Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

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Gerard Killoran
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Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Gerard Killoran » Sun Feb 20, 2022 7:52 pm

These are taken from an article in Cassell's Magazine - Vol 17 1898 -about amateur chess players at the City Of London Club.

Blackburne is clearly visible in the first and probably in the second. The occasion could be the opening of the club's new premises.
On Saturday '15 October, Blackburne, as usual, helped to inaugurate the new premises of the City of London Chess Club at 7 Grocer's Hall Court, Poultry, London EC. Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography By Tim Harding p.289
Better images should be available from the print edition.

The first illustrates a game between T. F. Lawrence (left) and H. H. Cole.

Cassell's Magazine - Vol 17 p.632.jpg
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Cassell's Magazine - Vol 17 p.635.jpg
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Leonard Barden
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Leonard Barden » Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:19 pm

I played H H Cole at Plymouth 1948, half a century after that photograph.

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Feb 24, 2022 3:57 pm

Leonard Barden wrote:
Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:19 pm
I played H H Cole at Plymouth 1948, half a century after that photograph.
For a moment, I thought you were going to say you recognised yourself in one of the photographs.

This is the acommpanying pen-portrait of H. H. Cole.
Probably the youngest of all our greayers is MR. H. H. COLE, whose splendid win against America in 1897 made certain Great Britain's success. Born in Hastings, he enjoyed , at the age of six, an experience which is, perhaps, unique in chess annals.

His father, then and still a famous player, had the good fortune to meet a man who declared that he had never been beaten. Mr. Cole, senior, could not allow such an opportunity of gaining glory to pass, and he requested the pleasure of a game.

"By some means," Mr. Cole says, "I gradually obtained the better position , and just as I thought that I could see my way to a beautiful victory , my opponent remembered an important engagement and had to leave. As, however, he promised to finish the game, I wrote down the position, and for months carried the piece of paper in my pocket ready to resume hostilities. At length the pencil-marks became so illegible that, in disgust, I tore up the paper.

The very next day the man called; but, as I happened to be out, Harry undertook the task of entertaining him, at once asking for a game. The visitor smilingly acquiesced; and I shall never forget his face when, joining them a little later, I found that my youthful son had altogether outplayed him, and had administered a sound beating."
HH Cole.png
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When only nine, Mr. H. H. Cole played for Visitors against Hastings, winning his game, and firmly establishing a reputation as possible player of merit. Coming to London, he clearly won game. soon made his presence felt, and worked his way through the ranks of the Ludgate Circus Chess Club in most brilliant fashion, crowning his successes by gaining its championship. But meanwhile he was further enhancing his reputation by the excellence of his "simultaneous” exhibitions, in one of which he scored nineteen games out of twenty.

On a certain occasion, having arranged to perform against a number of suburban players, he arrived at the local club-house a little early. An old gentleman, who had taken up his position in front of the fire, nodded "good evening," and remarked: "It's rather cheeky, isn't it, of that young fellow to come here to play the lot of us?”

“I suppose it is," Mr. Cole replied; "are you playing?"

"Oh, yes, and mean winning, too," returned the old gentleman.

“Needless to say," Mr. Cole said, when narrating the incident, “that I made sure of scoring his game."

Poor old fellow!

It is only right to add that the members of the Ludgate Circus Club, as well as of the City of London Club, to which he is also attached, look forward to great things from this young and popular international.

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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Richard James » Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:54 pm

Gerard Killoran wrote:
Thu Feb 24, 2022 3:57 pm


This is the acommpanying pen-portrait of H. H. Cole.

Was there also an accompanying pen-portrait of TF Lawrence? I'm currently researching him for a series of articles for British Chess News.

Any further information about Lawrence not readily available in the usual online sources would be much appreciated. In particular, I'd like to find out more about his family background and his father, Henry Lawrence.

