A fascinating article, Stig, packed with interesting detail. I had assumed the badge and the nickname were both much older inventions, partly because to me it would be inconceivable to change them. I especially like our sword, with the thrusting strength of the vertical blade (almost phallic!) offset by the curved flourish of the cross-guard.
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately
I was sure that I'd read something along those lines; that the club wanted to attract new support who worked in the city (how that would have worked I've no idea). When I looked for some evidence of this, the only thing I found was written by me anyway. I could hardly go around quoting myself, so I didn't put it in. If anyone's got any genuine evidence that this is what did or didn't happen, it would be greatly appreciated.
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
Was it the idea of some City based Addicks to bring the club closer in image to where the money is? And what has happened to City Addicks lately
Well if it was the intention, it didn't work as we but got bugger all money from the square mile for 30 years after the new badge was produced!
Hi @Henry Irving, I found my original draft. I'm not sure what pictures were used to illustrate it though probably some old team photos. I've got parts 2 and 3 as well. I'll post these later in the week. These do have illustrations hopefully I've got them all saved.
The Club Badge
Part 1 - Bobbin Along
Whenever a Charlton team take to the pitch they are commemorating, albeit indirectly, a violent event reputed to have taken place nearly 2,000 years ago in a city over a 1,000 miles away. It's quite possible that the event didn't even happen. But the symbolism is there for everyone to see, regardless of the historical facts.
It hasn't always been that way though, as for approximately half of the matches in the club's history no badge has been worn at all. It wasn't until the 1930s that the first Charlton badge appeared; a club-shaped badge with letters CAF on its face. Quite when Charlton started wearing this badge is uncertain, but there is a nice story that the badge was commissioned to celebrate the 1934/5 promotion. Unless the Press Association have a problem with their cataloguing though, it can't be true. They have at least six pictures of players wearing the badge prior to that season finishing. The earliest being of Harold Hobbis wearing the badge before the home match with Preston in September 1932. By the time of the 1936/37 team photo, Charlton shirts were again devoid of all badges. That is the way things would stay until 1946.
The next badge used by the club was of a robin perched on top of a football and was even more short-lived; at least in terms of matchday action. It famously made its debut in the 1946 cup final and was later used for a few international friendlies. There are reports that it was used in 1946-7 for league but not cup matches; photographic evidence of this seems to be in short supply though. Although the badge did not last long on team shirts, throughout the 1950s players would be given a blazer with this badge on after they had made twenty first team appearances for the club. A similar design was used for many years by the supporters club, or Robins Club as it was known.
In the early sixties the club decided to use the crest of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich as its badge. However, before there was a chance to put it on team shirts, the London Government act (1963) was passed meaning that from 1965 Greenwich would be amalgamated with Woolwich and the badge was no longer appropriate. At one point there was a chance that Charlton would be the name given to the new borough, opening up the possibility of a new crest shared between club and council. In the event, the new borough was named The London Borough of Greenwich and Charlton looked elsewhere for a badge.
In 1963 a rebranding exercise by the club led to the sword badge that we have today. A competition was held for fans to suggest a new nickname for the club. "Addicks" had fallen out of favour with with all but a few older fans, whilst the club believed that "Robins" lacked originality and impact and wanted something a bit more thrusting and gung-ho to try and encourage new fans. Sixty-two possible nicknames were suggested and on the 27th of July the board met and decided that "subject to an appropriate emblem" the new nickname would either be The Crusaders or The Red Devils.
Presumably no-one came up with a suitable emblem because by September 1963 the club programme announced a new nickname: A name that linked our ground, The Valley, to notions of adventure, bravery and gallantry. And so, despite the lack of originality in choosing a name that Port Vale had been using since 1919, we became "The Valiants". The emblem that was chosen to go with this nickname was the sword and from the start of the following season the team played in a predominantly white kit with the sword emblem on the chest. The nickname never really caught on, but the sword has gone from strength to strength.
