Formation 1893 - 94

On 21st August 1893 there appeared in the correspondence columns of the Eastern Daily Press a letter to the Editor over the nom de plume ‘Trueflight’, calling for the formation of a golf club within walking distance of Norwich. ‘Will not some energetic sportsman sound the trumpet-call, summon a meeting, and earn for himself the eternal gratutide of would-be golfers?’

Two days later ‘the EDP’ published a letter from Col. A.C. Dawson, of The Manor House, Old Catton, stating that earlier talk of such a venture among interested friends of his had come to nought but promising to arrange a meeting if Trueflight would communicate with him. Col. Dawson was at the time Colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. ‘Trueflight’ revealed himself as Richard Jewson, then 26 years of age, a future Lord Mayor of Norwich (1917-18).

Events moved with remarkable speed. Col. Dawson called a meeting of those interested in the game of golf for the evening of 30th August at the Drill Hall, headquarters of a Norfolk Regiment infantry battalion (the Drill Hall was demolished in 1963 to make way for the traffic roundabout at the top of Grapes Hill, Norwich). At this meeting an executive committee was set up under Col. Dawson, to seek a suitable site for a course, to assess the extent of support, and then to summon a general meeting with ‘some influential citizen’ taking the chair. Mr Campbell Steward, of the solicitors’ firm of Overbury and Steward, agreed to accept the honorary secretaryship provisionally.

Within two days Mr Steward had written to a number of leading Clubs, including Royal North Devon, Royal Liverpool, Royal Wimbledon, and Royal St George’s, Sandwich, to enquire as to the cost of maintaining a course. The search for a site proceeded, with a tract of farmland at Hellesdon being favoured; this was 2 miles from the city centre, lying astride the Drayton Road, much of it comprising sheep grazing land. On 11th September, Col. Dawson wrote from North Berwick to the Honorary Secretary:

‘My Dear Steward,
Deuchar has a plan of the Golf Links all drawn out for 18 holes which shows it all plainly He has taken a lot of trouble and l think you and all the Committee when they see this will realise how suitable the plan is and how easily it will be laid out. The distance from the 1st hole will be 1300 yards from the Station.”

Mr Deuchar emerged as a great enthusiast, although he was not on the executive committee, having been unable to attend the 30th August meeting. The Station, at Hellesdon, was on the ‘Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway’ line (now defunct) running from the city centre, an important factor in the executive committee’s considerations. The part of the future course nearest to the Station was the aptly-named Rabbits Hill.

However, there was to be a hitch over purchase of the land, owned by the Gurney Trustees. On their behalf, Mr J.H. Gurney of the banking family and personally tenant for life, at first declined an offer of £15.00 an acre for the 101 acres (‘There is so much difference of opinion as to the value of the land that I would rather not sell it’, 3rd October 1893). At this point, there was apparently discreet intervention by Mr Samuel Hoare, MP for Norwich from 1886 to 1906, member of another notable banking family linked by marriage to the Gurney’s, and a key figure in the formation of Royal Cromer Golf Club in 1888. Though he wrote ‘I have communicated with Mr Gurney... I fear I have no influence in such a matter which seems one mainly of a business character’, there soon followed agreement to accept an offer of £1800 for the land. As the EDP later reported, ‘Mr Gurney met the advances of the Golf Committee with fine public spirit’.

To Mr J.J.W. Deuchar must go utmost credit for the practical aspects of the establishment of the course and Club. Not only did he design the first course layout as revealed above but, above all, he pressed the case for buying the land rather than renting it, to the Club’s immense advantage today. It was he also who prepared the first budget for the club, which he submitted to the Honorary Secretary with a letter dated 3rd November 1893. In this same letter, he suggested that Royal patronage might be sought following that granted to Royal Cromer in 1888 and Royal West Norfolk (founded in 1892) by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.

On 8th November 1893, the Club was duly formed at a well-attended meeting in the Council Chamber of the Norwich Guildhall, with the Mayor of Norwich, Mr A.R. Chamberlin, in the chair. Col. Dawson disclosed financial proposals for the raising of capital of £2500 in £10 4% debentures and of income of £350 to £400 a year by membership entrance fees and annual subscriptions, each of one guinea for those joining by year-end. Officers and committee were appointed, Mr J.J. Colman MP being elected President, Col. Dawson as Captain and Mr Deuchar as Vice Captain. Sir Henry Bullard, Mr S. Gurney Buxton and Mr J.H. Gurney were elected Vice Presidents (these were shortly after joined by Mr Samuel Hoare MP, Mr A.R Chamberlin and the new Mayor, Sir Peter Fade).

The Mayor, in closing the meeting, stated that he had written to the Duke of York’s secretary asking if the Duke, who was the Prince of Wales’ eldest surviving son, would consent to be the Patron of the Club. The day following the meeting, Mr Chamberlin informed Col. Dawson by letter that a reply had been received and that His Royal Highness would have no objection to the use of his name and would be happy to become Patron. The Club’s emblem was thereupon designed around the white rose of York. The Duke of York (the future King George V) in fact took only a limited interest in the game; though he is understood to have played at Windsor with Ben Sayers, there is no record of his having visited Hellesdon.

