Chapter One : The Early Years       

A meeting of men at St. Michaels Church on the London Road (see picture, left) during the summer of 1895 led to the formation of a football club. With the permission of the vicar at the time, Reverend C.J. Berryman, the club was named St Michaels, Camberley. The first recorded friendly took place on  13^th October 1895 against D Company of the Royal Medical Corps. The Camberley side registered a 4-2 win with A. Adkins, the centre forward, scoring the first goal for the club. St Michael’s put in for affliation to the Surrey Football Association. According to the minutes of the Surrey F.A., the then Surrey F.A. Chairman, Mr. Percy Brandon announced that their membership had been granted at a meeting at the York Hotel, Waterloo Road, London SE on October 21^st 1896. For the first couple of seasons, St Michaels only played friendlies. Their first foray into competitive football came when they entered the Surrey Junior Cup in 1897, and it proved very successful. After cruising through the early rounds St Michaels Camberley came up against tougher competition in Guildford in the 4^th round, who they beat 3-1 in a replay after drawing 1-1. The semi final saw two titanic  battles against Kingston on Thames, both matches being played at Guildford. The first semi final played on 5^th February ended 1-1 but St Michaels won through at the second attempt a week later 2-0, W. Morrison scoring all the goals. In the final on 12^th March, St Michaels lifted their first trophy, beating Norwood & Selhurst 2-1. F. Dobson opened the scoring only for Norwood & Selhurst to level things soon after. W. Morrison fittingly scored the winner to clinch the trophy, and with it came the offer of senior status. The Club joined the East & West Surrey League. The team for the Cup Final was W. Collins, C. Smith, S. James, J. Perkes, F. Kinsman, J. Pyniger, F. Dobson, G. Andrews, W. Morrison, A. Godwin and  G Scott jnr.

With elevated status, St Michaels, Camberley were able to attract some better players. One of whom was ‘Archie’ Turner. He made his debut in St Michaels first senior match against Guildford which was lost 4-1, on 1^st October 1898 and remained for just the one season before being snapped up by Southampton. On 17^th March 1901 ‘Archie’ Turner went on to make his first of just two appearances for England, both as it happens were against Ireland.

After just two seasons the Club found it too expensive to maintain and gave notice that they would not continue after the end of the season 1900/1901. This gave plenty of time for those interested in the game to consider the position and as a result a public meeting was called at the Yorktown schools on ??th January 1901 to consider the desirability of running a ‘town’ football club for Yorktown and Camberley. Dr. A.T. Wooldridge, who had been a Vice-President and a keen supporter of the old St Michaels team, presided. It took only a few minutes to decide to form a new Club and the rest of the meeting was taken up with a discussion regarding the name of the new club. Eventually after much discussion, the name “Camberley & Yortktown” was decided upon. It was also decided and agreed to by the Surrey F.A. that Camberley & Yorktown take St Michaels affiliation and this enabled the new club to take over from St Michaels in the East & West Surrey League, but senior status was not granted to the new club.

            In the early days, the biggest difficulty that confronted the club was that of finding a suitable and permanent ground. Camberley St Michael’s played their matches at any ground they could find until, in 1898, they applied to the local council for the use of the London Road Recreation Ground and they were given permission to collect donations to help fund the Club.

            The first offer towards solving the ground problem came fro the late Mr Hollings J.P., who offered them the choice of two pitches at “The Watchetts” near Park Road. Dr Wooldridge, Mr Frank Holden, who was the first captain of the club, Bill Wellman, the writer and others from the Club attended the first inspection but after taking many measurements it was decided that neither ground was suitable without a great deal of expense. With no other ground being made available, it was decided, by the kind permission of the Urban District Council, to do as the old St Michaels had done and play on the recreation ground and trust to collections at matches with ‘gates’ at the more important fixtures. (For a short while the Club also played at Southwell Park Road).

            With Dr. A.T.  Woodridge, Mr D. Sparvell, who afterwards, for a while was President of the club, George Doman, Harry Doman, Dr. H.E. Rayner, Mr A.M Kennet running the new Club, a successful start was made but as a junior organisation only. Their stay in the East & West Surrey League lasted until the end of the 1901/02 season when the dropped down into the newly formed Aldershot Combination. The Surrey Junior Cup continued to be entered and the Ascot & District, the latter in it’s infancy, was entered in 1903/04. In the Ascot competition, the club were always able to maintain a decent position and finished runners-up to Sunningdale in 1903/04 and won the title in 1904/05, beating Wokingham Athletic on goal average with Sunningdale finishing a point behind in third. The trophy was accepted on behalf of the club by team captain J. Nolan following a 4-0 win over Embrook on 18^th March 1905. The team that day (pictured below) was W.J. Collins, D. Brown, C. O’Shaughnessy, G. Styles, J. Nolan, A. Knapton, A.G. Kemp, F.M. Javes, E. Rideout, A Young and A.E. Try.

