1870 – 2003
Adapted from R G G Squibbs’ 1970 Centenary Account

“Whatever their achievements in other pursuits, the chief pride and glory of Bedfordians lies in their football.” This statement in an article in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News in 1934 might cause some raising of eyebrows among younger Bedfordians, but if they care to read on they will be able to find out what all the fuss was about, and perhaps judge for themselves whether the pride of older generations was justified.

A ‘potted history’ of these one hundred and thirty years would make dull reading, but may note that our first recorded team was that captained by H B Barnes in 1870, although Rugby football of a somewhat primitive nature was actually played at Bedford, as at many schools, long before there was any fixed code of rules. The familiar red jerseys are mentioned as far back as 1881, when it was decreed that all who had played for the team in any ‘foreign’ (away) match would be entitled to a red jersey, with a blue eagle on it for those who had their colours.

Three years later began the twenty-five years reign of the legendary E H Dasent (“The Man”); probably the greatest school Rugby coach of his own or any succeeding generation. It was he who really put Bedford ‘on the map’ as an outstanding rugby school; during his period the School produced ten Internationals and a dozen Blues, not to mention a succession of teams that were the envy and admiration of his rivals.

Our first International was P Christopherson, captain of Oxford University and Blackheath, who was said to have been “such a brilliant dropper of goals that the reduction in the value of a dropped goal from five points to four was due, at least in part, to his excessive skill.” (Fifty Years of Sport.) We are also told that Christopherson, with his father and nine of his brothers, used to form a cricket eleven that played a local Blackheath team.

On two occasions at the turn of the century we had three Old Bedfordians playing in the ‘Varsity match, and in the England v Ireland match of 1906 there were also three Bedfordians, including the renowned Basil Maclear (capped eleven times for Ireland) and C E L (“Curly”) Hammond, who for four successive years was a popular captain of the Harlequins and Middlesex, and later captained England.

Before 1900 the 1st XV were at one time undefeated by any other school for eight consecutive seasons, and for five football terms running no schoolboy crossed our line. In those days we could take on Leicester, whom we beat four times – on one occasion by as wide a margin as 4 goals and 3 tries to 1 try. So impressed were Blackheath by the standard of our football in 1904, when our only two defeats in 22 matches were by formidable teams of our own Old Boys, that they made all the members of the 1st XV honorary members of the famous club. In the previous season our captain, J G Milton, had played as a forward for England in all three international matches while he was still at school.

It was a common occurrence then for members of the 1st XV to be selected for County sides. After one County match in March 1906, a national daily newspaper reported that “the East Midlands, with their backs almost wholly recruited from Bedford School, gave a superb exposition of straight running and accurate passing. The match was a great triumph for the Bedford School boys.”

The climax of the Dasent era was undoubtedly the 1907 season, when the staggering total of 1027 points was amassed by the 1st XV, including 373 points in their six inter-school matches. The highest match score (89-0 against Mill Hill) was achieved on a wet afternoon, when it rained throughout the game. During the season the left wing three-quarter of that remarkable scoring-machine, R C Wilkinson, himself scored 85 tries and kicked 67 goals.

Nearly sixty years later this period of our rugby history was brought up again by a writer in The Field during his account of our exciting draw with Oundle in 1963. “Bedford’s teams of those days,” he wrote, “were a byword for efficiency, and for many years the sight of those red jerseys as the team ran on to the field was enough to strike terror in their opponents, players and spectators alike.”

Though we may detect some slight exaggeration in the last sentence, it cannot be denied that we turned out some colourful rugby personalities from time to time. Among them was the Cambridge University and England half-back, P G Jacob, who was called “the pocket Hercules” by football reporters of his time. “For his stature”, wrote one, “Jacob is absolutely the most powerful man we ever saw.” An Ousel of 1894 tells us that mention was made at a Bedford Town football meeting in that year of a substantial bill for jerseys supplied in place of those torn off the backs of that sturdy player.

Another of our early half-backs was G C Wheeler, who afterwards won the Victoria Cross in 1917. In the last few minutes of a Dulwich match in 1897, Wheeler broke away and scored the winning try by jumping clean over the full-back. This dangerous feat was also accomplished by W W Vassall in the Merchant Taylors match seven years later.

Then there was the rugged W J Carey, afterwards Bishop of Bloemfontein, whom Dasent described as “a very Dreadnought among forwards”. Carey was a Barbarian who played four years for Oxford University and toured South Africa with a British team in 1896. It was he who gave the Barbarians their famous, though somewhat ‘dated’ motto: “Rugby is a game for gentlemen of all classes, but never for a poor sportsman in any class.”

So much has already been written about those great three-quarters, Basil Maclear and H H Vassall, that we will merely remind our readers of Maclear’s goal-kicking in a match for the Old Bedfordians against the Old Paulines in 1907. The OB score was 12 goals, 1 try. Basil’s brother, Ronald, took the first kick, but failed to convert. Basil himself took the remaining twelve and converted them all, many from difficult angles. Concerning Vassall, we will only add that he was never on the losing side in any inter-school match during his three years in the XV (1903 – 4-5); nor did Oxford University lose against Cambridge in the three years that Vassall was an Oxford Blue, and of course, England won the only international match in which Vassall played!

Mention must also be made of the fleet-footed F G Brooks, a wing three-quarter who scored the only two tries for the South v the North in an England Trial match while he was still at school, and who even then was considered by Dasent to be the fastest man playing football. In 1906 he scored the only try for England in the drawn match against South Africa at the Crystal Palace.

The incredible S W Harris was of a rather later vintage. He not only played Rugby football for England and the British Lions, but also attained international standard in boxing, tennis and polo. Not content with this, he entered for the world amateur dancing championships and won the waltz section!

Bedford’s football reputation by no means rests upon the Dasent years. His success made the task of those who followed him more difficult, in that it led to imitation of his methods and more expert coaching at other school: but a high standard of coaching was maintained at Bedford and only two inter-school matches were lost under E L Chambers (one of Dasent’s Internationals), and only two were lost when T T Shaw was in charge in the late 1920’s. Many will also remember that H A Henderson’s period of coaching ended with a run of three seasons without defeat by any other school.

The good work was carried on by A I Dunn in the 1930’s. Then in 1939, under N E Browning and O V Bevan, came another great period of four consecutive years, which bears comparison with any similar period of the ‘golden era’. From 1939 t