The astonishing momentum of events was maintained. In September, playing with his brother- in-law, Mr Deuchar had ‘tested the map of the course’ over the 9 holes he had planned on the eastern side of Drayton Road. After two weeks of preparation, these 9 holes covering some 2,920 yards were opened on St Andrew’s Day, 30th November, by Col. Dawson. The first Medal competition followed on a wet and windy 25th January 1894, the winning net score being 51.

The official opening of the Club took place on Thursday 1st February 1894, by which date 18 holes measuring 4,925 yards were in play. For this great occasion, the founding fathers were all present, some being pictured in the group photograph opposite. Two grand exhibition games were played.

At the exploratory meeting of 30th August 1893, Col. Dawson had said that it was intended the Club should be open to ladies, and at the November inauguration meeting he reported that ‘some arrangement would be made for establishing a ladies course’. Indeed, the committee laid out a 9-hole shortened course of 2,425 yards for them which was opened on 24th March 1894.

For the first 9 holes of the full course a small temporary pavilion had been erected by the Drayton Road in the now-wooded area beside the approach to the present 10th hole. In January 1894, an order in the amount of £363.15.0 was placed for a Boulton & Paul ‘No. 731 Golf Pavilion’, to be erected on Rabbits Hill. This wooden and corrugated iron building, with subsequent extensions, was to serve as the Clubhouse for 70 years, to 1964.

Within a period of little more than six months from August 1893, The Royal Norwich Golf Club had been established and was flourishing, with well over 300 members, albeit 87 of them honorary. No praise can be too great for those who achieved this with such vigour and determination and who surely deserve, in the words of Trueflight, ‘eternal gratitude’ on the part of all of us enjoying the bounty they bequeathed.

After the dynamic activity of those early months, the following years were ones of consolidation and steady development in what has been termed the golden age up to World War I.

Richard Kelly, originally a pupil of Ben Sayers at North Berwick, was appointed Professional in January 1894. The Head Greenkeeper was Jack Fulcher, who held the post for some 41 years, and George Havers was engaged as Steward, a position he held until just before his death in 1923. Richard Kelly was succeeded as Professional in 1901 by James Kinnell.

In January 1894, the President, Mr J.J. Coleman, proposed the Club should offer a County Championship cup. The first County Championship was played at Royal Norwich in September of that year, with 29 competing. It was won by Mr M.P. Lucas of Royal Cromer, future father of P.B. (‘Laddie’) Lucas, a Walker Cup player and captain, a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II and later an MP; Mr P.M. Lucas emerged victorious from the four who qualified for match-play knock-out. The runner-up was Mr E.M. Hansell, the then captain of Great Yarmouth and Caister Golf Club and an original member of Royal Norwich.

The first recorded match was played against Royal Worlington and Newmarket G.C. (granted its royal title in 1895) at Hellesdon on 12th July 1894. Royal Norwich winning the 9-a-side contest over a full 18 holes by an aggregate 20 holes up vs 5.

The more interesting events of the post formation years are the visits made to Norwich by golfing and other notabilities. Attention was clearly given to generating interest in the game by staging exhibition matches from time to time, for purses donated by the members.

In May 1894, Richard Kelly played two matches against Jack White of North Berwick, who came to be a leading contestant in the Open Championship in subsequent years, eventually becoming Champion in 1904 at Sandwich. A year later Kelly played J.H. Taylor, one of the great triumvirate, Braid, Taylor and Vardon who between them dominated ‘The Open’ from 1894 to 1914; Taylor was Champion in 1894 and 1895, the first Englishman to win the title from the Scots. In 1900 Kelly was matched against Braid. The local professional held his own respectably against this high-class opposition on most occasions.

In September 1901, Kelly’s successor, James Kinnell, played and beat James Braid, then Open Champion for the first of the five times he won the title. Kinnell was himself no mean golfer; in the three years he was with the Club, 1901-1903, his finishes in the Open were 7th equal, 6th equal and 15th equal. The following year Kinnell played Harry Vardon, by then three times Open Champion. Vardon avenged Braid’s defeat, winning the 36-hole match by 7 and 5. A spectator at the match was Arthur Gladstone Havers, 4-year-old younger son of George Havers, Club Steward, the boy who was to grow up to be Open Champion in1923.

November 1897 saw a visit to the Club by the Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour MP.

The Clubs first match against Cambridge University was played in 1903, and this annual match is still in being today.

In July 1904, a Special General Meeting was held to consider the question of Sunday play, ‘for liberty to indulge in which an application had been received by the committee.’ The meeting’s feeling was overwhelmingly against Sunday play. Though the Clubhouse was not officially opened on Sundays until 1919, there were allegations in 1915 that illicit Sunday play was taking place.

In 1913, Viscount Coke, later the 4th Earl of Leicester, was elected President of the Club. The same year suffragettes trespassed on the course, though they did no damage.