Legendary Amateur Footballer Recognised by People of Southwark

On Thursday 20th November at 2 p.m., more than 70 years after his finest hours, Dulwich Hamlet players past and present as well as supporters of the South London team will make their way along the road that bears his name to Champion Hill for the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to one of the true superstars of the amateur game, Edgar Kail. The Mayor of Southwark and local MP Tessa Jowell, Minister for Sport and Culture, will also be in attendance.
Earlier this year Southwark Council, in conjunction with local paper the Southwark News, announced that it would be honouring famous citizens and landmarks within the borough asking residents to vote from a list of 50 candidates, the top 20 being awarded a blue Peoples Plaque. Hamlet fans were swiftly canvassing votes as visiting supporters and locals alike were only too happy to nominate Kail. When the final votes were published even die-hard fans had to admit a pleasant shock as Kail came sixth in overall vote ahead of Peckham’s Rio Ferdinand by some way and with more votes than Charles Dickens, great Briton Isambard Kingdom Brunel and even Sir Michael Caine (not a lot of people voted for him!).
More than 70 years have passed since his finest hours and, looking down from the celestial football field, Kail might glance upon a much different Champion Hill that had swelled to bursting point during amateur football’s golden era. Nevertheless the fans of the Hamlet still chant the name of the dynamic striker with the quicksilver feet and a sniper’s eye for goal who stayed loyal to the local club he joined at the outbreak of World One aged 14. Many were the times professional clubs came begging the prolific hitman to take the King’s Shilling and turn pro but no matter how tempting the inducements, Kail would remain with Dulwich for nearly two decades. During this time, he clocked up a phenomenal 427 goals for the club, including 53 in the 1925-1926 season, club records which remain unbeaten to this day. With crowds regularly topping 15,000 Dulwich Hamlet enjoyed a purple patch between the Wars that included victory in the 1920 and 1932 FA Amateur Cup Finals.
However Edgar’s finest hour was yet to come as in 1929, he was selected by the England FULL International XI, the last amateur player whilst with an amateur team to be so honoured. An end of season tour took in France (where Kail scored twice in a 4-1 victory), Belgium and Spain (*see attached article), Kail wining a hat trick of caps. But for the FA’s insular refusal to participate in the following year’s inaugural World Cup in Uruguay, Dulwich might even have been celebrating a World Cup winner amongst their ranks, such was the impression Kail made on the tour.
In addition to his full England caps, Kail played 21 times for the England Amateur XI and was reputedly a demon bowler for the Dulwich Hamlet Cricket XI! Such was his fame that on retirement he was snapped up by the popular Daily Sketch newspaper as a columnist whose every word was avidly devoured by the newspapers’ readers.
Moving to Scotland in the late sixties, Kail passed away in 1976 but long after his achievements have passed into legend the name of the man who refused to sell out is chanted long and loud by the Dulwich supporters, “Edgar Kail in my heart keep me Dulwich, Edgar Kail in my heart I pray, Edgar Kail in my heart keep me Dulwich, keep me Dulwich ‘til my dying day.”

LEST WE FORGET… or have we already?

Forgive an old soldier his piece but pursuing that venerable organ of all matters Southwark, the Southwark News, I chanced upon a letter from a Mr Andrew Tucker of Sydenham bemoaning the failure to observe the two minutes’ silence upon the anniversary of September the 11th. I would hope that this was a typographical error on behalf of said correspondent, for though I have nothing against our American cousins from across the pond, my personal vent is that the ease with which people accepted marking that catastrophe is matched only by their ignorance of a more significant date just one month later. I speak of November 11th, Armistice Day to those of us old enough to remember. After many years of struggle, a national two-minute silence was recently reintroduced upon the occasion of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Although this would rarely if ever coincide with a home game, it had long been a tradition at Champion Hill for the silence to observed before kick-off on the Saturday immediately preceding Remembrance Sunday.
However in recent years this tradition seems to have ground to a halt as the minute’s silence becomes increasingly devalued. No one doubts the tragedy of the murder of those two girls from Soham but the irrational hysteria, fuelled by guilt, that followed came to a head with all football clubs ordered to observe a silence – all because they were wearing Manchester United shirts when they were abducted.
It beggars belief when a local lad, Damilola Taylor, loses his life in equally tragic circumstances, the silence is deafening by its absence.
With the almost evangelical zeal with which we have been forced to observe such gratuitous silences, it is particularly galling that the Hamlet had two chances but failed to pay their respects on either. On the Saturday before Remembrance Sunday it was Croydon at home but the only silence came from the travelling fan, whilst Tooting were entertained the following Tuesday 12th November. Both of these dates should have sufficed but neither was taken. When the survivors limped back limbless and sightless, maimed and shell-shocked from the killing fields of France and Belgium in 1918, there would have been many connected with Dulwich Hamlet, both supporter and player amongst there number. Likewise in 1945, as the memorial inside reception will testify. A moment of remembrance for their sacrifice would not go amiss.