1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps football team 1905

Posted on: 28, February, 2019
King's Royal Rifle Corps football team 1905

Last year I digitised and OCRd two runs of regimental chronicles. These were the Rifle Brigade Chronicle (1890-1920) and the King’s Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle (1900-1920). These books are extremely useful and I had been very fortunate in winning a couple of auctions which, for a time, threatened to swamp my house with all things Rifle Brigade and all things KRRC. Getting these books digitsed was an obvious next step for me and I am very pleased with the results. For digital copies of these chronicles or to buy some of the original volumes, please get in touch.

King’s Royal Rifle Corps 1905

The photo at the head of this post shows the 1st Battalion football team, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. The battalion was stationed in Malta at the time and helpfully a number of the players have uncommon names which makes it easy to identify them on British Army Ancestors. For the benfit of search engines crawling this post, the names of the men in this photo are as follows:

Charles Thomas Swinbourne, 2857 Walter Pickavence, 767 Albert Joseph Jeynes, 584 Thomas Payne Budge

2243 William Stone Craston, Sgt Laffan, Capt & Adj Davison DSO, Lt-Col C J Markham, Collins, Burke

Mitchell, 3659 Alfred Edgar Brasell, Adamson, 960 John Sowter, 3406 Robert Ketterick

If anybody can identify any of the other men on British Army Ancestors please do let me know.

I was interested to see, when adding this photo to these men’s profiles that there was already a photo for Robert Ketterick that had been posted.

Robert Ketterick

The article above was originally published in the Sheffield Independent on the 9th October 1914 and shows that Robert was an early casualty of the 1914-1918 War. How many others of his 1905 footballing team also ultimately shared the same fate I don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that Robert was not the only casualty. Robert is buried in Eccleshall (All Saints) Churchyard in Sheffield.

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6 responses to “1st Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps football team 1905”

  1. SimonWalsh says:

    Hello,
    Battalion football team name Craston is – William Stone Craston
    He was born in Oswestry, Shropshire in July 1881 (died in 1955). He signed up to the Kings Royal Rifles in 1899. In the 1911 Census he was a Postman in Oswestry, Shropshire married to Celia Mar Randall they had 2 children George William Edward Craston and Edna Craston. I found your site and photo whilst searching through google for something else to do with the family. Coincidently I’d discovered this branch of the Craston line only last week so newspaper cuttings having his brother Percy as a Shrewsbury Town FC official fresh in my mind. Glad to have been of help.
    Best Regards,
    Simon Walsh

  2. Paul Nixon says:

    Thank you, Simon, nice to be able to add some more detail for this man. I’ll update his record on the site.

  3. Reme says:

    Hi
    I have my Great Grandad’s Malta Football league medal dated 1904-05 and finding this site has now meant we have been able to see him, 767 Albert Joseph Jeynes.
    My dad who is 83 is well chuffed, this was his grandad on his mums side. I would be interested in the chronicle with this photo.
    Regards Les

  4. Paul Nixon says:

    Les, glad to see that my site has turned up trumps for you. That’s what it’s all about. Please drop me a line re a copy of the KRRC Chronicle for1905: paul@british armyancestors.co.uk.

  5. MerveG says:

    I have managed to confirm via DNA and family discussion that Pte Richard Blythe 3722 16th KRRC. who was taken as a POW in April 1917 was my illegitimate uncle’s biological father. From the whole of Richards quite large family there is only one surviving descendant and we are in correspondence. He is descended from one of Richards sisters but as his parents divorced when he was small. he has no knowledge of his grand mothers generation and just one photo of his parents wedding which may contain some of them. My question therefore are there any photographs of the 16th KRR from around 1917 that might include Richard or any other info about him in the Chronical, that may help me close this final part of the family puzzle. Any help welcome. Many Thanks

    • Paul Nixon says:

      I think perhaps that The Great War Forum would be the best place for you to explore this, or the regimental museum in Winchester, of course.

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