Updates:
15/2/2002 - directions to the grave
16/2/2002 - added link to biography
23/11/2007 - some more info about Bernard Hieatt (thanks to Les
Hawkins and the Reading Standard), small update to directions and
other minor tinkering
It should not come as a big shock to find that a website entitled "1871" takes an interest in history.
At the January 2002 meeting of the Reading FC Society of Collectors and Historians I was chatting to club historian David Downs about the foundation of the club. He mentioned to me in passing that there had been an attempt to find the grave of the founder of Reading Football Club, Mr J E Sydenham, in order to include it in the video "Heart and Soul", the story of Reading Football Club. As the attempt had failed, it sounded to me like a challenge.
You can read a biography of Mr Sydenham here.
You can never have enough luck, and my good fortune in this search was that I had seen a newspaper account of the death and funeral of Mr Sydenham whilst researching the 1913 Reading FC tour to Italy. I went back to the Reading Central Library and this time looked more closely at the details from the Berkshire Chronicle newspaper of the time. The newspaper files said that he died at his home of Wakehurst in Southcote-road West on 3rd May, 1913 and the funeral was five days later. They added that the first part of the funeral service was held at St Mary's Church (presumably St Mary's Butts although this was not stated), and that the interment took place in Reading Cemetery. They even gave the name of the funeral directors, Messrs Heelas Ltd, and the supervisor of the funeral arrangements, Mr W B Fordham. Surely that would be enough information to find a grave plot.
I originally come from Tadley and have lived away from the Reading area for a long while, so at this point I would probably have been heading for Reading Crematorium in Caversham had I not first rang David Downs to tell him what I had found. He pointed out to me that it was far more likely to be the cemetery near Cemetery Junction. After the phone call, I decided that I would pursue the matter further myself.
So, armed essentially only with name and date of death I headed off to Reading Cemetery. I half-thought that there would be an office there, but also thought that all I really had to do was to find the section where burials were from 1913. Wrong on both counts. There was something that might have been an office building once, but it was clearly not regularly occupied now. Also there appeared to be no chronological order at all to where different graves were located. I did however wander round the cemetery for a while, looking at the higher status graves and more interesting statues.
Perhaps the most striking grave is near the back of the cemetery and features a statue of a young man with an aeroplane propeller next to him. The inscription says that he was an air pilot named Bernard Laurence Hieatt, and that he died on 3rd May 1930 "in the hour of his glory" after setting two world records in the 200 miles motor cycle and sidecar race at Brooklands. I've since found out that the records were the 100 miles Class F sidecar record and the two hours sidecar record. Both were set during the 200 mile race. Hieatt came off at Byfleet Banking and ran into the fence four laps from the end whilst leading the race - he had complained of poor visibility due to heavy rain at his final pit stop, and had apparently not seen later pit signals to slow down. His passenger, F Matthews, escaped without serious injury.
Anyway, after wandering around I gave up on this first attempt to find Mr Sydenham's grave.
Obviously a more sensible approach was to search the archives for a burial plot. The library came up trumps here - using their on-line catalogue I determined that they had a publication listing the inscriptions on the monuments in the Cemetery. It's an eight-page pamphlet including a map of the cemetery showing it divided into different numbered sections, with the detailed work being on microfiche.
One of the microfiches (unfortunately not the first one I looked at!) has an index by surname of all the monuments, and there were only two Sydenhams in that list. Looking at the list of grave plots, it was also obvious that the majority did not actually have monuments with recorded inscriptions.
The first Sydenham grave plot was certainly not the founder of Reading FC (died too early and was female, I seem to remember), so I had one shot left. And there it was - a Joseph Edward Sydenham, who died on 3rd May, 1913. The grave also contained his wife, who died in 1895, so my original optimistic plan of looking for graves from 1913 obviously had no chance of success. I made a note of the grave plot reference (section 44, row B, number 27), drew a rough plan of the cemetery in my notebook, excitedly told the librarian what I had found (which I'm sure she really wanted to know!) and headed straight to the Cemetery.
I arrived at the cemetery and headed for the correct section based on my sketch map. This is where things started to go wrong. I knew it was near the end of the second row in that section, but which end? And which was the second row and which the second-to-last? And in any event, did the section begin at the nearby path or somewhere else?
