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CHAPTER EIGHT
‘The best-appointed golf club in the country’, 1908–28
‘No committee!’ Harry Colt – one of the finest golf course architects Financially sound ‘Spacious and beautifully laid out’ ‘Pa’ Jackson, a gregarious man, was in his element running a sporting country club.
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‘No committee!’ Nick Lane Jackson (universally known as ‘Pa’) had harboured the desire for many years to ‘inaugurate a country club somewhat on the lines of those which had proved so phenomenally successful in the United States’. His first attempt, at Le Touquet in France, ran into problems of trust with the businessmen he was dealing with. So, I determined to try my luck in the Old Country. Close to where I lived was Ditton Park, the property of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whom I happened to know. As there was a beautiful old house there and the grounds seemed suitable for a good golf-course, I approached his lordship, and the result was that we came to an agreement by which I was to have a lease of the premises with the option of purchase. He was very reluctant to concede me the option, but I hardly felt justified in taking the place without. However, when it became known that I proposed turning the park into a golf-course, a neighbouring farmer complained that it would as good as ruin him if I did so. It appeared that he had taken it as grazing for his large herd of cows, and that on the strength of his ten-
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ancy he had built at Datchet a very fine dairy and shop, which without the park would become absolutely useless. But he added that he was a Scotsman and had played golf as a youngster, and suggested that Stoke Park, which was also for sale, would prove even better suited to my purpose than Ditton. I followed the farmer’s advice and found it amply justified, so without delay I got Mr H.S. Colt, the Secretary of Sunningdale and, in my opinion, the best living authority either then or now on golf architecture, to inspect the ground and advise me. His opinion was so very favourable that I decided to open negotiations with the agents, and Lord Montagu, who had in the meantime received an offer for Ditton Park on lease, without any option to purchase, was only too glad to release me from my agreement. The negotiations with Mrs Bryant, the owner of Stoke Park, were prolonged for some time on account of her brother, who acted for her, breaking his leg in the hunting-field, so that I was only able to meet him at his home in Stratford-on-Avon. This meant many troublesome journeys, but at last everything was satisfactorily arranged and I took over the whole of the estate of nearly 600 acres, about half of which I obtained on a fifty years’ lease for the golf, with option of purchase, and the remainder, for building purposes, under a separate arrangement.
The first Board Meeting of the company that Pa Jackson formed to found the Stoke Park Club took place at 41 Jermyn
The Stoke Park Mansion in 1908. ‘Pa’ Jackson instantly realised it was the perfect setting for his vision of a country club.
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With Nick Lane Jackson in the Chair, the first meeting of the Stoke Park Club was held on 7 October 1908. It was resolved that 17 Tower Royal, Cannon Street, London EC should be the registered office of the company to run the Club.
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Street on 7 October 1908. The next day, at a meeting of the Directors at Barclays Bank, Slough, applications for £15,300 of debentures (about £1.7 million in today’s money) were produced. At the next meeting of the Directors, held at Stoke Park on 14 October 1908, they considered ‘the application from David Hutton of North Berwick for the post of Greenkeeper, at wages of 32/6 per week [£1.625 or about £180 in today’s money] with a house or 35/– without a house, and a rise of 2/6 per week at the end of the first year.’ The Board resolved that, subject to Mr Jackson being satisfied with Mr Colt’s report (this was Harry Shapland Colt – see below) upon Hutton, to engage him. At this meeting it was also resolved that Mr C.H. Alison (see below) be appointed Secretary to the Club at a salary of £150 per annum (about £16,500 today), ‘the Club supplying him with Board free of cost’. There were still deer in the park, and it was ‘resolved to expend an amount not exceeding £100 [£11,000] upon this object’. At the next meeting, at Frognal, Sunninghill on 24 October, it was resolved to offer a new applicant, a Mr A. Wright, also from North Berwick, £2 per week and the use of a cottage, for the post of Greenkeeper. At a meeting at 41 Jermyn Street on 4 January 1909, it was resolved to have electric light (rather than gas). It was also resolved ‘to instruct the National Telephone Co. to install a telephone at the Clubhouse without delay’. Finally, it was resolved that ‘the remuneration of Mr Lane
