William Charles Powlesland Fey

Known as Charles, Fey was a key figure in the early days of Exeter City. It was Fey who chaired the Annual General Meeting of St Sidwell’s United Football Club on 31 May 1904at the Red Lion Hotel in Sidwell Street. This was the meeting that voted to change the name of the club to Exeter City Association Football Club.

Fey is assumed to have been the Chairman of the club in 1904/5 but stood down after that. This was possibly because at this point he became chairman of the East Devon FA. He raised a toast to the East Devon FA at the club dinner in May 1905. He subsequently became Treasurer of Exeter City, and in November 1906 the Football Express, in a tribute to Sid Thomas added that ‘he, no doubt, would wish to give a great share of the praise to Mr C Fey, who latterly has helped him as Hon Treasurer’. Fey was still treasurer in November 1907 when he wrote to the Devon and Exeter Gazette to put the record straight about a payment the club had made towards Exeter Carnival funds.

When Fey died, aged 80, in 1956 the Express and Echo obituary was headlined ‘Funeral of an Exeter City pioneer’. Details of Fey’s life outside of football were given. He had worked for 52 years for James Townsend and Sons Ltd, the well known local printing firm. He had retired ‘about 10 years ago’.

The obituary reported that ‘in his younger days he was a member of the 1st Rifle Volunteers and was one of the pioneers of the Exeter City Football Club. He was a familiar figure at Devon County Cricket Ground and the Exeter Rugby Football Ground.’

At the time of his involvement with Exeter City, local street directories record Fey as a ‘Warehouseman’ and living in nearby Rosebery Road (1905) and Pinhoe Road (1907). At the time of his death, he was living in Kennerley Avenue.

Fey’s funeral took place at Whipton Parish Church, and he is buried in Higher Cemetery, Heavitree, alongside his wife, Lucy Cardew Fey, who died in 1952.