Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Sir Francis Arthur Marindin, KCMG (1 May 1838 – 21 April 1900) served with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

and was a key figure in the early development of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. He was later knighted for his work in public services.

Early life and education

Born in

Weymouth, Dorset Weymouth ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the Dorset (district), Dorset district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, Dorset, River Wey, south of the county town of ...

, he was the second son of the Rev. Samuel Marindin of Chesterton, in the parish of Worfield,

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...

Military career

Marindin joined the Royal Engineers as an Ensign on 28 December 1854 and saw active service in the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

(1855–56). He was a member of the Board of Trade Railway Inspectorate, an occupation he continued after he left the Corps. He was ultimately an honorary colonel in the Engineer and Railway Staff Corps.

Football career

He is credited with having founded the Royal Engineers Football team in 1869, which went on to win the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 1875. The club had been founded in at least 1863 and is notable as the first side to exploit modern teamwork and passing tactics. He retired from the Royal Engineers in 1879 at the rank of Major. As a football player, Marindin played in the first FA Cup final in 1872, which the Royal Engineers' team lost to Wanderers. At the time, Marindin held the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. The team lost the final again in 1874 to

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, with Marindin in the XI, but won it against the Old Etonians in 1875, although Marindin was absent, having left Chatham for a new posting. The legend that he came to the match but abstained from playing over a conflict of interest as both an Engineer and an Old Etonian is unfounded. Marindin become the President of the

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

in 1874 and served in that capacity until 1890. As a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

he took charge of the 1880 FA Cup final and seven in succession from

1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...

1890 Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The Uni ...

. This period included a replay at

Derbyshire County Cricket Club Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falco ...

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground (), is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C., Wrexham AFC. It is the largest stadium in North Wales and the List of football stadiums in Wales, fifth-largest in Wales. It is the world's o ...

1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

, the first time an FA Cup final had been played outside London. In his last final, crowds invaded the pitch and soldiers had to clear the field. He was considered "one of the outstanding referees who really knows the rules". He was widely known simply as "The Major". Marindin served as an arbitrator (along with Lord Kingsburgh) in settling the dispute among the four home rugby unions which resulted in the creation of the International Rugby Football Board in 1890.

Later career

He became an Inspecting Officer for the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

in 1875, rising to Senior Inspector of Railways in 1895. His work in this regard involved travelling the country to test and inspect new works on passenger railways to ensure their safety before they could be used, and also compiling reports on railway accidents – the accident at Thirsk in 1892 being a notable example. In describing this period of his life, his obituary in The Times of 24 April 1900, described him as "plain speaking, coupled with a complete mastery of his subject", making the point that the railway companies of the time knew that his office "was not likely to allow irregularities to remain long unnoticed". In 1899 he submitted a report on accidents on railway workers on which a new Act of Parliament concerning rail safety was based, and throughout the 1890s was responsible for a host of improvements in the working practices of Britain's railways. He helped develop London's new electrical lighting system and was knighted in 1897. He died aged 61 on 21 April 1900 at home at Hans Crescent, London S.W., and was buried on the family Scottish property at Craigflower, Torryburn,

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marindin, Francis 1838 births 1900 deaths 19th-century British businesspeople British Army personnel of the Crimean War British railway inspectors English football referees Engineer and Railway Staff Corps officers English men's footballers FA Cup final referees Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Men's association football players not categorized by position People educated at Eton College People from Weymouth, Dorset Presidents of the Football Association Royal Engineers A.F.C. players Royal Engineers officers