            Another player who went onto better things was P.A. White who was a striker during the 1902/03. White went on to play for Torquay United, who at that time were playing in the Eastern League. During the 1904/05 season he was scorer for them, hitting 26 out of their 60 goals.

            Whilst playing on ‘the Rec’, and relying on collections, the financial position was anything but satisfactory. Despite finishing as runners-up in the Ascot & District League in the 1905/06 season, a public meeting held at the Yorktown Schools premises in June 1906 to decide whether the club should continue or be disbanded. Mr D. Sparvell, who by this time was President of the Club, chaired the meeting. Also in attendance were Dr A.T. Wooldridge, Mr. A.M. Kennett, the first Honorary Treasurer, Mr. W.H. Goff and Mr.J.W. Brown, members of the original committee, as well as Mr. A. Dowie, founder of the Ascot & District Football League and Mr. F.J. Mattingley, Honarary Secretary of the League. At the meeting the Club took the opportunity of taking the public into their confidence and explained the financial situation. It was disclosed that the Club had a debt of £15. After a long deliberation it was decided that the Club would continue and new Officers and Committee were elected. Mr D. Sparvell was re-elected as President and Messrs. J.J. Appleton, W.F. Coe, J.F. Brown, W. Vaughan, E. Sharp and E. Alexander were elected to the Committee along with Mr. Stallwood who was elected as Honourary Secretary.

The decision to continue proved to be the right one, as over the following four seasons the debts were cleared and the Club went on to win a hat-trick of Ascot & District League titles (1907/08, 1908/09 and 1909/10) as well as finishing runners-up once (1906/07), and appear in two Surrey Cup Finals. The first of which came in the1907/08 season when Camberley & Yorktown took on Kingston on Thames at Woking and were beaten 2-0 in the final of the Surrey Junior Cup. The team that appeared in that cup final (pictured above) was H.Griffiths, J.Shaw, D.Brown, A.Knapton, W.King, J.Nolan, N.Baldwin, D.Sparvell, E.Rideout, J.Hunt and T.Milton. Harry Griffiths later went on to play for Southampton in the Southern League along with Lt L.M.B. Salmon, another former Camberley & Yorktown player. The 1907/08 season also saw Camberley register their biggest win. On the 12th October Camberley & Yorktown defeated Warfield in the Ascot & District League 25-1 with E Rideout 5, L Salmon 5, D Brown 5, E Parr 3, J Shaw 2, W Baldwin 2, A Knapton 2 and even the goalkeeper E Shepherd all scoring .

The 1908 /09 season saw Camberley reach the Surrey Junior Charity Cup final where they narrowly lost to Selhurst Park 1-0 and also reach the final of the inaugural Rayners Hospital Cup where they were beaten by Camberley St Georges 2-0. The Rayners Cup was a competition between local sides devised by Dr Herbert Edward Rayner. Dr Rayner was an enthusiast for the local cottage hospital, a former Club committee member, and prominent member of local society, who agreed to supply a trophy and help organise a competition if the sum of £20 to £25 be donated to the cottage hospital each season. 

By this time the club were playing at Southwell Park Road, having moved there in 1905, using The Aspen Tree Public House as a base and changing rooms. In 1908, the France Hill Estate was developed and it looked likely that the ground would be lost to development and discussions for a move to new premises took place.

            Then a bit of luck came the club’s way. Mr. James Flynn, a friend and supporter of the Club, became tenant of a large meadow (Martins Meadow) on the France Hill Estate. Prior to his tenancy he informed the club that ‘he was up for the meadow and had every chance of getting it’ adding “If I do, you are welcome to it for football every Saturday afternoon.”. He got the lease and the club got a private playing ground, which was voted on and the offer accepted on June 19^th 1909 at the Club AGM. At the same meeting, the new Club President, Dr. A.T. Wooldridge and Honorary Secretary, Mr E. Brewer, presented a balance sheet which showed a turnaround in finances. Total income for the previous season was stated as £63/14s/6d. After expenditure the club was in the black to the tune of £4/11s/6d. 

           So the Club had it’s first private ground, which they occupied with considerable benefit financially for several years. Mr Flynn was the best of Landlords and the club had the ground on a novel sort of tenancy, that if, at the end of the season, they could pay any rent they should do so, but if they couldn’t, well it didn’t matter. The Landlord of the Hope public house nearby also made his premises available as a new HQ for the Club.

            Now playing on their new pitch, the 1909/10 season saw more success. The Ascot & District League was won without a game being lost, Camberley & Yorktown winning thirteen matches and drawing the other three. Only two defeats in cup competitions, both against Camberley St Georges, were suffered. Camberley & Yorktown also made another appearance in the Surrey Junior Cup final. This time Camberley & Yorktown beat Sutton United 2-1 to win the trophy for the first time (1909/10 side pictured below). A decision was also taken to apply for entry into the West Surrey League for the start of the 1910/11 season. The following season did not start well, opening the season with three defeats. The fourth game saw Camberley & Yorktown travel to Farnham where the club got themselves into trouble with the Surrey F.A. after a referee had to stop a game after 80 minutes owing to 'a little unpleasantness'. The Club appeared before the Surrey F.A. disciplinary committee at Woking and three members of the playing staff were suspended for a month.

