Mike Smith, Hon. Curator and President of The Hockey Museum (THM), describes the process of uncovering hockey’s history as being like a jigsaw puzzle:

“Putting together the history of hockey is like doing a jigsaw puzzle where many pieces are missing. Ultimately, we hope to find enough pieces to make the picture recognisable.”

Visitors to the museum may be under the impression that THM already has all the answers – that couldn’t be further from the truth. Staff and volunteers are undertaking a constant process of investigation and discovery that requires creativity, attention to detail, and often, consultation with the wider hockey community. THM’s recent delve into umpiring history is a perfect example.

Three engraved silver whistles and a referee’s brooch from the 1908 Olympic Games. These items previously belonged to international umpire F S Brabham.

We recently acquired three silver whistles engraved with dates from the 1920s. These belonged to F S Brabham, a relatively unknown umpire. The engraved information on the whistles opened up new avenues to explore, revealing Brabham’s involvement in an Ireland vs Scotland match in 1923, an Ireland vs Wales match in 1924 and a France vs England match in 1925. A further whistle was awarded for umpiring the Easter Hockey Tournaments in Norwich in 1925 and 1926.

Reports on the France vs England international hockey match in 1925 from The Times newspaper. Neither report mentions the umpires!

Having searched through THM’s partially verified statistical records of England matches as well as the British Newspaper Archive (see above), we were unable to find details of the umpires for that England vs France match in 1925. Undaunted, we reached out to our friends at the Irish Hockey Archives to see if they knew of Brabham. Drawing on their records and with help from the Irish Times newspaper, they confirmed Brabham’s presence as an umpire at the Irish matches. This helped prove the provenance of the whistles.

The Irish hockey team from the Ireland vs Scotland international match played on 3 March 1923. Umpire F S Brabham is one of the two jacketed men seated at each end of the middle row. Image courtesy of the Irish Hockey Archive.

Cross-referencing Sources And The Whistles’ Impact On The Hockey Museum’s Statistical Research

Following the rollout of Great Britain (GB) honours caps by THM (in partnership with the Hockey Internationals’ Club and GB Hockey), we have increasingly been asked why there has been no recognition of international umpires. The implication being: why should the players get all the fun/credit?

The GB caps were the culmination of a meticulous six-year, volunteer-led research project by THM to create the statistics to determine definitive match and player records for GB hockey players back to 1920. Without definitive records, it would have been impossible to provide an athlete’s unique player number. To do this it was vital to know every GB hockey match ever played in history and every player who featured in them. Miss one player or one match and the numbering goes awry! The same is true for appointed umpires. THM must research and assemble complete and indisputable records for every British umpire and the matches they officiated, or we cannot be sure that the awarding of umpire numbers and appointment/appearance totals will be correct.

Our search to discover F S Brabham – we still don’t know his given names – and prove his officiation at international matches, demonstrates some of the inconsistencies within historical sources. You might think that paper records would be the most helpful kind of source, but this is not necessarily the case. Different sources prioritise different pieces of information. The edition of Hockey World magazine from the 27 March 1925, tells us that the Easter event engraved onto one of the whistles was Norwich’s inaugural hockey tournament. Yet Norwich is not even mentioned in the following year’s issue and there is no mention of umpires in either.

Similarly, with the England player records (which our volunteers are currently collating), whilst the England players are recorded, the umpires are not, making it necessary to find additional confirmatory sources. Records can often result in more questions than answers and sometimes physical objects, such as these whistles, can prove invaluable for research. The whistles are a highly unusual source for discovering appointed international umpires, but they are symbolic of the variety of sources THM needs to engage with before it can create definitive umpiring records and even consider umpires’ caps.

THM’s project to research and collate umpiring and technical official statistics is being led by volunteer Steve Catton, himself an active international official. This research will become an asset to THM and prove fruitful for future projects. The challenge makes these discoveries all the more rewarding, resulting in the occasional whistle while we work!

Umpiring And Technical Official Statistics – Can You Help?

Steve is keen to hear from active or retired GB and England international umpires and officials who can provide accurate records of their appointments, which will assist with building up this side of THM’s valuable data resource. Steve can be contacted at: sacatton@hotmail.com .