City Ramblers F.C.

Did You Know?

• The club originally played in chocolate and white before adopting the St Paul's school colours of white shirts.
• In 1906, fraudster Alfred Whale of Harringay pretended to represent the City Ramblers and tricked Arthur Balfour into donating to a fake charity; Whale got 3 months' hard labour.

History

City Ramblers F.C. was an amateur side that claimed the City of London as its home but actually moved around various grounds in Greater London. It began in 1881, growing out of a cricket club from the previous decade that had been called the City Cricket Club. During the 1880s, the team kept a low profile while football outside London became more professional; its best showing came in the London Senior Cup, where it never advanced past the second round.

At the start of the 1890–91 season, the club merged with Old St Paul’s, keeping the Ramblers name but switching to St Paul’s white shirts. This merger gave the club a spot in the FA Cup qualifying rounds, inherited from Old St Paul’s. In its first Cup match, the scheduled opponent, Crystal Palace School of Engineers, admitted it had entered by mistake and withdrew, so the Ramblers advanced to the second round, where Old Carthusians thrashed them 8–0.

That September, an early game at Marlow turned sour; the Marlow board vowed never to play the Ramblers again because of J. W. Meggs’s “disgraceful behaviour.” Meggs, brother of the new club secretary Charles, was suspended for three months for using “filthy and disgusting language.” As London clubs like Woolwich Arsenal and Millwall Rovers turned professional after 1891, the Ramblers fell behind. They skipped the FA Cup in 1891–92 but returned the next season, earning their first Cup win by beating Old Cranleighans 5–1 in the first round, only to lose heavily to Woolwich Arsenal in the second.

Even in the FA Amateur Cup, they struggled, losing 6–1 at Tottenham Hotspur in the second round of 1894–95. A bright spot came at the end of the 1893–94 season: when Smethwick Carriage Works pulled out of the Wolverton Charity Cup final, the Ramblers stepped in for a friendly, and the charity awarded them runner-up medals as a thank-you. This was some comfort after the death of club president Sam Larkin, a major tenant at Billingsgate Fish Market, the month before.

The club’s last season was 1895–96. In the FA Cup first qualifying round, they lost 1–0 to Maidenhead, who started with only nine men due to a train delay. They ended the season with a semi-final loss to Wolverton in the Wolverton Charity Cup, a match where both sides finished with ten men after sendings-off for foul play. Their best London Senior Cup run took them to the last sixteen, where Ealing Association beat them 4–2.

A strange postscript came in 1906, when a fraudster named Alfred Whale of Harringay, pretending to represent the City Ramblers, sent letters asking for charity for a deceased player’s widow. One donor was Arthur Balfour. Whale got three months’ hard labour. Notable player Charlie McGahey, better known as a cricketer, played for the Ramblers from 1891 to 1896.