I wasn't too worried as there can't be more than 300 plots in the section and a significant number didn't have gravestones anyway, so I started to read every inscription. After 30 minutes, I'd seen them all twice with no joy and I was running out of time before I needed to catch a train to get to a game that evening. More worryingly, there was one corner of the section which was totally overgrown and I just could not get to those gravestones.
So I sketched a larger scale map of the area I believed to be the relevant section, and then picked nine graves at random. I recorded the family names of each grave and marked the location on my map. I could then go back to the microfiches the following day and see what the grave plot references were for each of those nine monuments.
Joseph Edward Sydenham.
The day's delay allowed time to set off warning bells in my head. I checked the club history Biscuits & Royals, and a photograph there has a caption referring to James Sydenham as the founder of the club. The same photo has a similar caption in the Archive Photograph series book called "Reading FC 1871-1997". Had I been tracking the wrong J E Sydenham all along? It would be pretty embarrassing because I'd already told a few people of how far I had got in my research, and they were eagerly waiting on tenterhooks (well, possibly) for the results.
Also, if Joseph Edward Sydenham died in 1913 aged 68, that meant he'd have been 26 in 1871 when the club was formed. I'd always had a mental picture of the club founder as an aged Victorian gentleman with a Charles Darwin-sized grey beard. In this case, the photograph mentioned in the above paragraph was helpful, because it shows Mr Sydenham with a moustache and sideburns but clearly youngish, even if he doesn't really look to be in his twenties.
So I went back to the library the next day, and this time my first task was to check the funeral records again. Thankfully, there is no doubt that Joseph Edward Sydenham is the founder. His obituary not only says he was one of the original members of Reading Football Club but also says he was the first secretary, the clinching proof that he was the right man. However, it didn't explicitly state that it was him who called that first meeting, so that might be a line of research for another time. (Later note: I have seen two other obituaries and one of them describes him as the convener of the meeting to establish Reading Football Club.)
Next I went to the microfiches again, and located all the nine inscriptions I had recorded on my sketch map. This allowed me to easily plot where the Sydenham grave should be. To be on the safe side, I made a note of some of the names on the adjacent gravestones as well. I also spotted something I'd missed by being too hasty the previous day, and that was that the memorial to Mr Sydenham and his wife was in the form of a cross.
On previous visits I'd noticed that a large number of the crosses in the cemetery have been broken. It could just be that the monumental form of a cross is relatively unstable and unlikely to last in stone for a large number of years. Frankly I suspect that it may also be due to vandalism, which in a graveyard is of course appalling.
Irritatingly, I'd spent too long in the library and it was now dark. I toyed with the idea of going back to the cemetery anyway, but without a torch it seemed pretty pointless, so that was another day's delay.
Next morning, at first light (that's 11.30am, by the way!), I again headed for Reading Cemetery. About 20 uniformed police officers were guarding the entrance. "What now?" I thought, but I reckon they were just using the police offices in the entrance gates as a meeting point, and they let me through without a glance. Well, no more than a skinhead normally attracts from a police officer, anyway.
I headed purposefully for the right area, and began to search. This time I knew that the "second row" was not the second row from the path because the boundaries for this section were notional rather than visible. I still couldn't find what I wanted so I turned to my list of adjacent graves, and right in front of me was a name I recognised. That grave should be next to Mr Sydenham, so what have I done wrong?
Well, I still can't answer that because indeed, next to where I was standing was a truncated pyramid base with a broken cross on top containing the inscription I was looking for. I must have looked right through it a few minutes before. The inscription reads:
Also of
Joseph Edward Sydenham,
who passed away
May 3rd 1913,
aged 68 years.
The top part of the cross was lying behind the grave, and was completely covered in ivy. The stone-face at the place where it was broken was smooth and weathered, so that it must have been damaged many years previously. There were no grave goods other than the stones, and the grave had clearly not been tended for some time.
At this point I was probably the only person alive on the whole planet who knew the location of the final resting place of the man who founded the greatest football club in the world. A humbling thought.
Two quick phone calls later I was still the only one, but at the third attempt I found someone in who I could tell. (As a cautious type, I always like to have at least one other person know my discoveries in case I get run over by a bus on the way home.) During the conversation I realised that I'd forgotten to bring my camera, but as it was overcast I know that I wouldn't have been able to get a decent photo anyway. In the future I will publish photos of the grave on this page.
