Lloyds Bank Rugby Football Club are an English

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

club. They are the

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...

and were founded in 1912 by staff at the bank's London office. Until 2000, they played their home matches at the Lloyds Bank Sports and Social Club Ground in

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and ...

, London.

History

In 1912, a meeting of Lloyds Bank's staff was held "declaring a strong enthusiasm for rugby union" where they decided to found a rugby club under the chairmanship of E.W. Nutall, the Head Office Cashier. At the meeting it was decreed that each player would contribute five shillings for subscriptions and they would play in white jerseys and black shorts. In their debut season, they defeated fellow bank sides including the Bank of England and

Chartered Bank of London Standard Chartered plc is a multinational bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in the UK, and around 9 ...

. In 1918, Lloyds Bank merged with

Capital and Counties Bank The Capital and Counties Bank was a London clearing bank, which operated 473 branches throughout the United Kingdom from 1877 until its acquisition by Lloyds Bank in 1918. The bank was formed as the Hampshire and North Wilts Banking Company, fol ...

. As a result, Lloyds Bank RFC moved their home matches to the Capital and Counties Bank's sports ground in

New Beckenham New Beckenham railway station serves Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley in south-east London, in Travelcard Zone 4. It is measured from . The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern. History Early years ( ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In 1936, Lloyds Bank's J.S. Moll was selected to join the British Lions on the

1936 British Lions tour to Argentina The 1936 British Lions tour of Argentina was a series of rugby union matches arranged between the British Lions and various Argentine teams. The tourists played ten matches, nine of which were against club and combined teams while one match to ...

, despite never being called up to the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Italy n ...

. In 1947 during the AGM of 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 ...

, Lloyds Bank RFC put forward a number of law amendments in relation to introducing professionalism into amateur rugby union. However, they withdrew them at the meeting. Lloyds Bank RFC have also hosted

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

matches. In 2000, it was announced that Lloyds TSB had sold Lloyds Bank RFC's ground to developers. This was part of a number of cost-cutting measures following Lloyds Bank's merger with the

Trustee Savings Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

in 1997. As a result, Lloyds Bank RFC groundshared with rival bank

NatWest National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it ...

RFC. Lloyds Bank RFC still play matches against fellow financial institutions.

References

{{reflist, 30em Rugby union clubs in London 1912 establishments in England Lloyds Banking Group