Image: Cricket match between the pensioners of Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, 1825.
Many memoirs from the Peninsular War mention the officers’ predilection for indulging in hunting and denuding the Iberian countryside of its fauna, but mention of less bloody sports are fewer and further between. So, I was intrigued when I came across this passage in The Exploits of Ensign Bakewell, the memoir of Robert Bakewell of the 27th Foot:
Football was much played. Captain Smith, who commanded the Grenadier Company, challenged other captains in the Regiment that twenty of his men would play the best of three games with twenty chosen men from any other company, for a bet of 100 dollars, which Captain John Bring, who commanded the Light Company, accepted. As there were no fences in this country, the terrain presented a fine playing-field for the sport. Two poles, about 6 feet in length, were placed about two yards apart at each end of the field, which was about one mile in length. A ball was thrown up in the centre; and the contending parties had to kick it between one of the goals before either could claim to win the game. The 5ft 8-inch men [of the light company] were too fast for the 6 ft ones, [the grenadiers] but although there was only one hole in the ground, one or more of these taller men always managed to trip and fall into it. The two games were won with ease by the Light Company, and in half an hour only, to the no little disappointment of our Grenadier Captain. These two companies then united, with forty men proposing to play forty of any selected from the remaining eight companies. This was accepted by the battalion companies, and a great game it was, but neither side could claim the victory: after playing for two days, twelve hours each day, both sides gave it up neither of them able to kick the ball between the poles… so they agreed to a draw.
This is the only full account of a match that I’ve come across, but many other memoirs do mention football. Sergeant John Cooper of the 7th Fusiliers recalls being quartered in a convent in Guarda in 1810 and a skull from the relics being used as a football. An anonymous soldier of the 71st Highland light infantry mentions: ‘The officers often exercised themselves by riding horse and ass races; games of football and cricket were also instituted; besides occasional dances, to the sound of the bag pipe.’
And another soldier of the 71st tells of football being played during a pause in the Battle of Fuentes d’Oñoro:
As soon as the wounded were all got in, many of whom had lain bleeding all night, many both a day and a night, the French brought down a number of bands of music to a level piece of ground, about ninety or a hundred yards broad, that lay between us. They continued to play until sunset; whilst the men were dancing, and diverting themselves at football.
William Tomkinson of the 16th Light Dragoons mentions a potential international fixture in 1810, relating how French officers approached the British and the two sides began to fraternise: ‘They invited us to a play in Santarem they had got up, and we them to horse-races, football, and dog-hunts. The communication was put a stop to by a general order.’
Major George Simmons of the 95th mentions the benefit of exercise and sport when recovering from a wound: ‘I am happy to inform you my thigh begins to fill out and gets stronger daily, so much so, that I begin to take one hour’s exercise at football very frequently.’
Judging from how often cannon-balls are likened to cricket balls in memoirs and letters, the game was very popular amongst Wellington’s officers. Surgeon Charles Boutflower of the 40th Foot tells of cricket games played within sight of the French siege of Almeida in 1810:
We amuse ourselves in this place chiefly at Cricket, and from the ground where we play can distinctly see the Fire from the Garrison of Almeida. From the Spirit with which the Officers in general enter into this game one would hardly suppose there was an Enemy within an hundred Leagues of us.
Ensign Bakewell also mentions cricket: ‘Cricket was played two or three times each week, the Revd George Jenkins being very partial to the game, and was considered one of the best batsmen in the Division.’
When cricket is mentioned in the memoirs of the rank and file it is in the context of a game played by officers rather than by the troops. Another sport played in the Peninsula by officers was rackets, or raquets, also known as Fives. This game was similar to squash. It was a development of real tennis and played on a similar large indoor courts, it was even popular within Fleet debtors’ prison. In the Peninsula it seems to have been played against the walls of any convenient building. Captain John Cooke of the 43rd wrote: ‘In a few days we moved from La Encina to El Bodon, where our principal amusement consisted in playing at rackets, with wooden bats, against the side of the church.’
There were also less conventional sports played. With one officer recalling that they: ‘Sometimes turned a pig loose with his tail greased, when he was pursued by the soldiers, and became the lawful prize of the man who could catch and hold him, which was no easy matter.’
With long periods in cantonments and sometimes little to do, apart from drink, you can see why officers might have fostered sport as a means of keeping both themselves, and the troops that they led, occupied, exercised and to boost esprit d’corps.
Daring, Duty & Cunning Plans 