At the 1908 London Olympics, six nations participated in what was the first Olympic hockey competition. The gold medal was won by England who beat Ireland 8-1 in the final.

We have seen several of the gold medals and indeed we have one in our collection at The Hockey Museum. Since the Museum started up again in 2011 we have been enquiring about the whereabouts of an Irish Olympic silver medal. We know exactly who played in the Irish team but we have been unable to discover a medal.

You can therefore imagine our surprise and delight to hear recently from Trevor Watkins in Dublin that he had tracked down a medal. He went to visit Ida Graham – the daughter of William Graham, one of the team from 1908 – and there was his medal (photographs above).

So another piece of the hockey jigsaw puzzle has been found.

Mike Smith, January 2016