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Jackson as Governing Director be fixed at the sum of £400 [about £44,000] per annum’. Having taken possession in October 1908, Jackson began creating the golf course within a month. It was an enormous undertaking. Three thousand trees were cut down, and over 30 acres freshly turfed. They had decided to create 27 holes, and before the greens could be laid out, water had to be laid on. Nevertheless, a full eighteen-hole course was opened in July 1909. Furthermore, Jackson needed to adapt the ground floor of the Mansion to make it suitable for a golf clubhouse. Apart from structural alterations, ‘we had to install electric light, make an entirely new sewage arrangement, and duplicate our water-supply, which we pumped ourselves. Then we had to furnish the place, and I think I may justly claim to have been lucky in accomplishing all this in the brief period of eight months.’ Jackson reckoned that he was able to achieve all this so quickly because he acted alone without having to consult a committee. He would later recount a story to illustrate further his point about committees: One of our original members at Stoke Poges was Lord Northcliffe, and one day early in 1909 he visited the club accompanied by Reggie Nicholson, who was at that time his private secretary. This was shortly after Northcliffe had taken over The Times. He was highly interested in the golf courses and in the club generally, and when they had looked the whole place over he and Nicholson came and congratulated me on the success of my venture. Northcliffe then remarked, ‘I don’t know which to admire most – the rapidity with which you’ve got everything into order or your damned impudence in starting the place.’ I answered that the only
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reason I had been able to get it ready so quickly was that I had been in sole control, with no board or committee to be consulted. ‘There you are, you see Reggie’, said Northcliffe touching Nicholson on the shoulder, ‘no committee!’ I asked him just what he meant by that remark, and he replied, ‘Well, what do you think of The Times lately?’ I told him I considered it had shown an immense improvement since his taking it over and he nodded his head and said significantly, ‘Yes, no committee!’
However, Jackson did not want people to think he had done everything himself without help from others. Let it not be imagined that I carried the work through without outside advice; far from it. When launching my great venture I was lucky enough to secure the valuable co-operation of C.M. Woodbridge, an Old Carthusian footballer; of two Eton masters, P.V. Broke and R.H. de Montmorency; of E.H. Parry, another Old Carthusian, who had a large preparatory school at Stoke Green; and of Percy Paravicini, an Old Etonian and an old football friend of mine. The assistance of such good friends was truly invaluable.
To attract members to the Club, Jackson published an attractive and comprehensive prospectus. At the front was a photograph of the Mansion, and there can have been few golf clubs anywhere with such an inspiring clubhouse. Next came the proposed officers and members of the Committee, also an impressive group: President: Vice-President: Committee:
HH Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein The Earl Howe GCVO The Earl of Chesterfield
The Earl of Kinnoull At the meeting of directors on 8 December 1908, it was resolved to pay certain accounts, including the first payments to Harry Colt and Hugh Alison. Also, three horses and a mowing machine were bought for £86 (about £10,000 in today’s money). The decision whether to have electric lighting was postponed!
R.H. de Montmorency Esq.
The Long Gallery overlooked the terrace and gardens and would be the principal dining room.
The Lord Decies H.E. Allhusen Esq. P.V. Broke Esq. R.A. Campbell Esq.
P.J. de Paravinci Esq. E.H. Parry Esq. H. Howard Vyse Esq. C.M. Woodbridge Esq.
The prospectus described the layout of the golf course: In addition to an exceptionally fine 18-hole course, another of 9 holes of full length will be laid out in the Deer Park, where the turf is extraordinarily good owing to the fact that about 400 head of deer have fed over it
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Left: Many trees had to be felled to make way for the golf course.
Right: James Sherlock was a founder member of the Professional Golfers’ Association. He served Stoke Park for eleven years as a player, teacher and club-maker.
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for many generations. The soil is of gravel and always delightfully dry, while the undulating nature of the ground considerably enhances its advantages for Golf. The whole of the Park is on high ground, giving splendid views of the surrounding country, while, by reason of its being in a ring fence, absolute privacy is secured. From the Mansion one looks over Windsor Castle to the hills beyond, while westward can be seen the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire hills beyond Henley and Wallingford. The whole of the land leased to the Golf Club is enclosed and absolutely private, and there are no public roads, footpaths or rights of way over it. Unlike most parks the enclosure at Stoke Poges contains large tracts of open spaces, some of which measure about half-a-mile in length and over a quarter-of-a-mile in width, and even in the Deer Park so much open ground has been utilised in laying out the courses that comparatively little tree-felling will be necessary, even though it is intended to make the minimum width of the courses 100 yards. The Lessees, however, have the right to remove all trees which in any way interfere with Golf, and this can and will be done without in the slightest degree detracting from the picturesque views for which the Park is famous.