This raises a question though; where did the sword design come from? According to an old copy of Football League Review*, “The silver dagger held by a hand and set against a red background was adopted from part of the London County Council coat of arms”. Even the most cursory glance at the LCC's coat of arms shows this to be wrong though: the crest named has no sword or dagger, in fact no cutting device at all. However, if we assume that what they really meant was City of London Crest, suddenly it looks a very good bet. The City of London sword is very similar to ours: Both have a broad blade, both have a similar hilt to blade ratio and both feature an s-shaped cross-guard; the left "quillion" facing up and the right facing down. With all these similarities, it would be quite some co-incidence if our sword wasn't based on the City Crest. So, if that's where we got our sword, where did it come from before that?
Finding out about the history and meaning of the City of London Crest is more difficult than for those of many other cities. This is because the College of Arms that records such matters, didn’t exist before 1483; over one hundred years after first use of the city's crest. In fact official arms weren’t granted to the City of London until 1957.
There was a popular story that the sword was actually a representation of the dagger that murdered Wat Tyler during the Peasants Revolt. However this cannot be true as there is evidence of the crest being used several months before Tyler’s demise in June 1381. It is now almost universally accepted that the sword on The City of London Crest is the sword of St Paul. This is placed against the flag of St George. The reason being that St Paul is the patron saint of London; by placing his sword over the English flag it shows that London, not Winchester, not Colchester, and not some other lesser town is the nation's capital.
You might imagine that a saint would be a peace loving man. Probably not the sort of person that would go around wielding a great twin bladed razor. And you may well be right. But St Paul's sword isn't representative of how he lived but of how he is reputed to have died. St Paul was a Christian martyr and was, according to that tradition, put to death by the sword in Rome in approximately 60AD. There is, however, no historical evidence of this. Although this was the usual way that the Roman state executed their enemies at that time, the last source we have of any repute has him placed under house arrest. Maybe he was put to death by the sword, maybe he wasn't. Whatever the case, it is the symbolism of that "event" that we wear on our shirts today.
Jon Laysell
With thanks to Ben Hayes, Gordon Jago and Matt Wright.
-------------
* Football League Review 1969-70, Volume 4, No.406.
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
a story I’ve posted before elsewhere about a night out in town which batted on and ended up in a hostelry in south london. Getting home much later I realised I’d lost a cufflink, one of a pair with the City shield with sword. A few days later it made its way back to me as it was assumed it was a ‘Charlton’ cufflink and must have been mine because the regulars were mostly millwall fans.
Excellent article. I guess the final question is why we chose the sword from the City of London crest? It's not as if we're the official club of the square mile...
a story I’ve posted before elsewhere about a night out in town which batted on and ended up in a hostelry in south london. Getting home much later I realised I’d lost a cufflink, one of a pair with the City shield with sword. A few days later it made its way back to me as it was assumed it was a ‘Charlton’ cufflink and must have been mine because the regulars were mostly millwall fans.
Whilst I love our badge because I've grown up with it, in hindsight it's a shame we didn't just take the whole of the central shield with the sword in the top left quadrant - very smart and very marketable!
Comments
http://www.castrust.org/2013/06/breaking-news-simons-is-trust-member-500/
"Jon, well done.
A very interesting and informative article.
Every good wish to all at the Club for a successful new season.
Gordon jago
I was sure that I'd read something along those lines; that the club wanted to attract new support who worked in the city (how that would have worked I've no idea). When I looked for some evidence of this, the only thing I found was written by me anyway. I could hardly go around quoting myself, so I didn't put it in. If anyone's got any genuine evidence that this is what did or didn't happen, it would be greatly appreciated.
What's happened to the article by @Stig @castrust ?
The Club Badge
Part 1 - Bobbin Along
Whenever a Charlton team take to the pitch they are commemorating, albeit indirectly, a violent event reputed to have taken place nearly 2,000 years ago in a city over a 1,000 miles away. It's quite possible that the event didn't even happen. But the symbolism is there for everyone to see, regardless of the historical facts.
It hasn't always been that way though, as for approximately half of the matches in the club's history no badge has been worn at all. It wasn't until the 1930s that the first Charlton badge appeared; a club-shaped badge with letters CAF on its face. Quite when Charlton started wearing this badge is uncertain, but there is a nice story that the badge was commissioned to celebrate the 1934/5 promotion. Unless the Press Association have a problem with their cataloguing though, it can't be true. They have at least six pictures of players wearing the badge prior to that season finishing. The earliest being of Harold Hobbis wearing the badge before the home match with Preston in September 1932. By the time of the 1936/37 team photo, Charlton shirts were again devoid of all badges. That is the way things would stay until 1946.
