Thomas Astley Horace Hamond (17 August 1845 – 5 February 1917) was an

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 ...

player and

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, who won an

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 competi ...

runner-up medal in 1875. HamondBrothers OfWestAcre Norfolk Circa1890

Personal life

Hamond was born in Swaffham in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, the son of Anthony Hamond, who was lord of the manor of West Acre in the county. He attended

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and played in first-choice elevens in both codes of Etonian football - for the

Field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

XI and the Oppidan side in the Wall Game in 1863. Team-mates in both sides included future

Old Etonian Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

players

Edgar Lubbock Edgar Lubbock LLB (22 February 1847 – 9 September 1907) was an English amateur footballer who twice won the FA Cup and played first-class cricket. He later became a partner in the Whitbread Brewery, a Director and Deputy Governor of the Bank ...

and Quintin Hogg. Hamond matriculated at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

in 1864, and was awarded his degree in 1868. He was awarded a Distinction in his

Law Society A law society is an association of lawyers with a regulatory role that includes the right to supervise the training, qualifications, and conduct of lawyers. Where there is a distinction between barristers and solicitors, solicitors are regulated ...

finals in 1870 and became a solicitor, practising in

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

fields, eventually inheriting the lordship of the manor. Hamond never married and left an estate of £37,528.

Football career

The first report of Hamond playing a non-Etonian code of football comes from November 1866, when he appeared for "Eton" - an Old Etonian side - against old boys from

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

in a goalless draw played under "

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

" rules. His first recorded game of association football was for the Gitanos against the First Surrey Rifles in February 1875; his second was the

1875 FA Cup final The 1875 FA Cup Final was a football match between Royal Engineers and Old Etonians on 13 March 1875 at Kennington Oval in London. It was the fourth final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup (known i ...

replay. The Etonians had suffered an injury crisis after the original game against the

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

, losing four players after the first match, and Hamond was drafted in to play on the right wing alongside Lubbock. Perhaps significantly, four other players who were in the Old Etonians side had also played for the Gitanos against the Riflemen ( Arthur Kinnaird, Henry Home-Drummond-Moray, A.C. Thompson, and Francis Wilson), so they had been able to assess his abilities first-hand. (One other member of the Gitanos' side was J. H. Giffard, who was the umpire nominated by the Royal Engineers.) Hamond, who had been the oldest member of the Etonians side, played twice for the Gitanos in 1875–76; once in a defeat to the Wanderers at the Kennington Oval, and once in a 12-a-side match at

Barnes Barnes may refer to: People * Barnes (name), a family name and a given name (includes lists of people with that name) Places United Kingdom *Barnes, London, England **Barnes railway station ** Barnes Bridge railway station ** Barnes Railway Bri ...

which ended goalless, but there is no record of him playing afterwards. His association career therefore lasted four matches; three for Gitanos, in which his side never scored a goal, and one FA Cup final.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farrer, Matthew 1845 births 1917 deaths Men's association football forwards English men's footballers Old Etonians F.C. players People educated at Eton College People from Swaffham Footballers from Norfolk Gitanos F.C. players