A Summary
The Guernsey Sporting Club was founded in 1920 by surviving officers, NCOs and men, of D Company, the 6th Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, in which Company the first volunteer Guernseymen from the Royal Guernsey Militia were enlisted for active service in March, 1915. They were sent to Fermoy, Co. Cork for training with the 16th (Irish) Division, before returning to Blackdown Camp, Aldershot in the autumn and then on to France in December, reaching the front line in January 1916. The first of them to be killed in action was their commanding officer, Major George W Le Page (Old Elizabethan), by shellfire on 26th January 1916. His photographic portrait has pride of place in the Club today.
The Club was the brainchild of the founding President, Lt-Col Thomas Hutchesson MC (OE), who realised that the men who had returned from the trenches of the Western Front needed a haven where they could meet and socialise with others who had shared the same gruelling experiences. His portrait hangs proudly in the Club above his Military Cross and campaign medals. It was he who was the driving force in progressing negotiations with the United Services Fund to obtain a grant with which to buy Warwick House.
The Bailiff, (later Sir) Edward Chepmell Ozanne (OE), and the Lt-Governor, Maj-Gen. Sir John Capper, KCB, KCVO, also used their influence to support the Club’s successful application, and the Bailiff himself formally opened the premises on 13th September 1920, accompanied by the Rt Rev Norman Stewart de Jersey (OE) after the Memorial Service for the fallen of ‘D’ Company had been held at St James.
The Club formalised its status as a Company Limited by Guarantee (LBG) in 2011 and undisputed title to Warwick House was finally granted to the LBG by the Royal Court in 2012.
The entries in the Club’s first Minutes book record the detail
31/3/19 A meeting was held at the old Imperial Club, attended by 81 men, officers, and non-commissioned officers who had returned to Guernsey safely after service in the Great War. They were the survivors of D Company, the 6th Royal Irish Regiment, to which the First Guernsey Service Contingent (volunteers from the Militia) had been assigned.
The agenda placed before the meeting was the proposal that they should consider the advisability of forming an ‘association’.
The meeting agreed with the proposition, and decided to name the new body the ‘Royal Irish Regiment Association’. Lt-Col. Thomas Hutchesson, who had started the War as Captain in charge of D Company’s machine gun detachment, was voted in as President of the newly formed body.
13/1/20 The following year the Association met in a loft behind Warwick House, the Grange, to decide on a scheme to perpetuate the memory of the 1st Guernsey Service Contingent.
Lt-Col. Hutchesson proposed the founding of a club as a memorial to the First Contingent: Warwick House was available to rent, for £60 p.a., with the option of eventual purchase for £1,000. The meeting was told that the house could be purchased on ‘very easy terms’. The founders and proprietors were to be members of the 1st Contingent only, and the name of the club was to be ‘The Guernsey Sporting Club’, with an opening date of 4th March.
20/2/20 The February meeting minutes record that the opening of the Club in its new premises was to be postponed indefinitely.
16/3/20 In March, however, the President reported that work on Warwick House was ‘proceeding apace’, and that the Club was to be opened ‘very shortly’.
23/3/20 At this Special General Meeting the Rules and the Aims of the Club were agreed.
The Aims were stated as follows:-
1) To be an association of all amateur sportsmen
2) To support the advancement of sport in the Island
3) To be a lasting memorial to the officers, NCOs and men of the1st
Guernsey Contingent who sacrificed their lives in 1st World War.
4) To provide an Aid Fund out of any profits or surplus accruing through
the carrying on of the club.
