The collections within The Hockey Museum (THM) cover over 25 different subject areas and they often service or contribute towards our 30 or so active study subjects.

Most of the objects and material within the museum collections are donated by kind friends of hockey but occasionally we must buy items that are rare or important. Sometimes items appear in auctions and we have to move quickly to secure them!

Recently we were offered an original illustration of Stanley Shoveller that had appeared in Country Life magazine in 1912. We had no hesitation in moving to secure this unusual piece. Not only does this give us a valuable addition to our art collection, but it also provides us with a rare illustration of this great player – probably the only British hockey player who will win two Olympic gold medals (1908 & 1920). This picture of the great man will be included in the chapter on him that will appear in Hockey’s Military Stories, one of our study subjects.

An illustration of England hockey player Stanley H Shoveller by Charles Ambrose (c.1912). The Hockey Museum collection.

Who was Stanley Shoveller?

While still at Kingston Grammar School, Stanley Shoveller played for Hampstead Hockey Club. He was a prolific goal-scorer at all levels of the game, scoring seven for England against Wales in 1906 and achieving 17 international hat-tricks. He would have played more international hockey were it not for business commitments as a stockbroker. In his early years as an international he formed an effective partnership with his Old Kingstonian contemporary, the inside-forward Gerald Logan (1879-1951), another who joined Hampstead HC.

Stanley was a highly deceptive player. He did not appear to be fast or to have remarkable stickwork or a devastating shot. But he was desperately quick off the mark, with wonderful control of the ball. His body swerve allowed him to evade defenders and his favourite and most effective method was to bring the ball up to the left side of the goal and to score with a flick shot that no goalkeeper seemed able to stop. He was known as the ‘Prince of Centre Forwards’ but remained a remarkably modest man.

Hockey was admitted to the London Olympic Games in 1908. Only two overseas nations (France and Germany) entered sides, so the four home nations competed separately to create a competition. Shoveller played centre-forward in an England side that emerged as gold medallists after defeating France in the preliminary round, Scotland in the semi-final, and Ireland in the final.

The sport was omitted from the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912, though an alternative international tournament was organised by the German Olympic Council at Hamburg in October 1912. The Hockey Association (HA) entered an England team and Stanley scored four times in an 8-3 victory over Germany, and three times in a 10-0 defeat of Austria.

The England men’s team that played France on 26 March 1910 at Auteuil near Paris, before 1,000 spectators. Stanley Shoveller is standing in the darker jacket in the centre, only a couple of years prior to the above illustration.

On the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the Rifle Brigade and was commissioned second lieutenant. Wounded at Hooge, Belgium, in July 1915, Stanley returned to the front and was awarded the Military Cross (MC). Promoted to lieutenant in December 1915 and to captain in 1917, he served through the remainder of the Great War, relinquishing his commission in July 1919.

Stanley resumed hockey in 1919 and captained Great Britain to a gold medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games when he celebrated his 40th birthday.

Great Britain men’s hockey team at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. Stanley Shoveller is standing in the centre of the back row.

His Hampstead HC teammate Cyril Wilkinson wrote:

“His most remarkable record was in connection with the Olympic Games. He was the only [hockey] player to have won two gold medals and though it must be conceded that the foreign challenge was not so strong, it was remarkable that in 1920, twelve years after his first medal, including four years of war, he again represented Great Britain when approaching his 40th year.”