman footballer and President of the Football Association, who with Hogg organised the first unofficial England-Scotland international matches. The two had played together at Eton at a period when the game, until then limited to public schools playing to their own rules, was first being organised. On leaving school, both continued to play for the Wanderers, a team of public school old boys which won five of the first seven FA cup finals. Kinnaird was involved with Hogg's charitable foundations and retained his connection with their football teams. Hogg's Institute encompassed members who were not students, but were involved in its other activities.
The first Institute football club was formed in 1875 as the Hanover Football Club, for which Hogg and Kinnaird both played. Following the removal of Hogg's foundation to premises in Regent Street, formerly home of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, in 1882, the club became the Polytechnic Football Club. It had grounds in Barnes and Wimbledon but in 1906 moved to the Polytechnic's Quintin Hogg Memorial Ground at Chiswick. The club continues to play there as a member of the Southern Amateur League.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Polytechnic Football Club, comprising photographs, 1882-1939 and undated; printed histories, 1926, 1936, 1952; Financial accounts, 1965-1984.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signing the Regulations for Access form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies may be supplied, for research use only, unless copyright restrictions apply or the item is too fragile to be copied. Requests to publish original material should be addressed to the University Archivist.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Typescript handlist.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Created by the club.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
From 1879 Home Tidings and from 1888 its successor The Polytechnic Magazine include reports on the activites of the Polytechnic Football Club. The University of Westminster Archives also holds records of other Polytechnic clubs.
Publication note:
Arthur Winter, 'They Made Today: a History of the 100 Years of the Polytechnic Sports Clubs and Societies' (4 volumes, Polytechnic Harriers [1976]-1980) includes information on the Polytechnic Football Club.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project, additional information added by Samantha Velumyl, AIM25 cataloguer.
Date(s) of descriptions: Jan 2002 and May 2008.