The next badge used by the club was of a robin perched on top of a football and was even more short-lived; at least in terms of matchday action. It famously made its debut in the 1946 cup final and was later used for a few international friendlies. There are reports that it was used in 1946-7 for league but not cup matches; photographic evidence of this seems to be in short supply though. Although the badge did not last long on team shirts, throughout the 1950s players would be given a blazer with this badge on after they had made twenty first team appearances for the club. A similar design was used for many years by the supporters club, or Robins Club as it was known.
In the early sixties the club decided to use the crest of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich as its badge. However, before there was a chance to put it on team shirts, the London Government act (1963) was passed meaning that from 1965 Greenwich would be amalgamated with Woolwich and the badge was no longer appropriate. At one point there was a chance that Charlton would be the name given to the new borough, opening up the possibility of a new crest shared between club and council. In the event, the new borough was named The London Borough of Greenwich and Charlton looked elsewhere for a badge.
In 1963 a rebranding exercise by the club led to the sword badge that we have today. A competition was held for fans to suggest a new nickname for the club. "Addicks" had fallen out of favour with with all but a few older fans, whilst the club believed that "Robins" lacked originality and impact and wanted something a bit more thrusting and gung-ho to try and encourage new fans. Sixty-two possible nicknames were suggested and on the 27th of July the board met and decided that "subject to an appropriate emblem" the new nickname would either be The Crusaders or The Red Devils.
Presumably no-one came up with a suitable emblem because by September 1963 the club programme announced a new nickname: A name that linked our ground, The Valley, to notions of adventure, bravery and gallantry. And so, despite the lack of originality in choosing a name that Port Vale had been using since 1919, we became "The Valiants". The emblem that was chosen to go with this nickname was the sword and from the start of the following season the team played in a predominantly white kit with the sword emblem on the chest. The nickname never really caught on, but the sword has gone from strength to strength.
This raises a question though; where did the sword design come from? According to an old copy of Football League Review*, “The silver dagger held by a hand and set against a red background was adopted from part of the London County Council coat of arms”. Even the most cursory glance at the LCC's coat of arms shows this to be wrong though: the crest named has no sword or dagger, in fact no cutting device at all. However, if we assume that what they really meant was City of London Crest, suddenly it looks a very good bet. The City of London sword is very similar to ours: Both have a broad blade, both have a similar hilt to blade ratio and both feature an s-shaped cross-guard; the left "quillion" facing up and the right facing down. With all these similarities, it would be quite some co-incidence if our sword wasn't based on the City Crest. So, if that's where we got our sword, where did it come from before that?
Finding out about the history and meaning of the City of London Crest is more difficult than for those of many other cities. This is because the College of Arms that records such matters, didn’t exist before 1483; over one hundred years after first use of the city's crest. In fact official arms weren’t granted to the City of London until 1957.
There was a popular story that the sword was actually a representation of the dagger that murdered Wat Tyler during the Peasants Revolt. However this cannot be true as there is evidence of the crest being used several months before Tyler’s demise in June 1381. It is now almost universally accepted that the sword on The City of London Crest is the sword of St Paul. This is placed against the flag of St George. The reason being that St Paul is the patron saint of London; by placing his sword over the English flag it shows that London, not Winchester, not Colchester, and not some other lesser town is the nation's capital.
You might imagine that a saint would be a peace loving man. Probably not the sort of person that would go around wielding a great twin bladed razor. And you may well be right. But St Paul's sword isn't representative of how he lived but of how he is reputed to have died. St Paul was a Christian martyr and was, according to that tradition, put to death by the sword in Rome in approximately 60AD. There is, however, no historical evidence of this. Although this was the usual way that the Roman state executed their enemies at that time, the last source we have of any repute has him placed under house arrest. Maybe he was put to death by the sword, maybe he wasn't. Whatever the case, it is the symbolism of that "event" that we wear on our shirts today.
Jon Laysell
With thanks to Ben Hayes, Gordon Jago and Matt Wright.
-------------
* Football League Review 1969-70, Volume 4, No.406.
... I didn't care for any of the three options.
https://www.footybits.co.uk/football-badges/footybadges-charlton-athletic/