About Us 1 of 4

1. History


Slough Rugby Club was first formed in 1928, although there is evidence the founders played rugby for two seasons before that as TOC H, the services charity founded after the Great War as a place for those who'd been through the horror of the war to socialise and relax. Indeed the Great War played a large part in the formation of the club as the decision for Slough to be the site for the recovery and conversion of a quarter of a million surplus military vehicles that France did not want littering their fields at the end of the war attracted a large workforce to what soon became Slough Trading Estate.

By 1928, deprived of their national game the, mainly Welsh migrant, workers to the Trading Estate had been instrumental in forming the Slough club. Early fixtures were almost exclusively against army regiments with Welsh connections at the nearby Windsor or London Barracks.

After three different sites, and becoming anglicised in the process, the club moved to its present location, with Windsor Castle as a picturesque backdrop, in 1952. The efforts of the then Chairman, Ken Tamblyn, in securing the site, sees today's ground bear his name. The clubhouse, a prefabricated affair erected in 2 days as "Operation Overnight" and commemorated in a collage of pictures on the club wall, was added in 1956 and opened by The Duke of Edinburgh a year later. Although significantly expanded and enhanced over the years the main hall and bar are contained within the original structure.

Players of note over the years have included England Trialists Brian Adam and Freddie Hawkins, both of Wasps, Wales and Commonwealth Games sprinter Terry Davies and Wasps wing Jonny Hewitt who played for the Southern Counties against the 1962 All Blacks. Dr George Murphy-O'Connor, father of Cormac the former Archbishop of Westminster, and himself capped by Ireland, also played for the club whilst in medical practice in the Bath Road. However the two most successful products of the club have both played for England. The first to do so was Wasps and England loosehead prop Paul Rendall, who won 27 caps despite not being capped until he was 34! The second player to gain caps was Ann O'Flynn, who began her career as a Slough mini and junior before moving on to play hooker for Richmond, Waterloo and England.

A founder member of Buckinghamshire RFU in 1949, Slough is one of 17 clubs in membership of the County, despite the 1972 boundary changes seeing the club "moved" to Berkshire. With the distinction of being the farthest east club in the South West Division, Slough offers rugby to all age groups and both sexes. The 1st XV plays in the Bucks, Berks and Oxon Premiership. The high point of the club's recent history being semi-finalists in the RFU Junior Vase in 1996.