13/9/20 A memorial service for the fallen of ‘D’ Company was held at St James on Monday 13th September 1920 (according to the report in “The Guernsey Weekly Press”) on the anniversary of the victory of Tel-El-Kebir (1882, General Wolseley’s defeat of the Egyptian army which led to the British occupation of Egypt – the Royal Irish Regiment played a major part). Warwick House was then opened officially for the Club by the Lt-Governor, HE Major-General Sir John Edward Capper, with the Bishop of the Falkland Islands, the Rt Rev Norman Stewart de Jersey performing the consecration. (His crozier, used at the opening ceremony, is on display in the Club). Interestingly, the Club Minutes Book records that the President was to be authorised ‘to forward letters of thanks to the Bailiff, Mr Edward Chepmell Ozanne and to the Bishop for their offices at the opening ceremony on 12th September, and to present the key used for the formal opening, suitably inscribed, as a token of appreciation from the members for his support readily given at all times’. The key was then presented back to the Club, with a memorial plaque commemorating Tel-El-Kebir day. (The key and plaque are preserved in Warwick House to this day). Perhaps there were two opening ceremonies, one for the Bailiff, on Sunday 12th September, and one for the Lt-Governor on Monday 13th after the Memorial Service? But it seems much more probable that the mistake lies with the Minutes.
16/9/20 At the next Committee meeting Lt- -Col. Hutchesson reported that negotiations were continuing to obtain a grant from the United Services Fund* (USF) at 5 shillings per head for the (approximately) 3,000 ex-Servicemen on the Island whose names had been forwarded to the Fund.
* (The USF – see Hansard entries 26th March 1922 and 29th March 1929, was set up to administer the dispersal of some £7,000,000 accruing as surplus from Expeditionary Force Canteens and the Navy and Army Canteen Boards. The money was used primarily to support the widows and dependants of men killed in the War, and a network of local committees and clubs was set up around the UK to facilitate this aim – a copy of the original rules for USF Clubs survives in the Club archive to this day).
6/6/21 The sale of Warwick House was mooted to pay off the Club’s creditors. The Club had the first option to purchase.
20/6/21 The raising of money to purchase Warwick House by sale of debentures was proposed.
18/7/21 The local committee of the USF was determined to negotiate with the HQ of the USF administrators for a loan (with support from HE the Lt-Governor and the Bailiff). The polite request for a loan was quickly converted into a decision by the USF in the UK to make a grant in lieu.
29/8/21 An interview with the USF Southern Area sub-committee was reported.
‘As soon as the valuation of the premises was received the grant
would be put through.’
26/9/21 A grant of £1,070 5s 9d from the USF was confirmed and ‘the necessary machinery was in progress for the completion of the purchase of Warwick House’.
30/9/21 Trustees for the USF Grant – The names proposed for the election of three Trustees were Messrs.Slaytor, Bird, Elliott, Hutchesson, Eveson, and Tranter (elected).
17/10/21 ‘The Trustees are empowered to accept conveyance of Warwick House for the Guernsey Sporting Club on receipt of the USF grant – a charge in favour of USF to be secured on premises for amount of grant if required’.
21/10/21 The 3 Trustees first appear before the Court to apply for the conveyance of Warwick House to them to hold on behalf of the Club ‘and to their successors in perpetuity’ (the wording which was conventional at the time but proved a poisoned chalice later, as successive Presidents and Officers of the Club failed to realise the legal necessity of re-registering the title to Warwick House with the Court every time there was a change of office holders/putative Trustees).
1/11/21 Trustees’ report – ‘£783 10s 4d payable with the USF grant, representing the purchase price of Warwick House, lawyers’ fees and rent’, the surplus (of the USF grant) to be used to settle with the ‘most pressing creditors’.
4/11/21 The conveyance was officially registered in the Court on this date.
21/11/21 Remuneration was made for the clerical work in compiling a list of 3,500 Guernseymen or residents who served in the war, which had been ‘ a preliminary step in applying for the USF grant’.
The Club’s ownership of Warwick House legally secured (2009-13)
The Club’s right to ownership of Warwick House was in need of clarification in modern times, as the original conveyance of 1921 was to named individual office holders to act as Trustees on behalf of the Club members (an “association”). The last surviving of those Trustees reconveyed the property to the then current office holders in 1947. However, the last surviving of those died some 40 years ago without the Club having taken any steps to have a Court order conveying the premises to new named office holders, relying on the old phraseology of the 1947 conveyance “and to their successor office holders in perpetuity”. Modern law of trusts and property had meanwhile moved on.
