In December 1870, Edwin H. Ash of Richmond and B.H. Burns of Blackheath famously sent a joint letter to The Times, sponsoring the first meeting of what was later to become the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

The meeting took place on this day 150 years ago (26th January 1871), at the Pall Mall Restaurant on London’s Regent Street, with representatives from 21 clubs forging their names in rugby history as the 21 founding members of the RFU.

Richmond supplied not only the RFU's first president, Algernon Rutter, but also its first honorary secretary and treasurer, Edwin Ash. Two other members of our club were also elected to the first RFU committee, E. Rutter and E.C. Holmes.

To mark this hugely significant moment, we have provided the following extract from pages 29-33 of the Richmond FC History Book:

The chief event of the season of 1870-71, was of course, the formation of the Rugby Football Union, the parent body of all clubs playing the rugby game. The rules were still in an indefinite state.

In most cases, before a game began it was necessary for the two captains to confer, in order to come to an agreement on various important points concerning which the opposing teams might hold different views. During the game, too, an unusual position might arise for which no solution would be forthcoming by an appeal to a recognised authority. There was no high council to exercise disciplinary power over a club guilty of a breach of decent conduct in the course of a match, and as the number of clubs grew the need of a code accepted without question by all players became very pressing indeed.

What undoubtedly hastened the foundation of the Union was a letter written by ‘a surgeon’ to The Times on November 23rd 1870, in which he stated that within a few weeks he had attended to the following cases of injuries to boys of Rugby School, “One boy with his collar-bone broken, another with injury in the groin, a third with a severe injury to the ankle, a fourth with a severe injury to the knee,” and “two others sent home on crutches.” These injuries were presumed to be the direct result of the practice of hacking in Rugby football. The majority of papers in London printed this letter, and ‘The Lancet’ drew special attention to it, urging that, if the statement were correct, the sooner this feature of Rugby Football disappeared the better it would be for all concerned. The letter, was of course, a travesty of the actual facts, plenty of correspondence pouring in from boys of the school which directly contradicted the statements. Nevertheless, a certain amount of harm was done, and it was felt by the leading clubs that it was incumbent on them to set to work to establish a controlling body which would be authorised to deal with all matters connected with the game in such manner as would place it on a surer footing and eradicate such evils as might be proved to exist.

In addition to the above incident, there was another matter which hastened the coming of the Union. The Football Association arranged an England v Scotland match at the Oval, Kennington, on November 19th of the same year. At this period nearly all the Scottish clubs played the Rugby game, and they promptly refused to recognise the match being an international meeting, hardly any of the players who were supposed to represent Scotland being members of recognised Scottish clubs. Certain of the latter thereupon challenged the Rugby players of England to a match, and this challenge being accepted, it became all the more necessary to form a Union charged to arrange the fixture and settle the rules by which the countries would agree to abide.

In December 1870, a letter appeared in the Times from Edwin H. Ash and B.H. Burns, the respective honorary secretaries of Richmond and Blackheath, which it is worth the while to quote in full. They wrote: “An opinion has for some time prevailed among the supporters of Rugby football that some code of rules should be adopted by all clubs who profess to play the Rugby game, as at present the majority have altered in some slight manner the game as played at Rugby School by introducing new rules of their own. Each club plays according to its own rules on its own ground, so, the strangers in each match find themselves at once at a disadvantage in not knowing the rules of the ground, confusion and disputes are generally the result. We therefore home that all clubs playing the Rugby game will join with us in forming a code to be generally adopted. Secretaries of clubs approving of this will greatly oblige by forwarding their names to us.”

On January 26th 1871, a meeting of the captains, deputy-captains and honorary secretaries of the leading clubs took place at the Pall Mall Restaurant, Regent Street. Those present included E. Rutter, E.C. Holmes, H. Emanuel and E.H. Ash of Richmond and F. Stokes and B.H. Burns of Blackheath. The other clubs represented were Marlborough Nomads, Guy’s Hospital, Ravenscourt Park, Civil Service, West Kent, Wimbledon Hornets, Gipsies, Clapham Rovers, Law, Wellington College, Flamingoes, Harlequins, Queen’s House, King’s College, St Paul’s School, Lausanne, Addison, Mohicans and Belsize Park.

E.C. Holmes was elected to the chair and his introductory remarks were followed by the submission to the meeting of the first resolution, which was proposed by F. Stokes, captain of Blackheath, and seconded by E. Rutter of Richmond. “That in the opinion of this meeting it is thought to be desirable to form a Rugby football society, and that all clubs playing according to the Rugby rules be invited to join it.”

After it had been proposed and carried that the society be called ‘The Rugby Football Union’, the following were elected to the committee, to whom was delegated the duty of drawing up a code of rules, to be afterwards submitted to the approval of a meeting to be thereafter summoned: President, A. Rutter; Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, E.H. Ash; E. Rutter, Richmond; A.G. Guillemard, West Kent; W.F. Eaton, Ravenscourt Park, and Law Club; F. Hartley, Flamingoes; F.I. Currey, Marlborough Nomads; F. Luscombe, Gipsies; L.J. Maton, Wimbledon Hornets; E.C. Holmes, Richmond; A.J. English, Wellington College; J.H. Ewart, Guy’s Hospital; and R.H. Birkett, Clapham Rovers.

Richmond’s Edwin H. Ash was primarily responsible for calling the meeting and attending to the business side, and as he was also author of the bye-laws he had a great deal to do with the successful founding of the Rugby Football Union (RFU).