Something Completely Different 2

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As a young schoolboy my very first collection in the late 1950s was collecting Rugby League Programmes for my local

rugby club Oldham RLC. This carried on till the mid 1970s ,by this time I had over a thousand Programmes, including

Internationals dating back to 1909, Wembley Programmes dating back to the early 1930s not to mention most clubs to

the 20s and 30s. at this point I sold most of the collection keeping just a few as a reminder which I still have.

 

Here are a few for the late 50s.

 

Pic 1 Probably the best team the club ever had.

 

Pic 2 Programmes for the 3 finals they won on the run.

 

Pic 3 A photo of Jack Keith, John Etty parading the cup they won in 1956.

 

Pic 4 Newspaper cutting.

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Here's two photo's of the 1959/60 team taken by two different photographers within moments of each other.

 

Pic 1. Taken by local newspaper photographer and photo published in official match programme.

 

Pic 2. Official programme.

 

Pic 3. Taken by another local free lance photographer within moments of the first, the captain in the centre of the photo had

started to rise from his seat thinking the photo's had been taken as you can see in the photo. which makes this one

unique, this is the only print ever made, I bought it from the photographer before he scrapped it.

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Here's a newspaper photo of the first batch of Oldham club players to sign up, taken at Southport and shows 13 Oldham

players who volunteered along with their 2 officers in the ( 2nd 10th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment. April 1915 ).

 

Back row Pte C.Waye. Pte W.Jardine. Pte J.Tetlow. Sgt E.Oliver. Pte W.Dixon. Sgt H.Carter.

Middle row Sgt A.D.West. Sgt T.Brice. Sgt-Maj F.W.Wise. Col Patterson. Col Hodgkinson. QM Sgt V.Farnsworth. Sgt J.S -

Parkinson.

Front row Pte T.White. Pte T.O.Jones.

 

In total 41 players and officials of the club fought for their country. A roll of honour was unveiled on 26th June 1920.

At the head of the roll there are the six men who are listed as "fallen in action".

T.O.Jones - H.C.Mills - D. Shannon - J.Scott - A.D.West - T.Wainman. followed by W.B.Jardine who died back in Britain

from injuries received in battle.

 

Thomas.Owen Jones was a Welshman who joined from Neath in December 1913.

Herbert.C.Mills was a local player joined from the Oldham Parish Church junior team.

Danny Shannon was a scrum half who joined from the Scottish Rugby Union club Harwick in October in1912. He was the

first Oldham player to be killed in action, whilst serving with the 7th Cameron Highlanders in September 1915.

John.Scott. Very little is know about him other than he signed from Cadishead junior club in August 1912.

Arthur.Douglas.West was one of many player from the "West Country" joined from the Bath club in January 1913.

Thomas.Wainman was a local player joined from the Heyside club in November 1914.

Billy.Jardine by far the most experienced Oldham player had come to Oldham following in the footsteps of his brother Adam

from the famous Scottish RU club Jedforest in July 1908, a great favourite with the Oldham crowd.

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Here's two more photo's,

 

Pic 1. Of forward player R.(Dick) Smith who played for the club for only 2 seasons 1958/59-1959/60, a friend of my parents

I babysat for him and his wife a couple of times on a Saturday evening so they could enjoy a few hours at the local

social club.

Pic 2. Of wingman W.(Bill) Wilkinson nicknamed Cheyenne an up and coming young player, Photo taken with coach Gerry

Helme while training 1968/69. Bill only played 3 games for the first team, his career ended when he was killed in a

car crash leaving a widow and two young children. I later worked with his widow in the early 1990's who kindly gave

me this signed photo of him.