On 28 April 2025, the daughters of international hockey player Robert Comyn visited The Hockey Museum (THM) to receive their father’s Great Britain (GB) honours cap. Carol and Cheska also deposited collection material spanning their father’s fascinating hockey career, which they had brought together from as far afield as Australia: photographic prints, a cartoon, cloth badges, a medallion and a personal scrapbook-cum-diary of newspaper cuttings and personal reflections.
Robert Comyn’s daughters Carol Shucksmith and Cheska Hodder receive their father’s Great Britain honours cap from Curator & Museum Manager Shane Smith.
The family and Shane review Robert Comyn’s hockey and rugby memorabilia.
From left to right: Cheska Hodder (daughter), Shane Smith (Curator & Museum Manager), Andrew Hodder (grandson) and Carol Shucksmith (daughter).
The presentation made for a very moving day. THM Curator & Museum Manager, Shane Smith said:
Examining Robert Comyn’s hockey memorabilia really brought home his sporting journey, achievements and character. To share this experience with his family and to witness the strength of their emotional connection to this material and to their father’s legacy was very special.
The family enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum with Shane after which Carol and Cheska were presented with Robert’s GB honours cap, watched by Cheska’s son Andrew and Carol’s husband David. David filmed the tour and presentation for their brother Tim Comyn, who lives in France and was regrettably unable to attend, and for their family in Australia who had helped to bring together the memorabilia.
Carol wrote subsequently:
“Thank you for a marvellous day at The Hockey Museum! It has been such a pleasure for us all, not only to know that Dad’s memorabilia will be so well looked after but the presentation of his cap meant so much. The work undertaken at the Museum is amazing, long may it continue.”
Robert Comyn’s Great Britain honours caps and its felt bag.
Robert Comyn’s sporting career
Robert Comyn’s sporting career spanned the ‘amateur’ era before sportsmen specialised in a single sport as they often do today. Subsequently, Robert played multiple sports to a very high level, excelling in hockey and rugby in particular. He first picked up a hockey stick at Dover College, confessing in his hand-annotated scrapbook-cum-diary (now held in the collection of THM) that he had not heard of either hockey or rugby before then.
Items from the Robert Comyn collection, now deposited with The Hockey Museum: photographs, scrapbook and medallion.
Robert was Dover College hockey captain in 1933 playing inside-right and he later joined Mid Surrey Hockey Club. His international career (England and GB) spanned 1935-1936. At the time of writing (2025), the Museum’s England national team records are not yet verified, however, available data suggests that Robert accumulated four England caps scoring twice, during a 6-2 victory over Wales in March 1935 and in a 2-1 win over the Netherlands in April of the same year.
Robert is GB men’s player number 23. He achieved his five GB caps in May 1935. This was an era when international matches were few and far between. However, it is unusual for a player to have more GB caps than England caps – Great Britain teams usually only formed for the Olympics Games every four years. In Robert’s case, his GB caps all occurred at one event – as a member of the British International XI at the Brussels International Exposition Hockey Tournament, part of the Brussels World Fair. This side is now formally recognised as the second-ever GB men’s team following the conclusion of THM’s research project to fully document and verify every GB match and the players who took part in these games.
Discover more about the GB stats project within this article: 130 Honours Caps Awarded to GB Hockey Players Over Jubilee Weekend – The Hockey Museum
The Brussels International Exposition Hockey Tournament was organised by the Belgian Hockey Association and played at Heysel Stadium between 5-11 May 1935. The British team was selected by the Hockey Association (of England) and featured four Irishmen and one Scotsman. The final saw the British International XI overcome Germany 3-2 – the winning goal (a ‘golden goal’) came in extra time, scored by R Whitlock in the ninety-fourth minute. According to The Times, the winner was given the title “Champions of Europe”.
You can read more about the tournament in an article published by THM 10 years ago (below), though our sources at the time were sparse. Robert Comyn’s collection has provided THM with fresh, personal insight, from the first-hand entries in his scrapbook-cum-diary to the rectangular medallion he received at the tournament. Robert described this to his children as a victor ludorum, which is Latin for “the winner of the games”. Medals of this kind often commemorate the winning team or individual; therefore, it could feasibly be a winner’s medal or a player-of-the-match award.
The front of the victor ludorum medallion won by Robert Comyn during the Brussels International Exposition Hockey Tournament of 1935.
The back of the victor ludorum medallion won by Robert Comyn during the Brussels International Exposition Hockey Tournament of 1935. It bears the inscription: “Association Royale Belge de Hockey. Tournoi de Bruxelles 1935”.
A British Team in Europe in 1935 – The Hockey Museum
After the International Exposition, Robert would go on to pursue his other sporting passion of rugby. His multi-sports prowess saw him become Kent rugby captain and an England national team reserve prior to the Second World War.
His rugby career ended when he suffered an 80% severance of his Achilles tendon following a freak accident with a scythe. Incredibly, he returned to hockey and captained the Sussex County hockey team for five seasons after the Second World War. Robert’s recovery from such a terrible injury to compete once again at a high level demonstrates a steely determination within a man otherwise described by his family as quiet and humble.
