Wigan Album

I’ve tried to improve the photo first posted by Bernard Seeling, the grandson of the great CHARLIE SEELING Snr., positioned in the middle of the seated row. One way to describe Charlie I think is to say that he was probably the Ellery Hanley of his day, just my thought.

By 1914 Wigan had established themselves as one of the top teams in the League, perhaps only the great Huddersfield side “the team of all talents” could claim superiority.
When this photo was taken both Wigan and Hull were unbeaten and were contesting for the top spot.

HARRY LOWE who had been responsible with other Directors in signing a lot of Wigan’s great players, is seen here sitting on the ground, at the front. In this team he’d signed Lewis Bradley, George Hayward, Frank Walford and later many, many other great players for Wigan.

Harry had played as a winger, from 1903 to 1908, making 55 first team appearances and scoring 34 tries for the club but perhaps he was better known as a local sprint champion winning innumerable trophies.

Later in 1921 when the Wigan Rugby Football Club was formed into a company he was elected the first chairman of the Board of Directors.

The other who gave incredible service to the club is standing on the extreme left of the photo, he is JOHN COUNSELL. John had been chairman of the committee at the club several times and he had sat on the Rugby League management committee and the Lancashire County RL committee for 26 years.

He became a member of the club as long ago as 1886. He encouraged junior football and donated the Counsell Cup, a competition played for in the Wigan Junior Rugby League. In 1902 when the club was in financial difficulties he participated in fund raising.

Perhaps a demonstration of Wigan’s economic plight in those early days is illustrated by an entry in his famous RL dairies in which he wrote, “Cut up sandwiches for the Wigan team” (for an away game). John passed away while still Chairman when he died in 1938.

Wigan won this match against Hull and went to the top of the table, at the end of the season they were in second place, behind Huddersfield. It was a season of “near misses”, they lost in the Championship play-offs, the Challenge Cup semi-final (to Huddersfield), in the final of the Lancashire Cup to Rochdale (who finished 4th in the League) but won the Lancashire League title.

The game was attended by the Field Artillery who were training at Winstanley Park and had been invited en-bloc to watch the match, they are noticeable in the background sitting in the Douglas Stand.

It was to be a sad irony that 4 years later when the prolific try scorer LEWIS BRADLEY, seated second in from the left, was to be killed in the WW1 conflict, Lewis was a Driver in the Royal Field Artillery and lost his life in the Somme area in June 1918, he’s buried at Vignacourt Cemetery along with over 500 other British soldiers - he was 29 years young. 21 playing members of the Wigan RL Club who enlisted in WW1, Lewis Bradley was the only one to lose his life, although C. Molloy was blinded.

Lewis Bradley played 124 games for Wigan from 1911 and scored 136 tries, this is a remarkable record, averaging 1.1 tries per game, if you compare this to Wigan’s "top try scorer", Martin Offiah whose average is 1.17 tries over 159 games, it gives an idea of his achievement. I know the great Billy Boston, Johnny Ring etc., and others have scored more tries but these are averages per games played, not total scored.

A comment at the time on Lewis in the local newspaper read “Shall we ever forget this speedy wing three-quarter at Central Park? He was the idol of the crowd and it only seems like yesterday that he was dashing down the touchline, his long flowing hair blowing in the wind, those long raking strides, and that final natural swerve.”