Story of the first England captain now being told

Were Steve Gerrard to inspire his team to victory tonight against Uruguay before leading England to World Cup glory, he would surely be put on a football pedestal along with the 1966 captain Sir Bobby Moore.

But World Cup success or not, when it comes to all-round sporting ability — or brain power — he will never stand comparison with England’s first football captain, the remarkable Cuthbert Ottaway.

In these days of multi-millionaire footballers taking part in the world’s biggest sporting event, it seems barely credible that Ottaway was an Oxford student in his final year studying classics at Brasenose College, when he became the first man to lead out an England side.

The match played in Glasgow against Scotland on November 30, 1872, is regarded by sports historians as the first official international football fixture.

But that was only a small part of the story of Cuthbert Ottaway, who two years later would captain the newly-founded Oxford University Association Football Club to victory in the FA Cup final in March 1874 against the Royal Engineers at Kennington Oval. He would feature in three consecutive cup finals.

And yet for all that success during his lifetime he was far better known as a cricketer than a football player. For Ottaway was also to represent his country at cricket, opening the batting with cricket’s first superstar, W.G. Grace, while also keeping wicket for the side.

Just before that first football international he had been in North America on a cricket tour of the United States and Canada.

Steven Gerrard, the latest man to wear the skipper's armband

Little wonder when he returned to Oxford in 1874 to receive his degree, Ottaway received a standing ovation in the Sheldonian Theatre in recognition of his sporting achievements.

It was as well the degree ceremony was held in the morning, for in the afternoon he was off to Lord’s, where, naturally, he scored a century, this time playing for the Bar against the Army.

Ottaway represented Oxford against Cambridge in five sports, including real tennis and athletics.

Those who knew him best would insist that he may well have been England’s centre forward and an opener for England (the England cricket team then going under the name Gentlemen of England) but his best sport was in fact rackets.

Having accomplished so much in sport while still a student, he did not live long enough to forge a career in law, having qualified as a barrister.

He died in 1878, aged only 27, having, it is said, caught a chill after a night out dancing and succumbing to what was probably pneumonia.

He never got to see his daughter, Lillian, who was born two months after his death.

His widow, Marion, emigrated with her to Canada.

The shortness of his life perhaps contributed to the fact that his fame was not long lasting, even in Oxford.

Most football fanatics and cricket enthusiasts will still look blank at the mention of Cuthbert Ottaway.

But with happy timing — coinciding with the World Cup and the first of the summer’s Test matches — Oxford University Press has announced that his name is to appear in the latest update to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, containing thousands of biographies recording the lives of the men and women who shaped all aspects of British past over the last 2,400 years.

Mark Cuthoys, left, and Simon Bailey, Keeper of the University Archives, examine the manuscript records of Ottaway's student career

Published by OUP since 2004, there are now three annual online updates published.

The author of the Cuthbert entry, Dr Mark Curthoys, who with the late Dr Michael Brock co-edited two volumes of the History of the University of Oxford series, is delighted that Ottaway, who was capped twice at football for England, is finally receiving recognition.

Dr Curthoys, a research editor on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, said: “Ottaway was well known in his own lifetime as a sporting phenomenon.

“He can now be viewed in the longer term as one of the first generation to organise and play association football on the national stage.

“His memory was perpetuated at the beginning of the 20th century in the outpouring of books celebrating the development of cricket, both nationally and in universities.

“People who played cricket with him remembered him and kept his memory alive. His achievements came to be seen as a precursor of those of the great Oxford University sporting all-rounder C.B Fry.”

But having been celebrated by contemporaries as perhaps one of the most versatile sportsmen of his generation, he was to be forgotten for nearly a century.

“It is interesting how perspectives change,” said Dr Curthoys. “It was some time before international football achieved the standing it now enjoys and Ottaway did not play for one of the leading clubs.

“He belonged to the generation when association football was played and promoted by professional people in Southern England.”

Ottaway’s grave in London fell into a neglected state, bereft of its original monument.

Ottaway, bottom left, among the Oxford University cricket XI of 1871

But in the early 21st century, there are good grounds to believe that England’s first football captain has been rediscovered.

In 2013, to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the FA, Ottaway was honoured at a ceremony at Paddington Old Cemetery where a new headstone for his grave was unveiled.

At a graveside gathering of 50 people, including representatives from the Football Association, Professional Footballers’ Association and Old Etonian Association, Paul McKay, the England fan who mobilised the campaign for a proper memorial, said: “I was horrified when I first found out the state of Cuthbert Ottaway’s neglected grave. Now a football hero has a memorial that is more fitting.”

Ottaway was born in Dover, where his father James Ottaway, a surgeon, had served as mayor.

At Eton College, the young Ottaway established a reputation as an all-round sportsman, playing for the school at Lord’s, once batting for four hours to make 108 against Harrow, and being called up for the Kent county side.

He came up to Brasenose College as a scholar in 1869, gaining a first in classical moderations, perhaps ensuring his place as England’s best educated centre forward.

As a cricketer, it seems he was more of a Boycott than Botham, admired for his defensive play and readiness to occupy the crease for hours on end in what became viewed as a golden age of university cricket.

As a footballer, according to The Scotsman newspaper, he was capable of some very “pretty dribbling”.

Engravings of the 1872 first football international from the Bodelian Library

It turns out, however, that his claim to football immortality came about by chance, as Dr Curthoys explains.

“The FA agreed to send a team to Glasgow and, but for an injury the association’s secretary C.W. Alcock would have led the England side.

“Ottaway stood in as captain for the historic fixture, played at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground. Although the match ended in a goalless draw, the forward play was appreciated by the crowd reckoned at 4,000, but probably nearer 2,500.”

Scotland wore dark blue shirts, it is said for convenience, because every player in the Scottish squad played for Queens Park in Glasgow, where their shirts were blue.

For the sake of visibility, England elected to wear white shirts with a three lions patch sewn on to the left breast.

England’s current World Cup captain admits he had known nothing of the first man to proudly bear the three lions all those years ago.

Gerrard said: “I never knew Cuthbert Ottaway’s story before.

“It is great that what he achieved is being recognised.”