The Civil Service men’s and women’s hockey associations can both trace their histories back to the early 1920s, being formed following the setting up of the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) in 1921. The CSSC – often referred to as the Civil Service Sports Association in its early years – was founded to unite, promote and manage the disparate sporting activities of civil servants across the UK. It was driven by the need for a centralised body to coordinate, fund, and provide facilities for the welfare, health and morale of Civil Service staff after the First World War.
The Civil Service is the organisation that supports the UK government in running the country by developing and implementing policy. Employees work in departments and agencies such as the Department of Transport, the Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Defence. Civil Service sports clubs were therefore predominantly located in and around the national civic centres of the Home Nations, in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. Hockey, as with many other Civil Service sports clubs, started off with departmental teams who would play each other and play against other hockey clubs in their areas.
The Department of Transport and Industry (DTI) Civil Service women’s hockey team, 1988.
The Civil Service Sports Grounds at Chiswick, West London (formerly in the County of Middlesex), was the home of the Civil Service Hockey Association (CSHA) for most of the twentieth century. However, with the arrival of artificial turf pitches they inevitably had to move elsewhere. In 2010, the management of the Chiswick grounds was taken on by the adjacent school and became known as the Kings House School Sports Grounds. The grounds continued to develop and now have a range of ‘state-of-the-art’ sports facilities. It celebrated 100 years in February 2026. You can read about the history of the Civil Service Sports Grounds below.
Civil Service hockey may no longer play at the Chiswick grounds, but hockey is still there as it is now the home of London Wayfarers Hockey Club – the hockey tradition continues!
History & Community | King’s House School Sports Ground (featuring film footage of sports being played at the Chiswick Grounds, including women’s hockey)
The opening of the Civil Service Sports Grounds at Chiswick on 20 February 1926. His Majesty, King George V, inspects the teams and their captains.
Inset: Captains of the various Civil Service men’s sports teams in 1926.
The history of Civil Service men’s hockey
The history of Civil Service men’s hockey was documented in 2022 by Ernie Vickery on the occasion of the men’s CSHA’s 100th anniversary. The CHSA merged with the Civil Service Women’s Hockey Association (CSWHA) in 2024.
Read Ernie Vickery’s very interesting and personal account of the men’s Civil Service history, which he has kindly allowed The Hockey Museum to publish: A potted history of Civil Service men’s hockey, 1922–2022 – The Hockey Museum
A Civil Service team, mid-century, unknown date. Does anyone recognise these players?
A Civil Service hockey team, 1961/62 season
The history of Civil Service women’s hockey
Whilst the history of the Civil Service Women’s Hockey Association (CSWHA) is less well documented, it has none the less had its undoubted successes. From the Association’s early days in the 1920s, many club and departmental teams played around England and in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. As with the men, the women also selected a Representative side to play against the Army, Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) and Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). The Representative side dates right back to 1926 when the team played against the WRNS at the official opening event of the Civil Service Sports Grounds in Chiswick in front of King George V.
The All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) also granted the CSHA ‘county status’, which meant that a selected Civil Service team played in the Southern Counties Championships every year in the mid part of the twentieth century. Initially, they even had a second county XI playing.
The Civil Service Women’s County Side, 1962/63 season
The end of the Second World War and the arrival of the five-day working week saw a change in the popularity of Civil Service clubs with fewer of them continuing. This change affected the men’s as well as the women’s teams. With Saturday morning working, it had been natural to play for your Civil Service club in the afternoon but with the changes, players now joined clubs nearer to where they lived. Some women’s Civil Service clubs did carry on for many years, such as Ariel Hockey Club in Surrey, and others became ‘open clubs’ but still retained the words “Civil Service” in their name, such as Taunton Civil Service (formerly the UK Hydrographic Office), Edinburgh Civil Service and Northern Ireland Civil Service. Eventually, county status was also relinquished, but the Civil Service Representative team survived and continued to put out strong teams that achieved significant success against their Armed Services opponents. Regular appearances by international players such as Lisa Bayliss, Katie Dodd and Sally Gibson helped to give them a significant edge. Representative games continue to this day.
By the end of the century, the emphasis within Civil Service hockey had moved to local, inter-departmental competition and, for the women, a seven-a-side hockey event was added to the more ‘fun’ sports days that many Civil Service departments were already running. The success of these events led to the introduction of a nationwide seven-a-side competition that culminated at a central venue. This format attracted more and more teams over the years and the women’s competition, now called the Joyce Cole Cup, is played annually alongside the men’s Hancock and Evans Cup (an 11 a-side event) at Beeston Hockey Club – a demonstration that hockey is thriving in the Civil Service.
Stalwarts of Civil Service hockey
Civil Service hockey has had many great servants, but it is appropriate to mention a couple in this article.
Ernie Vickery, the author of the men’s chronicle discussed above, is himself a figure of great significance within CSHA history. As a player, he represented the Civil Service from 1972 through to the late 1990s. He went on to become team manager. After passing the more ‘hands on’ jobs on to the next generation, he became a selector, all while he’d also been an active CSHA Committee member. In 2003 he was voted in as President of the CSHA, a post he held for a further 20 years. In 2022 he was awarded the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC) Merit Award for over 50 years of volunteering commitment and excellence. You can read the match report from one of Ernie’s games below. You might recognise several other famous names.
Joyce Cole is another great servant of Civil Service hockey who, like Ernie Vickery, played and volunteered for Civil Service hockey for over 50 years. Famous for playing in goal in her blazer, she went on to be a great organiser and administrator of so many aspects of Civil Service hockey and was the CSWHA President until 2001. Joyce was also awarded the CSSC Merit Award in 1980. It is rather poignant that we are coincidentally celebrating the history of Civil Service hockey and simultaneously reporting on Joyce’s death at the age of 99 – read her obituary: Joyce Cole, 1926-2026 – The Hockey Museum
Our thanks to the following individuals for their support during the research for this article:
- Ernie Vickery, former Civil Service Representative player and CSHA President
- Hedley Featherstone MBE, former CSSA Heritage Development Executive
- Helen Skelton, former Civil Service Representative player and current CSHA President
A 1989 match report from The Times featuring the hockey heroics of Ernie Vickery.
