London Welsh F.C.

rdf:langString London Welsh F.C.

rdf:langString London Welsh Football Club is one of the oldest in London having played its first competitive match on 18 October 1891, although it had been founded around a year earlier by officers of the Welsh regiments, with the aim to "honourably uphold the reputation of Wales in the Metropolis". Their first season was a difficult one, including an emphatic 0–12 loss to Millwall Athletic. They played in the London League in the 1896–97 season, in which they finished bottom. They were suspended towards the end of the season, and the points from their two remaining games went to their opponents, Thames Ironworks (who later changed their name to West Ham), who as a result finished second. At this time the club had 90 members who were all, exclusively, Welsh. The team was soon to be nicknamed "Preston North End" because "they were never beaten". This was due in part to having 6 Welsh internationals playing for the team, including Price White, Jeffrey Jones, Sam Gillam (1890–93), Robert Lee Roberts (1891-1902) and the charismatic Leigh Richmond Roose (1900–01), who was capped three times while playing for 'Welsh'. Whilst a number of its rivals developed into professional clubs London Welsh retained its amateur status and when the Amateur Football Alliance reconstituted the Southern Olympian League in 1921, following the First World War, 'Welsh' were one of 15 clubs admitted to membership.