Harry Colt – one of the finest golf course architects The booklet also said that the Club had been fortunate enough to secure the valuable assistance of Mr H.S. Colt to
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help plan and superintend the construction of the golf links, and it quoted some extracts from Colt’s report:
In 1894 he helped design his first course, Rye, while he was still a partner in the law firm, Sayer & Colt, in nearby Hastings. He was also a founder member of the Royal and Ancient Rules of Golf Committee in 1897. After some years practising law he retired and became the Secretary at Rye Golf Club. His administrative ability married with his golfing prowess. A.S. Babington, the Lord Justice of Appeal for Northern Ireland and a prominent member of Royal Portrush Golf Club, became a great friend of Colt and wrote this about him:
The soil is a light sandy loam and gravel, which should dry very quickly after heavy rain, thus assuring good Golf during the wet winter months. I should not hesitate to make even deeper bunkers, as the soil is so porous that there ought to be no difficulty as to drainage. With little exception deer have grazed over the Park for the years past. The turf is very fine and could hardly be better. As I am informed that there will be no difficulty about removing trees where necessary, I would advise, where trees are standing, a clearance of about 100 yards in width for each hole, and thus get rid of obstacles which, to my mind, are not very desirable on a Golf course. There are several natural features which can be utilised to great advantage for the Links, including two brooks, a deep ravine, ponds and various undulations, etc. Owing to the porosity of the soil I would advise that water be laid on to every putting green, and I understand that this will be done. The first nine holes of the eighteen-hole course begin and end at the Club-house. The tee to the sixth hole is also near, so that there will be three starting points in the eighteen-holes course close to the Clubhouse, as well as the first tee for the nine-holes course. This is obviously a great advantage, as on busy days there should be no difficulty about players starting.
When Jackson recruited Harry Shapland Colt to assist him with the design and construction of the courses at Stoke Park, Colt was the Secretary at the nearby Sunningdale Golf Club. However, he had begun his adult life as first a barrister and then a solicitor, practising on the south coast in Sussex. Colt (1869–1951) was captain of the Cambridge University golf team in 1890 and enjoyed a distinguished amateur career, winning the Royal and Ancient Jubilee vase in 1891 and 1893.
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In his young days he was a notable figure in the golfing world, a contemporary of John Ball, Harold Hilton and his great friend Johnny Low – and was able to take on these great players on level terms and I have heard it said that when he was Secretary of Sunningdale he was largely instrumental in putting Southern golf on the map at a time when Hoylake and St Andrews were supreme in playing strength.
‘Pa’ Jackson with H.H. Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, the first President of the Club in 1909. Prince Albert was also Captain of Sunningdale Golf Club. The Earl Howe was elected Vice-President.
He was a contemporary of Willie Park Jnr, and between them they made golf architecture a profession. He had been only 25 when he laid out the course at Rye, subsequently the ‘home’ of the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society. When the new Sunningdale club in Berkshire was opened in 1901, he became its first Secretary, a post he held until 1913. When he resigned from Sunningdale to concentrate on golf architecture, the club expressed great regret, but at least they were able to persuade him to continue giving the course, ‘which he has tended so long and so faithfully’, his general supervision. During these years, he developed his talents as a golf architect, not only at home but in Europe and in the US, to
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which he was to make three separate visits. He expanded and lengthened Sunningdale to cope with the changes which the new Haskell ball brought, cleared much of the heather on its heathland, and planted trees extensively. When Colt first became seriously interested in golf architecture he had to find a way of putting his ideas into practice. He spoke to a friend at a construction company, Frank’s Harris and Company in Guildford, Surrey, and persuaded him to set up a golf course construction division (the game was experiencing a boom in popularity) which was then manned by foremen recruited from existing golf club ground staffs. Colt then put Willie Murray, a well-known St Andrews golfer, in charge. A.S. Babington noted that this arrangement proved to be very successful. When a contract was taken on, Messrs. Frank’s Harris sent over a foreman and the necessary machinery and equipment, and the labour was hired locally. Mr Colt, Mr Murray and the foreman met on the ground and Mr Colt set out the work according to his plan and it was carried out under Mr Murray’s supervision who saw to it that the plans were adhered to and answered to Mr Colt for their execution and the cost from day to day. Between their visits the responsibility was with the foreman who commanded the labour squad and kept the time sheets. Having had experience of constructive work carried out in this way and also by clubs themselves and by Contractors who were also Architects I have no doubt about its being by far the most satisfactory method of
Left: Some founder members in 1909 trying out a new golf club. Right: Harry Shapland Colt. ‘Pa’ Jackson enlisted the services of Harry Colt, destined to become one of history’s greatest golf course designers.
