Royal Engineers A.F.C.

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The Royal Engineers AFC is a football team founded in 1863, under the leadership of Major Marindin of the Corps of Royal Engineers, the Sappers. They enjoyed a great deal of success in the 1870s, winning the FA Cup in 1875.

The 1875 Cup winning side were:

Capt. W. Merriman; Lt. G.H. Sim; Lieutenant G.C. Onslow; Lt. R.M. Ruck; Lt. P.G. von Donop; Lt. C.K. Wood; Lt. H.E. Rawson; Lt. R.H. Stafford; Lt. H. W. Renny-Tailyour; Lt. A. Mein; and Lt. C. Wingfield-Stratford.

The team drew 1-1 against Old Etonians F.C. with a goal from Renny-Tailyour and went on to win the replay 2-0 with a goal each from Renny-Tailyour and Stafford.

The Royal Engineers were the first football team to go on a tour, which they did to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield in 1873 ^[1].

Sir Frederick Wall who was the secretary of the Football Association from 1895-1934 states in his biography that the passing game known as the Combination Game was created by the Royal Engineers A.F.C. in the early 1870s [Cox, Richard (2002) The encylcopedia of British Football, Routledge, United Kingdom].

They have maintained their character as an amateur team (as was the tradition early on in football history) and have not played in top competition since the 1890s.