Pelham von Donop

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Lieutenant-Colonel Pelham George von Donop (28 April 1851 - 7 November 1921) was an officer in the Royal Engineers and later Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways. He represented the Royal Engineers at association football, appearing in two FA Cup Finals, and made two appearances for England.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Early life

Von Donop was born in Southsea, Hampshire,[1] the eldest of four sons (and three daughters) of Commander (later Vice-Admiral) Edward Pelham Brenton von Donop, RN.[2] He was educated at Royal Somersetshire College, Bath, before entering the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1869.[3] He represented the academy in the annual cricket match against Sandhurst at Lord's on 23–24 May 1870[4] and played against the MCC at Lord's a year later.[5] He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 15 December 1871 and the following April was posted to the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, Kent. Von Donop continued playing cricket while serving with the Royal Engineers: in one match, against the Harlequins at Chatham in June 1884 he scored 91 runs out of his side's total of 224.[6]

[edit] Football career

As well as playing cricket, von Donop was soon selected to represent his regiment at football,[7] and was in the Royal Engineers' team which reached the 1874 FA Cup Final. In the final, at Kennington Oval on 14 March 1874, von Donop played at inside left. The Engineers lost 2–0 to Oxford University.[8] The following year, the Engineers defeated Oxford University in the semi-final to set up a second consecutive appearance in the final, this time against the Old Etonians. The final was played at Kennington Oval on 13 March, with von Donop now playing at centre half for the Engineers. The game ended in a goal-less draw. In the replay, at the same venue on 16 March, the Engineers won 2–0.[9]

Von Donop also gained two caps for England in friendly matches against Scotland.[1] He made his international debut on 8 March 1873, in the second official match played between the two countries, which England won 4–2. Von Donop, playing in the centre of the defence, was described as a "stalwart of the Royal Engineers team".[10] He made his second international appearance two years later, on 6 March 1875, in a 2–2 draw.

Von Donop continued to represent the Royal Engineers until he was in his mid-30s: in November 1886, he scored three goals in a game against the Royal Military Academy [11]

[edit] Later career

Von Donop was promoted to Captain in December 1883. In September 1884, as a member of the Royal Engineers' 8th Railway Corps Company, he was posted to Egypt to take part in the Nile Expedition. While in Sudan, his Company constructed 87⅓ miles of railway track, from Sarras to Akasha, to facilitate the transport of provisions and stores to and from the fighting front. He returned from Egypt in June 1886.[12] Between January 1889 and February 1894, he served as Inspector of Submarine Defences at Bombay, India,[13] [14] where, on 15 March 1890, he married Ethel Farran Orr, the daughter of a Bombay barrister.[15] He was promoted to Major in May 1890[16] and to Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1897.[17]

He continued to play cricket at club level and in January 1890 he made two appearances for G F Vernon's XI in matches against local sides at the Gymkhana Ground, Bombay.[18]

In 1899, von Donop left the Royal Engineers to become an Inspecting Officer of Railways for the Board of Trade's Railway Inspectorate. He was promoted to Chief Inspecting Officer in July 1913 and held that position until his retirement in 1916. During his time with the Board of Trade he investigated numerous railway accidents, such as those at Witham, Essex in 1905[19] and at Ilford,Essex, in 1915,[20] and also carried out safety inspections of tram services, such as that at Warrington, Lancashire. He died on 7 November 1921 and is buried in Mortlake.[21]

Von Donop acted as godfather to the writer P. G. Wodehouse, who was named Pelham in his honour.[22] His youngest brother Stanley served in the Royal Artillery, achieved public recognition when he led a column during the Second Boer War, served as Master-General of the Ordnance and as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and ended his career as Major-General Sir Stanley von Donop KCB KCMG.[23]

[edit] Sporting honours

Royal Engineers

[edit] External links

[edit] References

Betts, Graham (2006), England: Player by player, Green Umbrella Publishing, ISBN 1-905009-63-1 

Gibbons, Philip (2001), Association Football in Victorian England: A History of the Game from 1863 to 1900, London: Upfront Publishing, ISBN 1-84426-035-6 

Phelps, Barry (1992), P G Wodehouse: Man and Myth, London: Constable, ISBN 0-09-471620-X 

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Player Report: Pelham George von Donop, 2008, <http://www.englandstats.com/playerreport.php?pid=998>. Retrieved on 11 January 2008 
  2. ^ “British Upheld by German Court”, New York Times, 1917-05-26, <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E00EED8123AE433A25755C2A9639C946696D6CF> 
  3. ^ “Royal Military College”, The Times, 1869-07-26 
  4. ^ “Cricket: Woolwich v Sandhurst”, The Times, 1870-05-25 
  5. ^ “Cricket: Marylebone Club v Royal Military Academy, Woolwich”, The Times, 1871-05-26 
  6. ^ “Cricket: Royal Engineers v Harlequins”, The Times, 1884-06-30 
  7. ^ Betts (2006), p. 247 
  8. ^ Gibbons (2001), pp. 41 42 
  9. ^ ibid, pp. 44 45 
  10. ^ ibid, pp. 37 38 
  11. ^ “Football: Royal Engineers v Royal Military academy, Woolwich”, The Times, 1886-11-19 
  12. ^ “The Royal Engineers”, The Times, 1886-06-16 
  13. ^ “Naval and Military Intelligence”, The Times, 1889-01-03 
  14. ^ “Naval and Military Intelligence”, The Times, 1894-02-06 
  15. ^ “Marriages”, The Times, 1890-04-16 
  16. ^ “From the London Gazette”, The Times, 1890-05-10 
  17. ^ “From the London Gazette”, The Times, 1897-12-15 
  18. ^ Other matches played by Von Donop. cricketarchive.com. Retrieved on January 23, 2008.
  19. ^ “The Witham Railway Accident”, The Times, 1905-12-05 
  20. ^ “Ilford Collision Inquiry”, The Times, 1915-01-05 
  21. ^ “Funeral of Colonel von Donop”, The Times, 1921-11-11 
  22. ^ Phelps (1992), p. 37 
  23. ^ “Maj-Gen Sir Stanley von Donop”, The Times, 1941-10-18