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building or overhauling a Course, judged both by the quality of the work and its ultimate cost. In golf Course construction the work as it proceeds presents a different aspect from day to day and when amateurs and untrained people are in charge many delays occur and mistakes made which have to be rectified and these are all reflected in the Course itself and in the final bill. Mr Colt’s plans were carried out with wonderful precision and dispatch and the extent of the business which he and his firm built up and the reputation they acquired was perhaps due as much to their business efficiency as to the approval which their Courses received when they came to be played on. He had made an exhaustive study of sand dune country and had calculated the base and height of sand hills thrown up by drifting sand and stabilised by bent grass and of the easy gradients of natural hollows and the areas occupied by natural bunkers and their slopes and general appearance. As a result of his observations he had a general view of such landscapes and their natural contours firmly fixed in his head and he was able to take a piece of flat ground more or less devoid of any distinguishing features and transform it into something which if not a replica of any seaside Course was at least so good a counterfeit that the players had the illusion that they were on a genuine golf links. I have seen a few of these Courses and they must seem incredibly clever to anyone who had dabbled in golf Architecture and the courses which he constructed on really good golfing ground show what a wonderful eye he had for the landscape and all its natural features.
Then there are five between 340 and 385 yards, one of 260 yards, and four short holes, varying from 140 to 170 yards. It is seen at a glance, therefore, that the lengths are excellent. There is a careful balancing of the outward and inward portion of the course, while the short holes come at regular intervals. Most convenient is it that the first and tenth tees of the long course, and the first tee of the nine-hole course, are all within a very short distance of the club-house steps. Anyone who will take the trouble to compare the lengths of the holes at Stoke Poges and Hoylake will find a striking similarity. Allowing a little extra length at Hoylake to be counterbalanced by the greater run on the ball, the two courses may be considered exactly alike in this respect. In some other features, of course, they greatly differ. In Stoke Park there are no sandhills, but there is a good deal of sand to be circumvented. Most students of golf architecture are fairly well acquainted by this time with Mr Colt’s main lines of procedure; how he very closely guards the green at every short hole, providing trouble for every man who does not drop the ball fair and square on the green at such holes; how he leaves open golf course on the fairway at long last but puts in side bunkers where ill-placed shots will land, and gradually narrows the passage as the green is approached; how he places a high premium on putting, by making every green undulating and difficult. These principles of his art he has applied craftily at Stoke Poges, so that no man is ever likely to return a low score without having played exceptional golf. He may play a great deal of good shots and yet have a high score, but that will be that he wandered from the straight and suffered in consequence.
At the Stoke Park Club, Harry Colt did a masterly job, as Golf Illustrated wrote in 1910:
James Sheridan, who celebrated over 50 years as caddie master at Sunningdale, initially found Harry Colt quite a difficult character:
There are several striking features about Stoke Poges links. Although the total length of the eighteen-hole course is almost equal to that of any of the six Championship courses, there is no hole of more than 440 yards length. There is, indeed, only one of that length, but there are four which are 430 yards long, and eight altogether between 400 and 440 yards.
Added to all this, Mr H.S. Colt, the secretary, was no easy man to serve. I was astounded at first by the way he seemed to frighten most of the staff and thought this wouldn’t do for me. I soon came up against him over little matters and he must quickly have realised what an arrogant and selfsufficient young idiot I was. To me, everything connected with the game
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of golf originated in Scotland, and anyhow what had Sunningdale on North Berwick or Muirfield? ‘Probably nothing, young man! But did you make both or either?’ We had a terrible row when one of the caddies had trouble with a member. This gentleman came to complain of rudeness and, because I felt my man was right, I refused to give him a dressing-down. So I was promptly reported to Mr Colt! ‘I don’t care what happened, Sheridan,’ he said as I tried to explain. ‘The member is always right.’ ‘Wrong is no man’s right,’ I replied, which scarcely poured oil on the troubled waters. I very soon realised what a great and wonderful man he was and, as the years passed, we both achieved a fine regard for each other. Certainly, the secretary had a fierce kick in him, but I prefer men like that. The others desert you when the wind blows. Mr Colt eventually left Sunningdale to go back to his greater love of golf course construction. Many fine courses are testament to his memory. Sunningdale was not, in fact, my first introduction to him. He had been a very fine amateur golfer and I had been at Hoylake in 1906 when he was one of three Sunningdale men in the semi-final of the Amateur Championship. Yet none of them won! I watched the last five holes of Mr Colt’s semi-final match with James Robb, who won that championship and to this day I believe that, had it not been for a heavy thunderstorm which started when they were playing ‘The Rushes’, where Colt was two or three holes to the good, then he would have won the match. He was putting splendidly on the very fast greens, while Robb was far from happy with his putter. The sudden deluge changed the green in an instant and Colt started to be short with his approach putts. Robb seemed to relish the new weather conditions and eventually scored a narrow win.
