Disentangling My Family Tree: Family and Football

Wow, bit of a gap between posts there, but I am managing to sneak one in just before the end of February so I can claim that I've missed just the month of January. What can I say? Busy times at work and at home, visits from friends, some health problems and the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 have all conspired to keep me from genealogy. Most of that is behind me now (just 1 fragment left for FFXIII-2 100% completion!), so here's a quick post about football.

I know nothing about football. Which is a bit silly because my grandfather, Stan Moore, claimed to have played professionally in his youth (I used to take that statement with a grain of salt, but many extended family members have commented both on his ability and his resemblance to Bobby Moore), my mum's cousin's husband played for West Ham in the 60s and 70s, and my great-grandfather, Wilfred Thomas Moore (1892-1978), was a referee.

Wilfred Thomas Moore on his wedding day, 15 October 1913.

My grandfather and his family on his wedding day, 9 April 1944.
Standing: Reginald, Wilfred Jr, Albert, Norman, Stan
Seated: Nellie (née Walker) and Wilfred Moore Sr

In amongst my grandfather's effects were some of his father's belongings relating to his football career. The first is this match card from 22 November 1890, the connection to which I cannot understand as it took place before he was even born and there's nothing on here which suggests any family connection. Perhaps it was a match his father attended and saved the card as a souvenir (click to enlarge):

Clapton v 93rd Highlanders at "Spotted Dog", Upton, 22 November 1890

Kind of a nifty keepsake, if only to see who played football more than 120 years ago. And the referee was "Esquire". I gather they are not referred to as such these days.

Next is this letter dated 5 April 1930, which I have attempted to transcribe:

Letter from H.P. Chorley to W.T. Moore, 5 April 1930

Dear Mr Moore

I am senior Vice President of The West Essex Border Charity Cup Competition & last night on my proposition supported by Bishops Stortford you were appointed to Referee the Senior Six at Sawbridgeworth on transfer Monday morning KO 10,45 am. Are you free? Stortford are in the Semi Final next Saturday & will probably be in the Final. The Hny Sec: of the competition is Mr Lyall Wellin with Mr J. L. Clark Essex F.A & the match will be of real help to you. This is confidential of course.

In great haste

Yours Truly

H.P. Chorley

I'm sure that's all above board, including the bits about it being of real help to my great-grandfather and everything being in confidence.

Moving on...a few years after the 1930 match at Bishops Stortford my great-grandfather was a referee for Arsenal and this 1932-33 programme was amongst his keepsakes:

(All pages at bottom of this post.)

Pages 4-5 of the programme, with Mr. W. T. Moore (Stratford) as Referee

In 1935 my great-grandfather was promoted to Class I referee:

London Football Association Class I Referee confirmation, July 1935

Finally, two undated newspaper clippings which mention my great-grandfather. The first gives details of a match between Ware Town and Lea Bridge Gap, subtitled, "Visitors Rough Play", which begins:

"Much has been heard of the unruly matches between Ware-Hertford-Hoddesdon of olden days, but we should imagine it hard to find any parallel to the game at Park Road, Ware, on Saturday. It was a disgrace to the Spartan League, and if the visiting club always adopt these methods - well, they ought not to play another match. It could not have been wondered at had the Ware men lost their tempers, so often were they badly fouled. It was only due to the magnificent control of the game by Mr. W.T. Moore, of Stratford, that affairs did not assume a more serious aspect..."

That game ended in a 4-4 draw.

The other clipping, also of a Spartan League match, describes a game between Hertford Town and Leighton United and someone has carefully underlined the sentence, "Mr. W.T. Moore, of Stratford, was the referee." This match went to Hertford Town, 4-2. I will have to search the British Newspaper Archive to see if I can identify when and where these two articles were published.

I don't know enough about football to make any analysis of all this information. It's just there in my files. Hope it's interesting to someone! For anyone who is curious, here are the other pages from the Arsenal 1932-33 season programme: