Nice try but blue plaque for head who caused rugby row kicked into touch
‘WHY HONOUR MAN WHO HAD ONLY SCORN FOR THE WORKING CLASSES?’
PLANS for a blue plaque honouring a “hugely divisive” 19th century Huddersfield schoolmaster have been thrown out.
The Old Almondburians Society, made up of former staff and students at King James’s School in Almondbury, applied last year to commemorate the Rev. Francis Marshall, who was headmaster of the-then Almondbury Grammar School from 1878 to 1896.
It sought listed building consent to place a 400mm plaque above the entrance to the former schoolhouse on the Grade II-listed campus.
However, its proposal has been refused by Kirklees planners following vociferous objections.
Rev. Marshall was a controversial figure who fought for rugby to remain an amateur sport, which was a major cause of the split that resulted in the formation of the professional game at Huddersfield’s George Hotel in 1895.
Critics, including sports academic Professor Tony Collins, said that in the 1880s, men like Marshall felt threatened by the dominance of working class players.
They aimed to make rugby a completely amateur sport. That meant players who took time off work to participate in matches could not be compensated for lost wages.
Moreover the Rugby Football Union
decreed that anyone who accepted payments for playing the game would be suspended or banned.
Elected president of the Yorkshire Rugby Union in 1890, Marshall was at the forefront of what was described as “a witch-hunt” by helping to conduct trials of clubs and players suspected of payments.
Professor Collins wrote: “The chaos caused by Marshall’s campaign against payments fuelled the demand for players to receive ‘brokentime’ payments.
“But Marshall refused to compromise. In 1893 he helped to suspend his own club, Huddersfield, for breaching regulations.
“He even backed the suggestion that players who informed on other players for receiving money should be given a
Why would a man seen as a divisive hypocrite in his own era be honoured in ours?
£20 reward, confirming the suspicion that it was not money that was the problem for the RFU but who was receiving it.
“He fully backed the RFU during the 1895 split as well as its subsequent blacklisting of all those connected with the Northern Union.
He added: “Why would a man seen as a divisive hypocrite in his own era be honoured in ours?”
There were other objections. One said: “The blue plaque is for a man who had only scorn for the working classes so how can it be appropriate for a blue plaque to be erected on the premises of a state-funded comprehensive school?”
Another said Marshall’s stance amounted to pursuing “a vengeful vendetta against the ordinary working man in Huddersfield”.
In refusing listed building consent for the plaque, the council noted that Marshall “remains capable of provoking strong feelings today”.
A planning officer stated: “Marshall was an influential Rugby Union official, but he did not seek to resolve the issue of professionalism through positive actions such as seeking to find compromise, common ground and reconciliation.
“Instead, he took actions that caused hardship to others.
“Whether his actions were driven by prejudice towards working class people or by his adherence to the purity of amateurism in Rugby Union is debatable, but his words and actions would be out of place in contemporary society without contextual explanation.”
A LOVE letter from Edward VIII which reflects his disenchantment with life as a royal, years before he met Wallis Simpson, is to be sold at auction. The then-Prince of Wales wrote the four-page letter in 1919, aged 25, while aboard the ship HMS Renown as it took him on a royal tour of Canada. He sent it to his mistress Freda Dudley Ward, who was at the time married to Liberal MP William Dudley Ward. Their affair continued until 1934, only ending when Edward became involved with American socialite Wallis Simpson, who he met in 1930. Edward reigned as king from January 1936 until December of the same year, when he abdicated to marry divorcee Mrs Simpson. Charles Ashton, a director at auctioneers Cheffins, said Edward’s 1919 letter to Mrs Dudley Ward gives a window into his ‘disenchantment with his life as a royal’. In the letter, Edward referred to speeches he had made, writing: “What I think of all this official wonk and these pompous stunts and I’ve made no less than seven speeches today.” The letter, with the original envelope bearing a black wax seal, is part of the Cheffins Library Sale auction in Cambridge on October 21. It has a pre-sale estimate of £400 to £600.