Foreword

In 1907, at the age of22, Gerald Wellesley came to Hackney Wick and, until the outbreak of the Great War, he resided in the Wick devoting all his time to the founding and run­ning of Clubs for boys and men.

 

His story of those early days, written over 50 years ago, will be of great interest to all Club members, and particu­larly to those who were members at that time. It is a great joy to his friends that, through the development of Eton Manor, he lived to see the dream of his youth come true.

 

The Original Boys’ Club

over the years 1908, 1909, 1910

 

It has been suggested that many of the older members would be interested to read some of the Annual Reports published during the earliest days of the Club’s existence, when nearly all the members were working boys.

 

Except for the alteration of an occasional word, or phrase, they are reprinted exactly as they were written over 50 years ago for inclusion in the Annual Report of the Eton Mission.

 

It will probably be news to many that the original Boys’ Club in Gains-borough Road (now Eastway), was started by the Eton Mission and was run for some years from there by a few Old Etonians.

 

About 1908, I realized that it made little sense to accustom boys to club life and ‘team spirit’ if, at the age of 18 or 19, they were to be turned away from the Club ‘base’ around which their lives were centred. Accordingly, during 1909, the Eton Old Boys’ Club was formed—independently of the Mission—and in the Autumn of that year opened its doors at the corner of Daintry Street to former members of the Eton Mission Boys’ Club.

 

From that moment onwards, can be dated the growth and success of our present Clubs.

 

It soon became apparent that both the Boys’ Club and the Old Boy’s Club were growing so quickly that a new home must be found for them. After protracted negotiations, the land next to the Victoria Park Station was acquired, on which stood the Old Manor House and Manor Farm of Hackney Wick, and on which the present buildings were put up to house both the Boys’ and Old Boys’ Clubs, to be known henceforth as the Eton Manor Clubs. (At the same time, the Manor House itself was rebuilt for the use of those who were giving their spare time to the running of the Clubs.) All these were opened on July 1st, 1913, by the Clubs first and last President—Field Marshal Lord Roberts, v.c.

 

 Gerald Wellesley~ 1960

 

 

The Boys’ Club November 1908

The Boys’ Club, which is only one of our many institutions for lads in Hackney Wick, is run for the very roughest class of working boy, and as we look back on the past twelve months, though we have at the same time every reason to be satisfied with the progress made, yet we find ourselves face to face with the danger that our Club may become so respectable as to keep away the ragged street-arab, with whom we try so hard to keep in touch. It is not so much that the appearance of the boys themselves has altered in any appreciable degree, as that an atmosphere of order and self-respect has grown up in the Club.

 

This difficulty, which is bound to recur every few years in any club which has continuous supervision, can only be solved by our having some other organisation which members can look forward to joining when they become older.

 

Probably but few of those who read this report can realise the appalling monotony and drudgery of the work and life of many of these boys, and how little we can understand of the greyness of such a life? It is for these boys, whose spirits might otherwise find no other outlet of an evening than in the streets or at the pub, that we run our Club. Here may be seen any winter~ s evening from forty to eighty boys in warm bright rooms. The two billiard tables are always in use, and bagatelle, draughts, dominoes and chess are all played regularly. Many of the boys are fond of boxing and one or two shape remarkably well. I hope very much that we may this winter have a strong class under some capable instructor. A reading room and library have been opened in the Club, and presents of illustrated papers and books are always most acceptable for the latter. Last winter a committee of boys was appointed for the first time to assist in the management of the Club, and the experiment has answered admirably. The Club ‘Harriers’ go for evening runs one night a week, and are looking forward keenly to their ‘Marathon race’. The nigger-minstrel troupe is still in its infancy, but pro­mises well. Cricket, though not one of our strong suits, was played very keenly throughout the summer, and both our first and second football teams have done extremely well. In point of swimming these East London boys are far in advance of most public-school boys, and I venture to think that a representative team race—Eton Mission Boys’ Club v. Eton College— would be a very one-sided affair.

 

Throughout the winter an ‘Urchins’ Club was run on four nights of the week, for the same class of boy under fourteen, and, though there have been many difficulties in the way of reopening it on account of their former club­room being no longer available, we hope to start it again very shortly.

 

The top floor of our Club-house, composed of several small and rather dingy rooms, has hitherto been but little used; this is now being knocked into one, and in a month’s time we shall have instead a large and well-lit room, which will add greatly to the attractions of the club.

 

There are two things for which I would especially appeal, a piano for the big room in which we hold our club ‘sing-songs’, and pictures or prints for our somewhat bare walls. Shorts, shoes, football boots, sweaters, flannel-shirts, etc., are always welcome. Most welcome of all are the visits of Etonians past and present. The boys are always proud to welcome in the Club the present Etonians who come round on Saturday nights, and many a cheery billiard and draught match is keenly fought out between the two parties.

 

To those old Etonians who have so kindly given up their time to visit us regularly on one or two nights in the week throughout the year are due, not only the thanks of the boys themselves, but also the gratitude of those in whose hands lies the management of the Club.

 

BOYS CAMP

 

During the first week in August a most successful Camp for Boys was held at Cuckoo Weir, Eton College.

