When Biddy Burgum died at the venerable age of 98 years old in December 2025, our original obituary described her as “the oldest living England international”. We were then contacted by Sarah Ensor to say that her mother, Marjorie Daniel (née Hammersley), a former England hockey international, was still alive and well and that she would be turning 100 on 19 May 2026.
From our records, we could certainly confirm that Marjorie was an England international player and as far as we know she is now the eldest living! Marjorie recently celebrated her 100th birthday and you can read all about the day and our presentation to Marjorie of a very special England honours cap.
Marjorie Daniel proudly wears the uniform of the England women’s team.
As part of the research we undertook into Marjorie’s playing career, we uncovered that in her early days she played for Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club (later to become Woking Hockey Club), the club most local to The Hockey Museum (THM). With the help of our museum volunteers who are also Woking HC members, we were able to track down some early Woking Swifts archive material, notably a minute book and a scrapbook being cared for by Woking HC goalkeeper Gill Finch. We were delighted to find that the scrapbook contained lovely photos of Marjorie Hammersley (her maiden name) playing as a member of the Woking Swifts First XI back in the 1947/8 and 1948/9 seasons. The records also reveal that Marjorie was an active member of the club; she took on the role of junior secretary and organised all the coaching.
Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club First XI, 1947-1948 season. Marjorie Daniel (nee Hammersley) is seated second from the left wearing glasses.
From the Woking Swifts scrapbook on temporary loan to The Hockey Museum.
Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club, 1948-1949 season. Marjorie Daniel (nee Hammersley) is seated second from the left wearing glasses.
From the Woking Swifts scrapbook on temporary loan to The Hockey Museum.
It transpired that the scrapbook had originally been put together by Shirley Hand, a long-time member of Woking Swifts and now Woking HC. When she was appointed club secretary back in the 1970s, Shirley inherited boxes of material – standard practice for club secretaries! To apply some order to this and to tell the story of the history of Woking Swifts, she put together this scrapbook of important dates, papers, press cuttings, photographs, and information about key members. Shirley thought that the album had been lost, so she was delighted to discover that it had been saved. It is currently on loan with THM where it has undergone conservation work and will be digitised before being returned to the club.
Museum volunteer and Woking Hockey Club member Shirley Hand is reunited with the Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club scrapbook that she originally created but thought lost.
The scrapbook records that ‘Swifts Hockey Club’ was founded in 1918 when a group a ladies met in Lucy’s Tea Rooms in Woking after World War 1. The club initially played their home matches on the Recreation Ground, later to become Woking Park, before moving to Woking Football and Sports Ground in 1926 and changing its name to Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club. In those early days, they played against other clubs such as Wimbledon, Wallington and Ealing. Two of their founder members, Joan Brown and Nancy Albright, went on to represent England and in later years other Woking Swifts players such as Marjorie Hammersley, Peggy Lodge, Myra Brain and Jill Tickner also played for England. The scrapbook contains numerous wonderful photographs of teams from those early years, including a number that depict Marjorie Hammersley and others that show Shirley Hand. Woking Swifts continued to grow through the decades, merging with the men’s team to become Woking HC in 1985. The club is now one of the largest in the country.
We knew that Marjorie taught at the prestigious William Perkins School in Chertsey, but Shirley was able to tell us that Marjorie was in fact her PE teacher! Shirley remembers Marjorie joining as a young teacher with lots of new ideas. It was Marjorie who encouraged Shirley to continue playing hockey when she left school in 1950 and so it was that she joined Woking Swifts, a club she is still a member of today, 79 years later. Shirley celebrated her 94th birthday on 21 May 2026.
Congratulations to both Marjorie and Shirley!
Woking Swifts Ladies’ Hockey Club, 1969-70 season. Shirley Hand is seated furthest left of the front row.
From the Woking Swifts scrapbook on temporary loan to The Hockey Museum.