         April 8th 1911 saw Camberley & Yorktown play their first big prestigious friendly against Southern League side Portsmouth. Martins Meadow was not big enough to take the expected attendance and the game was switched to the London Road Recreation Ground. A big turnout saw a full strength Portsmouth side narrowly beat Camberley & Yorktown 5-4. The Portsmouth side that day featured Stanley Shute Harris who made 6 appearances for England. Surprisingly no gate was taken for this game and an attendance was not calculated but was estimated to have been around the 2,000 mark. The AGM two months later revealed Camberley & Yorktown back in the red to the tune of £32/11s/7d.

James Flynn’s tenancy of Martin’s Meadow, like all good things came to an end, and the club were again in a quandary as to what was going to happen. Proposals were made for the formation of a Sports Ground company to acquire Southwell Park, as the ground became known, after Lord and Lady Southwell, who at one time occupied the Southwell Park Estate. The proposal was very warmly received, but before anything could be definitely done, some members of the Frimley District Council devised a second proposal. The second proposal requested that Southwell Park be acquired by the Council and made an adjunct of the North Ward Recreation Ground by which it was only divided by France Hill Drive. There was of course the process of referring both proposals to the committee and of the committee reporting and having the question referred back again and so on. Eventually, due to inaction, the ground was lost to the public by being bought and cut up for building purposes. It was thought at the time that it was a big mistake in not securing Southwell Park for the public and that the members of the council had not interested themselves in the matter.

But the main consideration was that the football club were again without a ground. Subsequently, another ground at then extreme end of Yorktown, near Blackwater was hired but this did not provided the answer and the club made it’s way back to the recreation ground and the old principle of relying on collections for financial support.

On the playing side the Club had been accepted into the West Surrey League and the Aldershot Senior Leagues. In their first season they finished runners-up in the West Surrey League and won all four matches in a three team Aldershot Senior Civilian League to win the title. The justification of returning to the Recreation Ground rather than persisting with the Yorktown ground was proved on October 6th when 1,500 turned out for the 4 -0 home defeat against Woking.

            The beginning of the 1913 /14 season saw the side significantly strengthened with players arriving from the Camberley St Georges which had folded at the end of the previous season (pictured below). In October 1913, goalkeeper M.Daborn became the first Camberley & Yorktown player to receive county honours when he was selected to represent Surrey in a Southern Counties Championship match. The season saw Camberley win the West Surrey League with 16 wins out of 20 matches, suffering just 2 defeats and they also won the inaugural Wright Hospital Cup with a 2 -0 win over the Kings Royal Rifle Corps.

To celebrate their achievements, a smoking concert was held at the Victoria Hotel where both trophies were presented to Dr A. Wooldridge, the Club President. Season 1913 /14 also saw Camberley & Yorktown make their first appearances in the F.A. & F.A. Amateur Cups. On September 13th Camberley & Yorktown played host to Sutton United and won 5 -3 in their first F.A. Cup match. They went out of the competition two weeks later at home to Guildford 3 -1 in controversial circumstances. A huge demonstration occurred at the end of the game and the referee had to be escorted from the pitch by the police. The first F.A. Amateur Cup game did not have as good a result as Camberley & Yorktown were soundly beaten 7-0 by the Royal Army Medical Corps on November 1st.

Crowd trouble seemed to be a problem for the club at this time and just prior to the return of Guildford for a West Surrey League match on February 21st, a letter was sent to the Camberley News in an effort to ensure that trouble did not occur again. It read "Our opponents are making their second appearance this season in our midden. Who will not remember the debacle which took place in the English Cup tie when Guildford ran out most fortunate winners by three goals to one? On that occasion the referee's uncertain decisions riled the crowd to such an extent that an ugly demonstration took place on the termination of the match in question, the official mentioned having to be escorted from the ground to his dressing room. Lets hope on this occasion our supporters will give the referee their unreserved support. His is a thankless task. If he makes an error he does so unwittingly. Remember too, he is a sport and does not undertake the job for what he can make out of it and, remembering that the club has twice this season come under the ban of the authorities through the rowdiness of a section of its supporters (so called), Camberley Officials ask for the indulgence of their followers towards those controlling today's important match. It is practically certain that several Association officials will attend with their note books too." . The letter seemed to work as there was no further trouble during the remainder of the season.

On the declaration of war in 1914 a notice was posted. It stated that "The competitions and the clubs all realise that the Empire comes first and it is the business of footballers in common with everybody else to do their best to see that Kaiser Wilhelm is not going to referee everything and everybody". On that note Camberley & Yorktown decided to cease playing for the duration of the war from which many of the players were never to return. Some football did take place during the War. On December 11th 1915 the first of three matches between a W.Rumble Camberley XI and a Royal Aircraft Factory XI took place to raise money for the Cottage Hospital Fund.