Sheridan’s initial view of Colt as a person who ‘frightened’ the staff contrasts sharply with that expressed by Babington, who wrote:
We brought over Harry Colt who then stayed with me and on many subsequent occasions in Dublin, Belfast and Portrush. I found him a person of great character with ideas about golf Courses which were then quite original and he had great interest in his work. He got on well with almost everyone and especially Greenkeepers and their Ground Staff and all Club employees, he was a first class business man.
Arguably the finest golf course designer of the 20th century, Harry Colt planned Stoke Poges in 1908, Swinley Forest in 1910 and 36 holes at St George’s Hill in 1913. In that same year, he was invited by George Crump, creator of Pine Valley, to work with the routing of the holes on the great New Jersey course. One of his great achievements was the Eden course at St Andrews for the Royal and Ancient club in 1912, no doubt a contract much sought after by designers at the time. From a flat and unpromising piece of land, cramped in places, Colt laid out a course quite worthy of St Andrews and which continues to give pleasure to this day. Included in his portfolio are the Wentworth courses and the remodelling of Muirfield; in Spain, Puerto de Hierro in Madrid and the Severiano Ballesteros home course, Real Club de Golf de Pedrena; in France, courses at Cannes and Le Touquet, and in Germany the Frankfurter and Hamburger courses. Prominent work in America was Sea Island in Georgia, the Country Club of Detroit, and Burning Tree, near Washington. Harry Colt helped to train other leading architects in Dr Alister Mackenzie (Augusta, Pebble Beach etc.), C.H. Alison, J.S.F. Morrison and John Harris. Between them they designed over 300 courses in 24 countries. Colt was probably the first golf architect who had been
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a professional golfer, the first to use the drawing board extensively, the first ‘tree-planter’ and the first truly international designer. He died in 1951 having left a mark on the British landscape that no other landscape or golf course architect can match.
Financially sound The brochure also spoke of the other facilities that would be offered by the Club, such as lawn tennis, croquet, archery and bowls. In addition, the golf facilities would include a pitch-and-putt course, and boating and punting could be ‘enjoyed on the large and beautiful lakes’. And, of course, the brochure advertised the proximity to London and the regular Great Western Railway train service from Paddington to Slough, noting that The Great Western Railway will issue cheap tickets to Members of the Club, and they have promised to institute a special service of Motors for Golfers if desired by the Committee to do so.
for members who wish to reside at the Club, either permanently or temporarily.
There was also a spacious billiard room, card rooms, large and small dining rooms, a library, a drawing room, lounges and a winter garden. Naturally, the brochure said something of the history and ambience: Stoke Poges Church, famous as the last resting place of the poet Gray, stands within the Park, as also does the Memorial to the author of the well-known ‘Elegy’. There is also, in another part of the Park, a monument to the learned Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke. Landseer painted his pictures of Stags here, finding his models from among the herds which still exist in the Park. A portion of the picturesque old Manor House, which dates from the 15th century, still remains, and is in an habitable condition.
In case prospective members were concerned that there would be too many other members and that the courses would become overcrowded, the prospectus assured them that the number of members would be strictly limited, though it did not specify a number. It merely said: It is proposed to fix the subscription at £10.10s [i.e. 10 guineas] for gentlemen and £5.5s for ladies. The first 200 men and 100 ladies will be admitted without entrance fee.
Accommodation at the Club was also offered:
As for the type of member at which the Club was aiming, the prospectus said:
There will be upwards of 40 bedrooms and sitting rooms in the Mansion
The committee will make their first election from among the candidates
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who apply on the printed forms (some of which are enclosed), and they will endeavour to elect only those who are members, or would be eligible for membership, of the leading social clubs. After the first election all candidates must be proposed and seconded by Members to whom they are personally known.