Consequently, on legal advice, the Club was reconstituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee and incorporated on 28th March 2011. It was then possible to apply to the Court for transfer of ownership of Warwick House to the LBG, rather than named individuals. Once the Court was satisfied that Warwick House was indeed trust property, and that no other individuals had any legal claim on it (e.g. descendants of the last survivor of the 1947 Trustees) then this Order could be made. The judgement confirming this was finally handed down on 28th September, 2012.
During the Presidency of Alan Cross (2009-2013) this was the most significant development, with important potential not just for the Club but potentially for the people of Guernsey, since the Articles of Incorporation of the LBG provide that in the event of the dissolution of the Club, the premises will be sold and the proceeds divided between a) charities supporting the needs of members of HM Forces and their families and b) causes supporting the well-being of the young people of the island, particularly in sporting outlets – in line with the wishes of the Club’s founders.
The Guernsey Sporting Club and the Siam Cup for Rugby
The Siam Cup is one of the oldest Rugby trophies in existence after the Calcutta Cup and the United Hospitals Challenge Cup. It is awarded to the winner of the annual match between Guernsey and Jersey.
The Cup is a large, circular rose-bowl of solid silver, decorated in a traditional Siamese style, and made from Ticals, the Siamese silver dollars. It was made to the order of the King of Siam, as a gift, possibly because he had served in the Durham Light Infantry, and become friendly with Channel Islanders also serving in the regiment, notably three Old Elizabethans, Lt-Col C H Forty, S P Groves and H W Bainbrigge, along with a former pupil of Victoria College, Jersey. These men brought the Cup back from Siam in 1920 and donated it to the Guernsey Sporting Club, to be used as a trophy for competition in rugby, hoping to stimulate competition between Elizabeth and Victoria Colleges. At this time, however, neither College nor any other clubs were playing rugby in either Guernsey or Jersey. When, therefore, the Guernsey Rugby Union Football Club was founded in 1928, the Club was asked by Col Forty to donate the Cup to the newly formed GRUFC. It was then used as the trophy in a variety of challenge competitions until on 14th March 1935 it was presented for the first time as the trophy for the winner of the inter-insular challenge match.
During the Occupation the Cup was spirited away to be hidden by a local family, so that the Germans could not lay hands on it or melt it down to boost the funds of the Third Reich. The Cup then safely reappeared in 1947.
Eventually the Cup began to show signs of wear and tear, and a replica was made by the Guernsey Jeweller Bruce Russell. The original has been, since 1977, permanently housed in the Museum of Rugby at Twickenham.
Lt-Col Thomas Hutchesson, MC
Guernsey’s losses in World War I through death and injury were immense, and quite disproportionate for such a small community, as we are often reminded during these centenary years. This year and next, especially, many Guernsey families will be remembering relatives who lost their lives fighting with the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry in the battles at Cambrai and Les Rues Vertes in November 1917 and at Doulieu, April 1918.
Others who fought for king and country in that appalling conflict survived, and returned home, physically unscathed if mentally scarred, to piece together their lives. Such men, uncommemorated on rolls of honour and war memorials, may also, however, being childless, have nobody now left to remember them.
One such is Thomas Hutchesson (Old Elizabethan 2509), 1879 – 1940, who served with great distinction in the Second Boer War and the First World War, but left no descendants, a fate incidentally shared by all six of his siblings.
Thomas was a very enterprising character who showed outstanding initiative from an early age. He left Elizabeth College aged 14, and went to Normandy to complete his education at a College in Valognes. He was there only for one year, however, before being lured down under by the thought of making his fortune in the Western Australian gold rush. After five years of toil and unknown, but presumably more than adequate, returns, he found the outbreak of the Second Boer War provided him another opportunity to change direction. Enlisted in the Western Australian Mounted Infantry as a Private, he fought throughout the war, attracting the attention of General Sir John French, later First Earl of Ypres, a senior British commander, who appointed him his ‘galloper’. He earned many battle honours, and was mentioned twice in despatches.
