Royal Holloway was one of the first colleges to establish a women’s hockey team, following the example set by Molesey Hockey Club, who had begun the first ever women’s hockey team in 1887.
This led to the formation of the Ladies’ Hockey Association in 1895 to manage and co-ordinate matches across the country with the growing popularity of women’s hockey (Lucey, 2018; Richmond, 2016). The association was eventually renamed the All England Women's Hockey Association (AEWHA) and in 1997 become the English Hockey Association (EHA) when the governance of both male and female hockey was merged (Richmond, 2016), resulting the world of hockey we know today.
Royal Holloway Hockey Team 1896-1897, Ref. RHC PH 211/5
The Notting Hill High School magazines from the late 1800s and early 1900s contain accounts from several ‘old girls’ from the school who later attended either Royal Holloway or Bedford College, detailing their educational and recreational experiences (Notting Hill & Ealing High School, 2023).
In the June 1890 edition of the magazine, first year student Lucy Gamble said that Royal Holloway had begun a hockey club the previous October, presumably in 1889, and they played matches every Thursday, followed by “tea and buns” (Gamble, 1890, p.16) in their captain and English lecturer Miss Faithfull’s room. It is likely that these matches occurred between 1.30pm and 4pm, which Gamble (1890) stated was the designated time for “recreation and exercise” (Gamble, 1890, p.17). She also briefly described the hockey kit worn by the team, which included jerseys worn in either white or green, accompanied by a bodice of a similar colour (Gamble, 1890). In 1894, hockey really began to cement it’s reputation as one of Royal Holloway’s most favoured sports, being described as “more flourishing than ever” (Street, 1894, p.16), having surpassed the popularity of the previously favoured tennis club (Street, 1894).
In 1896, Alice Joseph revealed that Bedford College had also begun its own hockey team, stating that, although the players’ skills left much to be desired, the students remained high spirited and enthusiastic in their play (Joseph, 1896). Hockey at Royal Holloway remained a firm favourite amongst the students, who were celebrating a recent victory against Somerville College (Blunt, 1896). Over the following years hockey continued to thrive as a favoured sport amongst the students at the colleges (King-Church, 1898; Newman, 1899; Newman, 1900; Wilson, 1900), with the two teams playing against each other annually (Kelly & Tupp, 1901), years before they would eventually merge to become Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (Wedderburn, 1991).
Royal Holloway Hockey Team 1951-1952, Ref RHC PH 211/58
During this time, Bedford College struggled with funding their ever-growing hockey club, describing it as being “rich in members but poor in purse” (Kelly, 1902, p.15). The club was saved on at least two occasions by the college’s Dramatic Club, who funded the hockey club with their ticket sale proceeds (Kelly & Tupp, 1901; Kelly, 1902), providing entertainment such as “She Stoops to Conquer” (Kelly & Tupp, 1901, p.11), a play written by Oliver Goldsmith in 1773 (Bevis, 1989), and “The Merchant of Venice” (Preston, 1904, p.10).
The Notting Hill High School magazines continued to document the growth of hockey at both Royal Holloway and Bedford College over the following 20 years until the ‘old girls’ section of their magazine was sidelined in favour of a focus on the current activities of the school. During this time, hockey grew in both size and popularity at both the colleges, with Royal Holloway building a second hockey ground in the early 1900s (Smith, 1902), and Bedford College gaining a second team of eleven, even despite their 8.30am winter practises (Hunt, 1908). Both colleges also became part of a larger University of London Hockey team which was formed in the early 1900s (Tupp, 1905), due to the colleges becoming part of the University of London in 1900 (Royal Holloway, n.d.).
Royal Holloway Hockey Team 1945-1946, Ref. RHC PH 211/53
In addition to competitive matches against other colleges and universities, hockey was played for fun between the rivalling members of the Arts courses and the Science courses, providing good entertainment for the students, as well as a solution to the ongoing debate as to which course was superior (Tupp, 1905; Williams, 1907). Royal Holloway even established inter-corridor matches between the students, whereby students played for the “honour of their Corridors” (Lidgate, 1920, p.7), despite some of them having never played hockey before (Lidgate, 1920).
Despite the lack of available written evidence detailing the progression of hockey from the early 1900s until now, snapshot photographs of the Royal Holloway teams through time evidences the steadfast and unwavering popularity of the sport, which continued throughout the merger with Bedford College between 1981 and 1985 (Wedderburn, 1991). The admittance of men to both colleges in 1965 following the rise of co-education after the Second World War (Wedderburn, 1991) also led to the implementation of men’s hockey teams alongside the traditional women’s teams.
Royal Holloway Hockey Team 1964-1965, Ref. RHC PH 211/65
The University now boasts a total of six teams (four women’s and two men’s sides), making it one of the University’s largest sporting societies, competing against other universities in the England Southeast Oak leagues, and LUSL and BUCS leagues (Royal Holloway Students’ Union, n.d.). Understanding the evolution of hockey at Royal Holloway provides greater depth and understanding to today’s hockey teams by showcasing their rich history, allowing today’s players to understand and appreciate the legacy of which they are part of.
Written by Elinor O'Brien (Second Year, Criminology and Psychology)
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Bevis, R. (1989). Oliver Goldsmith. In Backscheider, P. R. (Ed.), Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 89. Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists: Third Series. Gale. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200002893/LitRC?u=anon~d5b62d7d&sid=googleScholar&xid=c556983b
Blunt, M. (1896, March). Royal Holloway College. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 12. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1896_Iss_012_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1896_Iss_012_March.pdf
Gamble, L. (1890, June). Royal Holloway College. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 6. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1890_Iss_006_June.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1890_Iss_006_June.pdf
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King-Church, D. (1898, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 14. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1898_Iss_014_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1898_Iss_014_March.pdf
Lidgate, E. (1920). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1920.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1920.pdf
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Newman, M. (1899, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 15. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1899_Iss_015_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1899_Iss_015_March.pdf
Newman, M. (1900, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 16. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1900_Iss_016_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1900_Iss_016_March.pdf
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Preston, G. (1904, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 20. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1904_Iss_020_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1904_Iss_020_March.pdf
Richmond, L. (2016). Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of the All England Women’s Hockey Association (1895-1997). University of Bath. https://www.bath.ac.uk/publications/archive-and-research-collections-catalogues/attachments/hockey-catalogue.pdf
Royal Holloway (n.d.). Our history. Royal Holloway, University of London. https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/our-history/
Royal Holloway Students’ Union (n.d.). Hockey. Royal Holloway Students’ Union. https://www.su.rhul.ac.uk/sports/a-z/hockey/
Smith, C. (1902, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 18. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1902_Iss_018_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1902_Iss_018_March.pdf
Street, E. (1894, March). Royal Holloway College. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 10. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1894_Iss_010_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1894_Iss_010_March.pdf
Tupp, L. (1905, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 21. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1905_Iss_021_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1905_Iss_021_March.pdf
Wedderburn, D. (1991). Reflections on the Merger of Royal Holloway and Bedford Colleges 1981-85. Higher Education Quarterly, 45(2), 145-157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.1991.tb01563.x
Williams, M. (1907, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 23. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1907_Iss_023_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1907_Iss_023_March.pdf
Wilson, G. A. (1900, March). College Letters. The Notting Hill High School Magazine, 16. https://www.nhehsarchives.net/Filename.ashx?systemFileName=NHEJ1900_Iss_016_March.pdf&origFilename=NHEJ1900_Iss_016_March.pdf
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