Perceval House

51°28′15″N 0°00′30″W / 51.47080°N 0.00842°W / 51.47080; -0.00842 Perceval House is a building in Blackheath, London which gave its name to a military training school; in October 1863, the school's football team became a founder-member of The Football Association, the body which regulates football in England.[1][2][3]

The school's representative on the inaugural meeting of the Football Association was G.W. Shillingford. He, along with his colleagues from the other Blackheath-based teams at the meeting, favoured a form of football allowing "hacking" and handling of the ball, similar to rugby; when this was rejected by the majority of the teams as they attempted to formulate one agreed set of rules, no-one from Perceval House was represented at the fifth meeting of the F.A. in December 1863 and nothing further was heard from them.[4]

  1. ^ Cavallini, Rob (2005). The Wanderers F.C. – "Five times F.A. Cup winners". Dog N Duck Publications. p. 17. ISBN 0-9550496-0-1.
  2. ^ Gibbons, Philip (2001). Association Football in Victorian England – A History of the Game from 1863 to 1900. Upfront Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 1-84426-035-6.
  3. ^ Newman, Jerry (17 June 2004). "Trivia". The Football Association. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  4. ^ Curry, Graham (May 2001). "Football - A Study in Diffusion" (PDF). University of Leicester. pp. 80–89. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.