Phone call over, I also noticed more police massing near the entrance gate, and started to wonder whether anyone in the nearby houses had complained about some lunatic in the cemetery. (Imaginary conversation: "What are you doing here, sir?" "Errr, if I say looking for a grave, does that sound facetious?")
I then had a look at the front of the gravestone, which I really should have done before making phone calls. To my untrained eye, the inscriptions on both sides look equally weathered, so maybe the cross dates from the time of the husband's death. Then again, if that was the case, why not put the whole inscription on the front? Anyway, the inscription for Mrs Sydenham reads:
R.I.P.
In loving remembrance of
Alice Sarah,
the beloved wife of
Joseph Edward Sydenham,
who fell asleep in Jesus
August 13th 1895
aged 49.
The base of the broken cross has a pattern on it, but not enough to determine whether it is purely abstract. Certainly what can be seen of the pattern does not show a picture or tell a story.
Having paid my respects, I drew a sketch of the gravestone, wrote down some proper directions for later and left. As I reached the gates, a man in handcuffs was led into the police offices.
I'll assume that everyone knows how to find the main entrance to Reading Cemetery at Cemetery Junction. Go in through that entrance, or if it is locked then walk round to the left and there is a pedestrian entrance that is more likely to be open.
Once inside, you will see a main driveway in front of you. Head up that for about 150 metres until the tarmac path splits into three, and take the left fork. After about ten metres there is a grave on the left, containing green chippings, for a person with the name of Hutt. As at November 2007, fallen leaves covered most of the green chippings and so it is not as easily visible as it might be, but the grave is still there. Immediately after the Hutt grave, turn left onto the narrow track that runs between the gravestones.
Follow the track for about 30 metres and you will see in front of you a grave with metal railings all around it. Keep that grave on the right and follow the path around it. In front of you is a big spreading evergreen tree.
The Sydenham grave is just the other side of the tree and to the left. What you can see as you approach is the truncated pyramid base, with the broken stem of a cross on top, and the inscription for Alice Sydenham. The remainder of the cross has fallen behind the grave, which is also where the inscription for Joseph Edward Sydenham can be seen. The surrounding area has been cleared during 2006 or 2007, in particular removing a broken bough of the tree that had fallen nearby.
I have some photos that will make it easier to follow those directions but have yet to convert them to electronic images.
If you want to see the motorcyclist's statue referred to in "The lucky dip" section above, then it is almost straight in front of you (a little to the right) as you walk down the main driveway, but towards the back of the cemetery. Because it is a statue, it is easily visible. You might also like to look out for small deer in the cemetery - I know it's difficult to believe but there do appear to be some living in the area. Whether they spend most of the time in the cemetery or nearby Palmer Park, I don't know.
To be honest, I don't know what the next step should be. As supporters of Reading FC we all owe a huge debt to Mr Sydenham. If he hadn't called that meeting, maybe someone else would instead have put in the same effort at about the same time, but it's not too fanciful to say that Reading FC might never have existed without him.
Reading as a town would be different. No Elm Park, no Madejski Stadium, no Hoops Way. No massive exoduses to Molineux, Wembley Stadium or the Millennium Stadium. No League records for consecutive wins at the start of the season, or time spent without conceding a goal. No job for the marketing people at Madejski Stadium who apparently have no sense of history at all. Perhaps Neil Webb's school would have concentrated on egg-chasing, and an England international would have been lost to the beautiful game.
If there was no Reading FC, I might not be alive today. I certainly wouldn't be living in Reading at the moment, although I'm not sure that I want to pursue that train of thought too far, or I might be cursing Mr Sydenham instead of praising him. My friend's children might never have existed, because he only went and talked to the girl who became his wife when he overheard her talking about going to Elm Park!
Bearing in mind such things, should we as supporters tend the grave or would the family consider that inappropriate? (The Sydenhams had three children so there are probably descendants somewhere.) The Supporters Club have arranged for a blue plaque in memory of Maurice Evans to be placed at Madejski Stadium - perhaps that should be the first in a series, and we should also have memorials at the location of the meeting where the club was founded, as well as at the Cemetery. Would it be appropriate for me to leave a football scarf at the grave? And if I did, how long would it last?
I don't know the answers to those questions, but I shall over the coming months be trying to raise the public profile so that supporters in general can make sensible decisions about the correct way to proceed.
For now, I'm just happy to have solved one riddle about the history of Reading FC. I shall now turn my attention to the next one.
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