To show that the Club was financially secure, the prospectus spoke of Debentures to the extent of £20,000, forming a first charge on all assets of the Club, will be issued. Of this amount £5,000 will be invested and held as security for the due performance of the conditions of the lease, but when these have been complied with, this sum will become available for the redemption of the Debentures or for any other purposes and benefit of the Club, such as in making the Golf courses, decorating and furnishing the Mansion, etc. The Debentures will be of £100 each, carrying interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum. Any of the debenture holders (gentlemen holders of £200, or ladies holders of £100) may at his, or her, option and at any time, take up a life membership of the Club, tenable only during the time they hold the prescribed amount of Debentures, in which case they will receive 2.5 per cent interest on their Debentures, but will be free of entrance fee and subscription, thus receiving a return equivalent to 7.5 per cent on each Debenture. Anyone taking a Transfer of Debentures of the prescribed amount will be entitled to the same advantages of life membership, subject of course to the holders’ election by the Committee, and the transferring Member may, with the consent of the Committee, continue his membership upon paying the entrance fee and subscription for the time being force. Should the Debenture of any life member be redeemed the life membership will continue without subscription.
The prospectus went on to say that As the Debentures or Bonds of first-class Golf Clubs have recently been sold at high premiums (those of Sunningdale Golf Club of £100 each
having realised £250, and those of the recently formed Worplesdon Club have changed hands, even before the course was opened at a premium 25 per cent), it is evident that this issue offers an opportunity of profitable investment, especially as the holders receive 5 per cent interest until such time as they sell their Debentures to others wishing to avail themselves of the advantage of life membership.
The prospectus said that the lease and all other property of the Club would be vested in a small Limited Liability Company and that this company would be responsible for all expenditure in connection with the Club. ‘Members therefore will be under no liability whatever beyond the amount of their subscription, and entrance fee, if any.’ It concluded by saying that there were several cottages that were being offered for sale or let, and some ‘picturesque’ land outside the park was also for sale. As the golf club was planned, Jackson had to consider whom he should appoint as Club Secretary, professional etc.: We are extremely fortunate in securing as our first Secretary Hugh Alison, who was a popular member of the Oxford University team and a remarkably fine player. In his prime he was one of the longest drivers the game has produced. Besides being a first-class golfer, Alison was extremely good as a golf architect, a profession he afterwards adopted, and in partnership with his friend Harry Colt he has been most successful in laying out new courses in Europe, Japan and America. He proved eminently useful to us not only when we were making our courses at Stoke Poges, but also in getting them into shape afterwards. In the matter of arranging our match list, too, he was a great help, for in our first year we played both Oxford and Cambridge, delightful contests which have been continued ever since.
Alison – full name Captain Charles Hugh Alison OBE – was
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educated at Malvern, a famous public school set in the Malvern Hills, and New College, Oxford. While playing for Oxford against Cambridge he perpetrated what became one of the most remarkable shots in golfing history when he put his drive at the eighteenth on the clubhouse roof at Woking Golf Club. Undaunted, he summoned a ladder, climbed on to the roof and chipped over a holly bush and on to the green. He holed his putt to halve the hole and the match. The famous golf writer Bernard Darwin wrote of the feat in his book, Rubs of the Green, and dedicated the book to Alison. Not only was Alison a good golfer, he played first-class cricket for Somerset between 1902 and 1905. While he was Secretary for Stoke Park Club between 1908 and 1914, he also developed his golf architectural skills and designed several courses in harness with Harry Colt, including Stoke Poges itself and Denham, St George’s Hill and Camberley. After the First World War, in which he served as a Captain in the British Army, he capitalised on the growing popularity of golf, and Hugh, as he was known to his friends, became the main overseas partner of Colt and Company. Between 1920 and 1929 Alison lived in the USA, where he designed some twenty courses and remodelled a further six. Fred Love was quoted as saying that Alison was a ‘great man for bumps’. In 1930 Alison went to Japan, where he stayed until 1936. He designed and constructed the following courses: Fuji (1932), Hirona (1932), Tokyo (1932), Kawana Shizuoka (Fuji Course – 1936). He also remodelled Kawana Shizuoka Oshima (1936) and a number of other courses including the East and West courses at Kasumigaseki Saitama. He was
highly respected in Japan for his bunkers (deep and steepfaced) around the greens. In 1937 he went to Australia and New Zealand, where he designed the Huntingdale course at Melbourne and the Auckland course in New Zealand. Between 1947 and 1952 he lived in South Africa, where he redesigned the Bulawayo course. During his working life, he was involved in the design, redesign and construction of over 60 courses worldwide. As Club professional, Jackson appointed James Sherlock. This is what Golf Illustrated wrote: SHERLOCK GOES TO STOKE POGES Out of a large number of applications for the post of professional to the new club at Stoke Poges, the committee have selected James Sherlock, of the Oxford University G.C. Sherlock is a fine player and has done well in open competition, finishing sixth in the Championship of 1904, and eighth in the following year. He has been a member of the English international team since 1903. In the Midlands he has done remarkably well, having won the Midland Professional Cup three times. He is one of the most popular professionals playing, and a good coach and club-maker. The applications for the post included three international players. We congratulate both parties to the new contract.