Returning to Guernsey in 1902, Thomas joined the Royal Guernsey Militia (otherwise known as the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry/RGL1) as a Lieutenant, becoming Captain in 1904. In 1906 he inherited the Seigneurie Le Comte from his father (and his grandfather before him). His residence was now the spacious house and grounds of Les Touillets in the Castel. Before long, however, he had moved yet again, this time to Brazil, where he set up business as a rubber planter, staying there until 1910.
In 1913 he married Ada Wilde-Rice from Lancashire. Sadly Ada died on 26th January 1915 – perhaps as a mishap of childbirth, and on 14th February 1915 Thomas was appointed Captain (Temporary) in the Royal Irish Regiment. He went to France with the First Guernsey Service Contingent of Militia volunteers, now D Company of the 6th Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, in December 1915, after 6 months training at Fermoy, Co. Cork, and in Aldershot. Initially he was in command of the Machine Gun Detachment, and on 8th December 1916 he was promoted Temporary Major, and then soon acting as second in command of the 6th Battalion RIR.
In 1917 he was in command as Acting Lieutenant –Colonel of the 6th Battalion in the absence of the C. O. This was perhaps the opportunity Thomas had been waiting for. On 5th April 1917 he organised the battalion and successfully raided the German trenches, effecting the capture of 21 prisoners of the 4th Grenadier Regiment. These prisoners were reported subsequently to have given much useful information to their British interrogators. Thomas’s efforts in this exploit were duly rewarded in the New Year’s Honours of 1918 by the award of the Military Cross.
Although not a career soldier, his experience and skills as a commander were now fully recognised by the War Office, and in January 1918 he was transferred from the Royal Irish to the command of the 19th London Regiment, a post he held until December 1918. While on leave in London, he met and subsequently married Louise Holland at St Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington.
Despite the Armistice of 11th November on the Western Front, however, the War Office had not yet finished exploiting Thomas’s abilities. In March 1919 he was put in command of the 15th Battalion the West Riding Regiment, and in July was moved to Dublin, to command the 52nd Battalion, the Welsh Regiment, where he stayed until their demobilisation, and his own release from active service on 16th March 1920.
It was on his return to Guernsey that he made his most significant contribution to the life of the island, with the foundation of the Guernsey Sporting Club to be a permanent memorial to the men who had died in combat, and the source of an aid fund to assist the families of those killed and injured. His energy and commitment galvanised the men who had served under him in this project, and ensured the support of the then Lieutenant Governor and Bailiff in his aim to secure premises for the Club. His ambition was to provide a meeting place for those who had returned from the trenches, traumatised by war, and now bewildered by the challenges of day-to-day existence. Not only would they help the families of others who had been less fortunate, but also learn to deal with their own mental upheaval by talking in private to one another and by finding outlets for their accumulated stress in sporting activities.
Thomas’s work culminated in the purchase of Warwick House, the Grange, which was then officially opened by the Bailiff and Lieutenant Governor on 13th September 1920, after a service at St James, in which the men of the First Service Contingent who had been killed in action were commemorated. Warwick House has remained the home of the Club to this day, just as the Club has remained faithful to the expressed aims of its Founding President, Lt-Col Thomas Hutchesson, in supporting charities whose remit covers aid to members of the Armed Forces and their families, and assistance to young people in pursuing sporting activities.
It is ironic, therefore, that despite all his meritorious achievements, the Treasury pursued Thomas after the War for repayment of £90 14 shillings and 3 pence, which they claimed was the overpayment he had received for his war service. He died on New Year’s Day, 1940 in his 61st year and is buried in the family tomb in Candie Cemetery. His widow, Louise, eventuallyleft the island and lived on, increasingly forgotten in Guernsey, until she died in Surrey in 1972 at the age of 88.
Alan Cross