In 2016, The Hockey Museum’s (THM) Statistics Working Group began to interrogate our collection material to create a definitive record of every Great Britain (GB) international hockey player and match from the 1920s onwards. Then, in 2021, our GB honours cap project was launched collaboratively with GB Hockey. It aimed to present GB players, or their surviving families, with a unique honours cap. These are embroidered with each player’s name, cap total and legacy number in recognition of their achievement earning honours for the national team. As we head into the new year, we are looking back at some of our favourite presentations from 2025!

Read more about our GB stats project research in the second half of the following article: 130 Honours Caps Awarded to GB Hockey Players Over Jubilee Weekend – The Hockey Museum

 

The ‘inter-war four’: George McVeagh, Denis Coulson, Robert Comyn and Donald Leyland-Naylor

Last year THM delivered an extraordinary feat when caps were presented to the families of four players who competed for GB during the inter-war period:

• George McVeagh, cap number 26; presented in Dublin on 29 March 2025.
• Denis Coulson, cap number 20; presented in Dublin on 29 March 2025.
• Robert Comyn, cap number 23; presented on 28 April 2025.
• Donald Leyland-Naylor, cap number 17; presented on 22 November 2025.

The cap/legacy numbers indicate each athlete’s position within the canon of GB players. Goerge McVeagh is cap number 26, meaning he is the twenty-sixth man to represent GB at hockey.

 

 

These men achieved their GB international status on the same team in 1935, the inter-war period prior to the Second World War. Prior to the success of last year’s honours cap presentations, the museum had only been able to find and present caps to two families of the total 37 GB players who played before the Second World War. We are proud to bring this total to six. Finding the families of players from this early period is difficult. Contact between teammates and the hockey family have been lost to successive generations and international participation at the time was also limited – there were only six GB matches between the First and Second World Wars.

Interestingly, these four men played together in the Brussels International Exposition Hockey Tournament between 5-11 May 1935. This event hosted the second ever GB men’s team to make an appearance in an international competition – the first being at the 1920 Olympic Games, also in Belgium. George McVeagh and Denis Coulson were two of six Irishmen and Donald Leyland-Naylor was one of three Scotsmen in the team. The influential Donald was a renowned administrator and had been president of the Anglo-Scots District since 1932, an organisation which connected sportsmen from the Scottish diaspora and brought them together to play.

 

 

In April 2025, Robert Comyn’s daughters Carol and Cheska visited The Hockey Museum to receive their father’s GB honours cap. The presentation was filmed for Robert’s son Tim and grandson Andrew. They donated memorabilia from Robert’s hockey career to the museum, which has expanded research on the 1935 Brussels Tournament, an event that the museum only learned about 10 years prior.

You can read more about the 1935 tournament and Robert Comyn’s presentation here: Comyn up trumps: posthumous cap presentation for Robert Comyn, member of the second ever Great Britain team – The Hockey Museum

 

Ronald Smith

Ronald (Ronnie) Smith was another exceptional honours cap presentation. It is rare for the museum to have the chance to present a cap to a player of Ronnie’s generation. Although it is incredibly meaningful to present caps to the families of these older players, it was a great moment to award Ronnie with his very own honours cap to recognise his achievement in reaching the pinnacle of our sport. Ronnie received his GB cap on 20 October 2025 at 94 years old.

Ronnie (GB player legacy no.91) earned his sole GB cap on 30 April 1955 when he played in a friendly match against the Netherlands. Ronnie played his club hockey for Rickmansworth and Tulse Hill and represented Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent at county level. He also earned representative caps for England where he made his first appearance on the left wing in a match against Wales on 27 March 1954. His England career spanned 19 matches between 1954-1959.

Ronnie’s cap presentation was at Mill Hill Golf Club where his friends and fellow international hockey players Mike Corby, Freddie Martin and Chris Langhorne were in attendance. Chris formally presented Ronnie with his GB honours cap on behalf of THM and GB Hockey.

 

 

Thelma Hopkins

The life of former Ireland and GB hockey international Thelma Hopkins was remembered on Sunday 12 October 2025 during a moving memorial ceremony in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the city where she grew up in. Thelma died, aged 88, in January 2025 in Canada where she had lived for many years. However, with the help of Hockey Ireland and Ulster Hockey, two of her daughters, Joanne and Lynne McLernon, organised this ‘homecoming’ service for the many who remembered Thelma from her early sporting career.

Thelma (GB player legacy no.11) excelled, not only at hockey but also in squash and most notably athletics. Hockey Ireland remember her as “without doubt one of the most outstanding Irish athletes ever to grace a hockey pitch” renowned for her “exceptional pace, agility and skill”. Over 100 people attended the service where they heard from her daughters about Thelma the person, from Lady Mary Peters (former GB and Northern Ireland athlete) about Thelma the athlete and from Jenny Redpath (former Ireland and GB hockey international) about Thelma’s hockey achievements. Jenny also took this opportunity, on behalf of THM and GB Hockey, to present Thelma’s two daughters with their mother’s GB honours cap.

 

 

Thelma was selected for the first ever GB women’s team that toured the USA in 1965. The service was also attended by many members of Knock Victorians Hockey Club, the club that Thelma played for in her youth. Read more about Thelma’s life and her sporting achievements in her full obituary, which is linked below.

Thelma Elizabeth Hopkins, 1936-2025 – The Hockey Museum

The Story Of The First GB Women’s Matches: Born In The USA – The Hockey Museum

 

Other 2025 cap presentations highlights