Cardiff 150th Anniversary T.S. Donaldson Selby *4-5 week delay*

From David Allen, Chair, Cardiff Rugby Heritage Group

Cardiff Football Club, founded in 1876, was the product of a merger between two local sides, Glamorgan and Cardiff Wanderers. In those days, ‘football’ could refer both to teams playing either the rugby or association code (and sometimes both). Famously, in its first season, the club colours consisted of a black jersey with a prominent white skull and crossbones on the chest. This emblem was not uncommon amongst clubs of the day, being officially adopted by School House at Rugby School in the 1880s and by Christowe House at Cheltenham College, which took its insignia from that of the Royal Lancers. It was also used by the Barbarians, who wore it in their first season of 1890-1. Despite this general popularity, the shirt reportedly held no sway with the parents of that first Cardiff XV, who thought the emblem ‘uncanny’. After just one year, it was therefore replaced with the famous Cambridge blue and black, the inspiration for which was a rugby jersey worn by Thomas William John Rees in the colours of Gonville & Caius College. Rees both played for Cardiff and was a student at the college. To our knowledge, no copy of that first shirt remains and only one photograph of a player in that kit survives. Despite lots of research, it has not proved possible to identify with any certainty who that player was. When Cardiff Rugby approached the Groggshop with a view to producing a piece that celebrated its founding season and 150th Anniversary, it was therefore determined to fashion a Grogg in the appearance of Thomas Donaldson Selby, who was captain in that first year of 1876-7. Selby had previously been a leading light in the Glamorgan side, which was the senior partner in the merger, and it was perhaps no surprise that the honour of being the first captain of the new team should fall to him. Selby had been born in Jersey, was from a wealthy family and had previously been a prominent member of the Cheltenham College football team – and so may have been introduced the skull and crossbones emblem to Cardiff as he would have been familiar with it from his school days. Despite suggestions that the team was initially nicknamed ‘The Pirates’, there is no contemporary evidence to support this claim.