A total of 581 players (men and women) have represented Great Britain (GB) over the years. Many of these players have enjoyed illustrious international careers with seven men and 13 women having exceeded 100 appearances – yet this piece is about those players who only made one single appearance.

To achieve international player status takes a huge amount of physical and mental hard work and dedication. To become a GB international normally means progression through their ‘Home Country’ national team, so it is fair to assume that the players would be quite well known to the selectors by the time they reached consideration for GB. Selection by a panel of appointed ‘selectors’ was the traditional method of choosing players for county, regional and international duty during much of the twentieth century. This familiarity might imply that players could expect at least a few games to show their mettle.

Each case will be slightly different, but through our statistical research The Hockey Museum (THM) has discovered that 35 men and 18 women have played representative hockey for GB just once. It would be fair to assume that most of these 53 individuals would be a little disappointed at only being selected once. However, there is one concrete exception!

The GB & Ireland tour to South Africa and Kenya, 1951

In 1951 a GB & Ireland team visited South Africa for a Five Test Series. They flew home via Nairobi in Kenya having accepted an invitation to play one match against Kenya (& East Africa). The very enjoyable South Africa tour was also very gruelling. By the time the party reach Nairobi they were somewhat depleted. This was aggravated by a couple of players returning home separately meaning that when they reached Nairobi, GB were struggling to find 11 fit players – in 1951 there was no such thing as substitutes, so, if they could scrape them together, 11 would be sufficient. Significantly, GB only had four forwards and no centre forward. These were the days of ‘positional hockey’ rather than the fluid systems employed today.

A cartoon commenting on the GB & Ireland team tour to South Africa in 1951. It proved to be a gruelling trip with many players having picked up injuries by the time the team arrived in Nairobi to play Kenya on their journey home.

It transpired that a young Brit had recently moved to Nairobi; a very competent hockey player called Peter Johnson. He was a recent Cambridge University ‘Blue’ in an era when many Oxford University and Cambridge University ‘Blues’ progressed rapidly into international hockey. Peter had played in the Varsity matches of 1946, 1947 and 1951 – a rare and lengthy span which must confirm his competence as a hockey player. On 20 September 1951, Peter was called upon to play for GB in a narrow 3-2 loss for the visitors at Nairobi’s City Park Stadium. In doing so he earned his one and only international cap, albeit in very unusual circumstances.

We can be certain that Peter Johnson would have been delighted to have played in just one international match, unlike many other one-cap internationals who might have hoped for more appearances.

Great Britain & Ireland team cloth blazer badge from the 1951 South Africa tour, previously owned by goalkeeper Sir Derek Day. Peter Johnson would not have owned one of these badges as he wasn’t part of the original touring team. However, we may still be able to present him with a GB honours cap.

Can You Help?

We have no further information on Peter Johnson. If he is still alive he would be nearly 100 years old, but he or his family are entitled to received his GB honours cap. We would very much like to make this presentation, so unique is Peter’s story.

Please help with any contact details for Peter or his family. Contact The Hockey Museum using the website contact form: Contact Us (hockeymuseum.net)