Civil Service Football Club is an English football club based in the city of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The club originally played both

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

and

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

and the Civil Service, along with Blackheath F.C., is one of the two clubs that can claim to be a founder member of both

The Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world ...

and the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby (WR) in 1886. It promo ...

. However, the rugby club is now a distinct entity and appears to have been so since the late nineteenth century. They are currently members of the .

History

In 1863 the newly formed Civil Service club was playing football under both Association and Rugby rules and sources suggest that the club was similar to

Clapham Rovers Clapham Rovers was from its foundation in 1869 a leading English sports organisation in the two dominant codes of football, association football and rugby union. It was a prominent club in the late 19th century but is now defunct. The club pl ...

in that it was a single club playing both codes. At what point the

Civil Service Rugby Club Civil Service NI Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in Maynard Sinclair Pavilion of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club was formed in the autumn of 1922 by staff of the newly established Northern Ireland Civil Service. After some ...

became a distinct entity from the Football Club (Association football) is unclear. Certainly, the histories published by the official Football and Rugby clubs respectively do not refer to a joint history past even 1863. However, the club was still a unified entity when it became a founding member of the

in 1871, although notably it did not provide a member to the inaugural committee. However, in 1892 contemporary sources refer to Clapham Rovers as being unique in the respect that it played both codes, suggesting that the Civil Service had distinct teams by that point.

Association football

The club was one of the eleven founding sides of

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world ...

on 26 October 1863, and lays claim to an earlier, but uncertain, date of origin. It was represented at the founder's meeting by Mr. Warne of the War Office, leading to the side often being identified as the ''War Office Club'' in historical accounts of the founding of the FA. Civil Service was also one of the fifteen entrants to the first ever

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

competition in 1871–72. Several members of the Civil Service took a prominent role in organising the first representative matches between sides representing England and Scotland in 1870. The captain of the first Scottish XI was James Kirkpatrick (later Sir

James Kirkpatrick, 8th Baronet Sir James Kirkpatrick, 8th Baronet (22 March 1841 – 10 November 1899) was the 8th Kirkpatrick Baronet of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire. In his youth he was a keen sportsman, and helped organise the Scottish football team in the representative mat ...

) who included fellow civil servants

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

and

William Baillie-Hamilton Admiral William Alexander Baillie-Hamilton (6 June 1803 – 1 October 1881) was a Scottish naval commander who served on the Arctic Council when it was searching for Sir John Franklin. Biography A member of the Baillie-Hamilton family ...

and William Lindsay in the team, while the England XI included

William C. Butler Captain William Charles Butler (17 January 1844 – 6 December 1914) played football for England against a Scottish XI in two unofficial internationals in 1870 and 1871. He subsequently became a J.P. and Registrar in Cumberland. Family Butle ...

and

Evelyn Freeth Sir Evelyn Freeth (25 May 1846 – 16 September 1911) was an English civil servant who became an expert on death duties. In his youth he was a keen sportsman who played football against Scotland in the first representative match in March 1870. ...

. Civil Service played a significant role in the introduction and popularization of the game of football in Europe early in the 1900s through touring, undertaking their first continental tour in 1901. In recognition of their contributions the club is an honorary life member of

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

and

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

. Early in the club's history the decision was taken to remain an amateur side in the face of the emergence of the professional game. Civil Service was subsequently active in the formation of several amateur leagues including the Amateur Football Alliance, the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

(1906), and the Southern Amateur Football League (1907). CSFC enjoyed its greatest success in the years leading up to World War I with several wins in other cup competitions to its credit including the London Senior Cup (1901), the Middlesex Senior Cup (1908 and 1913), and the Amateur Football Association Cup (1910, and again later in 1920 and 1930). They also captured the Southern Amateur League title in 1913 and 1914. In later years club's accumulation of honours was modest with a SAL title in 1939 and two more league triumphs in 1969 and 1971. They captured the AFA Senior Cup in 1997 with a 4–3 win over Lensbury, securing the trophy for the first time in 67 years. The club has eight sides competing in the Southern Amateur League and a Vets side playing in the West London Veterans League. It has also established a Women's section with a view to them entering a league in 2019/20. The club played in the first ever official football match at Buckingham Palace in October 2013 playing Polytechnic FC, to mark the Football Association's 150th anniversary.

Notable players

''For notable Rugby players please see CS Rugby 1863'' * William A. Baillie-Hamilton – Represented

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

in the second-ever international match in November 1870. * William Heap Bailey – Represented Scotland in the second-ever international match in November 1870, despite being English. *

Albert Gilbert Albert "Al" Gilbert (November 18, 1922 – January 22, 2019) was a Canadian photographer. He was often called the "Ambassador of Canadian Photography". He was born in Toronto, Ontario into a family of Ukrainian-Jewish origin. He began working ...

– Played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings w ...

. * C. W. Herbridge – four caps for England amateurs in 1920 in matches against Wales, France, Ireland and Belgium. *

Jimmy McCree James McCree (16 November 1902 – 21 October 1984) was a Scottish amateur football half back who played in the Football League for West London rivals Brentford and Fulham. Playing for most of his career as an amateur, he also represented Civil ...

– Played in the Football League for Brentford,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswo ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and won a Scotland amateur cap in 1930.

References

External links

Official website
{{The Football Association Football clubs in England Football clubs in London Rugby union clubs in London 1863 establishments in England Isthmian League Southern Amateur Football League Financial services association football clubs in England