Jackson wrote of Sherlock in his autobiography: Sherlock, who is a most charming fellow, remained with us for a great many years, giving general satisfaction both as a teacher and as a clubmaker, and I was exceedingly sorry when, for the benefit of his family’s health, he went away to Hunstanton, where I am given to understand that his qualities have proved as useful as they were to us.
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Sherlock was also a founder member of the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA). His best finishes in the Open were sixth, eighth and eighth in 1904, 1905 and 1913 respectively. In the French Open he finished third in 1910, 1912 and 1913. He held the course record at Hunstanton and Le Touquet. After eleven years at the Stoke Park Club, Sherlock moved to Hunstanton, where he retired in 1945 to become an honorary member. Many remembered him as a partner with Ted Ray (Open Champion in 1912) and another professional called Turner who formed a golf co-operative specialising in the making of golf clubs. Jackson was also able to attract some famous and colourful members: Among our first members was Miss Hinds, one of the most strikingly beautiful women I have ever seen. She shortly afterwards married another of our members, Alfred Duggan, so that I saw a good deal of her and her husband. Poor Duggan, I am sorry to say, did not have the best of health, and died quite young. His widow later on married Lord Curzon, and is now the well-known and very popular Marchioness Curzon.
London in a balloon, and eventually came back to earth at Caen, in Normandy. (He also, with his wife, Vera and the Hon. C.S. Rolls of Rolls-Royce fame, founded the Aero, later the Royal Aero, Club in 1901. Vera was the first woman in Britain to be fined for speeding.) [Jackson got Vera’s relationship to Frank Butler wrong. She was his daughter, not his wife.]
Frank Hedges Butler was undoubtedly what we would call a ‘sport’, but he was extremely ignorant about how a motor car actually worked, as this story told by Piers Brendon in his wonderful history of the Royal Automobile Club illustrates: A few [members] were invincibly ignorant. On a ride with Frank Butler, Worby Beaumont found that the car kept stopping and starting because a wire was only making intermittent contact with the terminal, its screw having gone. ‘Does that matter?’ asked Butler. ‘That screw was getting loose, so I threw it away.’
The first Secretary of the RAC, Claude Johnson (who went on to be the first Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Ltd) also found out that Butler was an exhilarating, if less than reliable, motoring companion:
Next came another colourful character: Another of our original members was Frank Hedges Butler, who was the founder of the Royal Aero Club and a pioneer of the motor-car, the dirigible balloon, and the aeroplane. A great traveller, a notable amateur musician, and in business, an expert judge of wines, he was truly a wonderful man, and it was with immense regret that I heard of his death some while ago at the age of seventy-two. He made over one hundred free balloon ascents, I remember, and in 1902 he covered the longest distance for a balloon journey made alone then recorded in England. In 1905, too, he established a world’s record by crossing the Channel from
Motoring … was the raison d’etre of the Club and one of Johnson’s main tasks was to arrange the initial ‘runs’. The first was scheduled for Easter 1898. Well advised by Simms that the cars should not attempt more than forty miles a day, Johnson planned a route through the southern counties of England. He then inspected it aboard Frank Butler’s Benz. Their journey was full of incident: the car shed tyres, belts and chains; its owner had much recourse to Bath Olivers, sherry and cigars; and the two men finished their tour by train.
And, as well as colourful characters, the new Club also
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brought humorists and poets out of the woodwork, as is shown by this contribution to The Times:
Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, The homely style, and handicaps obscure; Nor Champions hear with a disdainful smile, The annals of the players that were poor.
RHYMES OF THE TIMES ELEGY ON A COUNTRY GOLF COURSE (Adapted from Thomas Gray)
Full many a gem of language unserene, The yet unsmitten ball must mutely bear, Full many a caddie doubtless blushed unseen, While lurid verbiage darkened all the air.