 

In all, some sixty-three boys came down, but only about forty-five were able to stay the full ten days, the remainder having to be back at work again immediately after the Bank holiday.

 

Favored by the most magnificent weather throughout, and with all the delights of boating and bathing at our door, a happier party than ours can

hardly be imagined, and it is impossible to exaggerate the good, moral and physical, gained by the lads from that wholesome life in the fresh air. One boy put on 5~ lb. in weight in the course of the ten days.

 

Each boy paid a fair sum, differing according to the wage earned, to­wards the expenses of camp, and the total amount paid by them was a very considerable one.

 

After our success this year I fully expect to see one hundred boys in camp when next August comes round.

 

The Boys’ Club -  December 1909

 

In submitting the annual report of the above, it is most satisfactory to be able to record steady progress in the development of the Club during the past year.

 

While the danger—mentioned in these pages twelve months ago—of so raising the standard of civilization as to keep out the rough ‘street-arab’, for whose benefit the club is primarily intended, has been avoided, the general tone of the Club has on the whole greatly improved, and it is clear that per­sonal acquaintance with the boys and the close touch into which the Mission is brought with them in their homes and daily lives have gone far towards exterminating the atmosphere of ‘hooliganism’ which prevailed amongst our members little more than two years ago.

 

At the same time the necessity for the Club’s existence is as great as ever. The temptations which beset boys living in a neighborhood such as ours are many, and the influence of drink, gambling and above all ‘street-loafing’ would be bound to prove the downfall of many were it not for the presence of the Club amongst them, where they may spend their evenings in the midst of happy, healthy surroundings.

 

The system of self-government amongst the members, introduced two years ago, has been continued during the past twelve months with conspicuous success, and besides the General Committee there are now some half-dozen sub-committees of boys managing the various branches of sport connected with the Club. In my opinion, the feeling of responsibility which these small duties entail, has gone further towards bringing out the fine points in the characters of the members than anything else which we have attempted.

 

In the matter of sports the Club has more than held its own, and the Harriers, Gymnasium, Boxing, Cricket, Football, and Swimming have all been enthusiastically supported by members—particularly the two latter.

 

It is for the management of these different branches of Club athletics that the help of Old Etonians is so badly needed; we should indeed have been in a sorry plight by now had it not been for the regular support of those three Old Etonian friends who have been helping us week by week throughout the year, as well as the invaluable assistance rendered us by our old friend, Mr. H. E. Swift, Headmaster of the Berkshire Road School. No one who has mixed with these boys for some time can fail to feel the fascination of such work, and the writer (who came to the Eton Mission for three months originally, and has been here ever since) can assure any Old Etonian who would give up one evening a week to helping with the Club, that the interest attaching to the work will more than repay him for his trouble. At the pre­sent moment it is found impossible to re-open the ‘Urchin’s Club’, which was run with such success during the last two winters, owing to there being no one to take the matter properly in hand.

 

Probably the most serious difficulty with which a club manager has to cope is the problem of obtaining satisfactory employment for his boys.

 

It is only those coming into constant contact with them who can appre­ciate the demoralizing effect that unemployment, or unsuitability of employ­ment, has on the mind and character of boys living in the environment in which many of them find themselves.

 

The rough ‘street-arab’—honest and straight though he may be—is not, as a rule, quite the class of boy for whom these various ‘skilled employment’ agencies and committees seem to lay themselves out.

The ‘top-standard’ lad whom they would select for a job is, more often than not, a boy of exceptional brightness and ability who would probably make his way in the world in any case by virtue of his brains.

 

‘We must get X a job’, someone says, ‘he was such a clever boy at school’.

 

This is the wrong system.

 

Many, I know, will tell me that this is not the case, but I speak from what I see.

 

Not for one moment would I attempt to belittle the excellent work that is being done by these different committees in finding first-class jobs for first-class boys; but I do suggest that these are not the lads who are most in need of help.

 

These are not the boys who go later as men to form the ranks of our unemployed.

 

No! Let us look rather to the boy of average intellect and average ability, perhaps even sometimes to the dullard, for it is they— and not those others

 

—whose future hangs in the balance.

 

Of such are our members composed, and with them an effort is made, not so much to obtain the best possible opening for the best boy, but rather to place each and everyone in a situation suited to his individual capacity (limited though it be), and likely to be of a permanent character.

 

During the last twelve months we have been able to place some forty-five boys in work of this sort, and we owe a great debt of gratitude to the ‘Lads’ Employment Committee’, of Hutchinson Street, F., for the kind way in which they have helped me with a number of these cases.

 

The great factor in increasing the difficulty is the desire of parents and boys alike to sacrifice the future prospects altogether for the immediate attraction of a few more shillings a week to be obtained by what is known as ‘casual’ labour.

 

If, instead of allowing their managers to fill a situation from among the applicants of whom they know nothing, and who cannot tell themselves whether they are suited for the job or not, Old Etonian employers of labour would apply to us to recommend them boys for their various vacant situa­tions, they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they have in their

employ boys recommended by someone at the Eton Mission who has had an opportunity of judging as to their character and capabilities.

 

At the same time the boys themselves would take a pride in the fact that they were working for an Old Etonian, and one of the greatest problems which confronts the Eton Mission Boys’ Club would have been solved.