Ephemera, shirts and caps have been consigned for sale by the great-great grandsons of Reginald (Reg) Halsey Birkett (1849-98), a member of the famous Clapham Rovers sporting club who played football and rugby for England in the 1870s.
He scored a try in the first international rugby match in 1871 and was a committee member of the first Rugby Football Union which commenced 150 years ago.
In association football he was in the side that scored the first goal in the history of the FA Cup in 1871. He played in FA Cup finals in 1879 and 1880, winning the trophy in 1880. He also sat on the FA sub-committee that was created to lay down the rules for the FA Cup – and in the 1870s was a selector for the England football team.
Birkett’s brothers Louis and Percival were also talented rugby players (Louis played for England four times, twice in tandem with Reg) while his son John Guy Giberne Birkett, (1884-1967), played rugby for England 21 times between 1906 and 1912, including when they won the inaugural Five Nations Championship in 1910.
Echoing the feat of his father, he was the first try scorer at Twickenham Stadium, while representing Harlequins against Richmond.
In the First World War he was a captain in the Royal Field Artillery and was mentioned in dispatches 18 times.
