Origins Celebrating 120 years of the Grecians – The St Sidwell’s United Story

5. Norman Kendall and the rise of association football in schools.

As the twentieth century edged ever nearer, the association game in Exeter was still struggling to gain a foothold. The one hope was the growth of the sport in local schools. After an inaugural schools’ competition, an awards ceremony was held at the Guildhall in May 1899. The opening speaker said: ‘Association Football, as far as Exeter was concerned, was practically a dead letter.’ Despite this, he was hopeful for the future and ‘looked confidently to the improvement and extension of Association Football in Devon, but it was the boys who were the ones who would have to make that change’.

The speaker was Norman Kendall whose arrival in Exeter was to prove pivotal in the advance of the association code. He moved to the city in 1892 to take up a position as Lay Clerk at Exeter Cathedral. Prior to that he had lived in Southampton where, as a member of St Mary’s Church Choir, he had closely followed the beginnings of St Mary’s Young Men’s Association FC who later evolved into Southampton FC. Kendall became a committee member at Exeter United and crucially was the chief organiser and secretary of the new Schools’ League. Teams competed for a cup given by another Exeter United committee member, Frederick Harvey (more about him later in this series).

St Sidwell’s was one of the schools taking part. Sport was popular at the school, and several of the players who later turned out for St Sidwell’s United were notable participants at annual sports days. One of these was Exeter City legend Sid Thomas, who we also find lining up in January 1899 for St Sidwell’s School against the eventual winners of the Schools’ League, St John’s.

But for now it was Norman Kendall driving things forward. He was determined to put association football on the map and along with Frederick Harvey championed an exhibition match, Arsenal v WBA, at the County Ground in 1902 – again, this will be covered in detail in a later article.

Kendall was a central figure, too, in 1908, galvanising support for the scheme to establish a professional club in Exeter and to join the Southern League. He was an Exeter City director and still had links to City after World War 2 when he helped to set up and was made president of a new fund-raising group, the Grecians’ Association.

When a new entrance to St James’ Park was built on Old Tiverton Road in 1951, it was named the Norman Kendall Gate. It was a very fitting tribute to someone who had played such an active role in developing the association game in Exeter.

Norman died in 1955 aged 91 and is buried in Higher Cemetery.

Norman Kendall is included on our trail around  football related graves in Higher Cemetery, Heavitree. 

Well being Walk-Heavitree