A new golf course is in course of construction at Stoke Poges, where Gray’s ‘Elegy’ was written. C.E.B. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The local Herds have left the final tee, The caddie homewards plods his weary way, And leaves the course to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering bunker on the sight, The final putt at last is safely holed, And where the golf-ball winged its airy flight, The sable garments of the night enfold. Where yonder distant club house rears its tow’r, The moping sport doth to the world complain, Of him who, holding left and dexter bow’r, Has euchred all his comrades once again. Upon those rugged greens once trimly laid There heaves the turf in many an awkward heap, Showing where strenuous drives were wildly made, And foozlers caused their fellow men to weep! ****
Mr H.S. Colt, secretary of the Sunningdale Club, one of the best authorities on greenkeeping, has made a most favourable report on the advantages of the ground for golf. The soil is light sandy loam and gravel, thus assuring dry winter play and permitting the creation of dug bunkers, and as deer have grazed over the park for years the turf is very fine and, in Mr Colt’s opinion, could hardly be better for golfing purposes. The mansion will provide, on the most sumptuous scale, for all the requirements of the members and there will be upwards of 40 bedrooms and sitting rooms either for temporary or permanent residence. The grounds and gardens are magnificent and there will be facilities for lawntennis, croquet, archery and bowls, etc.
(Further verses to the above sample can be supplied to order at moderate cost.)
For the President of Stoke Park Club, Jackson went to the very top of the social scale: Our first president was H.H. Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein, and during his presidency we had some seven or eight of the English Royal Family as members of the club. Prince Albert and his sister, Princess Helene Victoria, used to play there a good deal, frequently with Percy Paravinci and his sister-in-law, Lady Eva Cholmondley. I have always felt sorry for Prince Albert, because I am quite sure that his sympathies during the war must have been with England. He was at school at Charterhouse, and was never happier than when some of his old school fellows turned up at Stoke Poges and he could have a chat with them.
Being an experienced journalist, Jackson knew how to secure publicity in the right places to help him attract members. Golf Illustrated ran a piece in its issue of 7 August 1908: Another new golf club near London is in process of formation at Stoke Poges, famous for its association with the poet Gray.
Hugh Alison, Malvern and New College, Oxford, was appointed as the first Club Secretary. Here is a cartoon from The Globe in May 1914 of him playing from the clubhouse at the 18th at Woking Golf Club to secure a half in the Oxford v. Cambridge match.
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‘Spacious and beautifully laid out’ And when staff from Golf Illustrated visited the Club in the autumn of 1908, they were full of praise for what had been achieved: We had an opportunity last week of inspecting Stoke Park, the headquarters of the new Stoke Poges Golf Club, which has made such a highly successful start. The mansion is magnificent and will make, as cleverly planned by Mr N. Lane Jackson, quite the most sumptuous and bestappointed golf club in the country. The grounds and lawns around the house are spacious and beautifully laid out, and the work of making the
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This is the first England v. Scotland golf match in 1901. James Sherlock (third from left), later the professional at Stoke Park, captained the England side. Note the lobster pot as a flag, a practice later adopted at Stoke Park.
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croquet greens and lawn tennis courts is proceeding apace. The golf links, on which 27 holes have been staked out, are also in course of preparation and they give every promise of affording the very best inland golf. At certain holes there are a good many trees to be cleared away, and until this is done one cannot judge fairly of the holes, but from the configuration of land, there seems every reason to expect that the golf will be first-class. One of the most promising features of the links is the remarkably fine quality of turf, which, even now, without any cutting or rolling, is of quite perfect golfing quality. The grass is fine and close, and apparently devoid of weeds, so that it will require the shortest of preparation to be quite ready for play. A sand-pit containing a beautifully fine sand for the greens and bunkers – a very expensive item at most clubs – can be had for the digging. The sub-soil throughout is gravel and consequently the course will always be dry, even in winter. Altogether the Stoke Poges Club starts under the most favourable auspices and the members are to be congratulated on their possession. Hearty congratulations are also to be extended to Mr N. Lane Jackson for the great success he has achieved in starting the club. There is much yet to be done before the members enter into possession, but under his able and energetic management the club is bound to go on and prosper.
And for the inaugural match to open the golf course, Jackson went right to the top of the golfing hierarchy. By the time he wrote his autobiography, he obviously reckoned that all of his readers would know who they were and of their golfing achievements. He merely wrote: The weather favoured our opening day, for which we had obtained the services of Taylor, Braid, Massy and Sherlock (late professional to the OUGC [Oxford University Golf Club], whom I had engaged to act in a similar capacity for us).
Sherlock driving to the 7th green.
Sherlock held the course record at Hunstanton and Le Touquet.
