Henry Hamilton.

Henry was a member of the victorious Darwen team that beat Accrington 1-0 after a replay in the 1884 final of the East Lancashire Charity cup. In his memoirs he described his playing days at Darwen thus:
" The Hibernian team that I was playing with at the time was in low water, I was welcomed into the ranks of the Darwen second eleven but I had only played with them a few matches when the Darwen Committee thought me good enough for a place in their first team and in that place I played for four seasons.
The first season I played for the premier team I was rewarded with a medal from the Charity cup, Darwen that year having won the cup.
I was persuaded to go to Stockton on Tees but only stayed a short time with them when Burnley wanted me and of course I went!"
Hamilton in his time with Darwen took over the captaincy following the departure of James Richmond. In the Darwen New's "gallery of football notables" in 1886 it stated that he fulfilled his post with great credit having on several occasions refused tempting offers to play with other clubs and stuck to his own club through thick and thin.
He also played one County game for Lancashire ( a great honour in those days) on the 6th February 1886 at Bootle Lancashire beat Ulster 3-0, and Henry scored the third goal.
In December 1890 he joined the Army ( were he played for his regimental team ) and went on to serve in the Boer War, he died in Chiswick, London in 1911 aged 44.

Acknowledgements for the history in this section are made to :  Darwen RBL -- who originally published this page in 2002