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Aug 11, 2022 1:40 am

Here's the best I can do so far

2022-08-11 01_38_56-Cassell's Magazine - Cassell_s_Magazine.pdf — Mozilla Firefox.png
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Gerard Killoran » Thu Aug 11, 2022 1:51 am

Better image

C:\Users\coven\OneDrive\Desktop\Cassell's Magazine, Volume 17.png
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Richard James » Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:18 am

Many thanks Gerard. That's great. I wonder why he was touring South Germany. He was born in Holland, very near Beverwijk.

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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:11 am

About forty years ago, there was a debate within the Insurance Chess Club as to whether T F Lawrence or Julian Hodgson was our strongest ever member.

No consensus emerged.

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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by NickFaulks » Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:35 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:11 am
About forty years ago, there was a debate within the Insurance Chess Club as to whether T F Lawrence or Julian Hodgson was our strongest ever member. No consensus emerged.
I am quite sure you are correct, but do not recall this. I first left London in 1983.

What were Jules' credentials for membership of ICC? Had he at some point purchased an insurance policy? That sounds out of character at that time.
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:54 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:35 pm
David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:11 am
About forty years ago, there was a debate within the Insurance Chess Club as to whether T F Lawrence or Julian Hodgson was our strongest ever member. No consensus emerged.
I am quite sure you are correct, but do not recall this. I first left London in 1983.

What were Jules' credentials for membership of ICC? Had he at some point purchased an insurance policy? That sounds out of character at that time.
Julian was briefly employed by Commercial Union. He lasted a month in a normal job, but that was long enough for him to play for Insurance against Oxford University. He dispatched Jonathan Levitt without apparent effort.

I don't recall the exact year, but it was in the mid-1980s. I was the Assistant Match Captain at the time, having taken over from you.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:06 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Thu Aug 11, 2022 2:54 pm

Julian was briefly employed by Commercial Union. He lasted a month in a normal job [..]
I get the feeling this could be said about many chess players of a certain type. Any others with similar tales? I have a vague recollection that Keith Arkell says something similar in his autobiographies (I think he has published two volumes now?).

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Re: Previously unseen Blackburne photographs?

Post by Richard James » Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:49 pm

Sussex chess historian Brian Denman has contacted me with regard to Thomas Francis Lawrence.
Brian Denman wrote: The Worthing Gazette of 27.7.1966, which had as its chess columnist Leslie A Head, reported that thirteen years previously the Worthing CC had in its possession one of the most famous trophies in the history of British chess. The ibis Challenge Trophy was once the championship trophy of the City of London CC and was won outright by T F Lawrence in 1898. About sixteen or seventeen years ago Lawrence had come to live in Storrington. He invited David Armstrong and the columnist to play him an occasional game. On one of these visits he showed the trophy, which consisted of a set of large ivory chessmen and board. The next time that the columnist heard about the trophy was in January 1966, when a reader, who insisted on remaining anonymous, informed him that the trophy had been presented to the club by his widow. The club minutes in fact recorded that in March 1953 the trophy had been presented to the club by the widow on condition that, if the club parted with it, it should be to a person interested in chess. At that time the committee could not decide how to use the gift and the matter was left in abeyance. Head commented that the club might have held a Lawrence Memorial Tournament or displayed the trophy at Annual General Meetings. In a follow-up article in the Worthing Gazette of 10.8.1966 Head mentions that Eric Chettle, secretary of Worthing CC from 1955-59, remembers the trophy being in the club's cupboard. The club wrote to Jacques and were told that the set would be worth £60, though the firm no longer made them. Mr Chettle said that he had sold it to a Chichester player for £18 or £20. The columnist commented that it was very sad that this priceless and historic trophy had been hidden away in a cupboard unrecognised and unappreciated until it was sold for a few paltry pounds. He asks why there was such secrecy over the sale. The Worthing Herald of 3.10.1958 mentions that a fall in the club's membership had caused anxiety and the set had been sold for £20 to ease the club's balance. One wonders if the set still exists.

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