Thomas Archibald Starnes White (1843-1911)

Post date: Jul 16, 2017 4:6:32 PM

My thanks go to Dr. Hans-Peter Hock of the Archaeological Service of Saxony for bringing to my attention the career of Thomas Archibald Starnes White and his role in the start of football in Germany, and providing many of the details included below.

Thomas Archibald Starnes White (TASW) was born 1st September 1843 and baptised in Wateringbury Chuch on 16th October 1843. He was the eldest of 9 children (Herbert, Louisa, Helena, Lionel, George, Claude, Robert and Dudley)  all born  of Thomas (from Yalding) and Louisa Frances White (from Sussex) who farmed (source: Tithe Survey of 1839) at the junction of Tonbridge Road (south side) and Pizien Well Road (west side) on 22 acres (18 acres of meadow and 3 of fruit) of land rented from Baroness Le Despencer (or Despenser) of Mereworth Castle.  The family prospered, probably from changing to hop farming, and by the 1871 census (when TASW was no longer at home) lived in Wateringbury Hall and rented 660 acres and owned 300 acres employing 65 men and 10 boys. By his father's will TASW inherited the Woolpack Estate and wheelwright's shop and forge in Yalding. At the moment no family connection can be established to the Blazey-Whites of Wateringbury Hall killed in a house fire in 1922. 

TASW appears to have been initially educated at home rather than at the new school established in the village on Red Hill in 1843, the year of his birth. On 2nd May 1855 he was admitted to  St. Paul's School, London subsequently going to Christ Church College, Oxford, as a Pauline Exhibitioner, matriculating in October 1862 and graduating in 1867. The college holds a few sports related photos of him in their archive- see https://archive-cat.chch.ox.ac.uk/names/15d6a6c1-66a7-4eff-a4b2-11e2f3b8d879 

He was an Assistant Chaplain in London before he went to Baden-Baden, Germany: in the first year he was the Assistant Chaplain of Rev. Hawkins and then chaplain of All Saints Church there from 1871 to 1911, later becoming Rural Dean of all the English chaplaincies from 1891 to 1907. There was a large English community in Baden-Baden, an Anglican Church, All Saints, built in 1868, the first of three, and a weekly English newspaper.  He married on 14th April 1874 Mathilde Maximiliane Freiin Seutter von Lötzen, a lady (Freiin) from the German nobility, and so he was in contact with famous people visiting the wealthy resort: Empress Augusta of Germany and possibly also Queen Victoria. They had four children: Evelyn Archibald Charles Winton, born 1876 in Baden-Baden; Maude Maximiliane Villani, born winter of  1876/77 in London; Hugh Ferdinand Villebois, born 1879 in Baden-Baden; and Stéphanie Winton Mary, born 1882 in Baden-Baden. 

In Wateringbury his family was involved in the rowing regattas held here, particularly the one in 1866, where the reference to A. White was probably to him. There are also an apparent references to him rowing at the Tonbridge regatta in 1866 and the Wateringbury regatta in 1870.  In Germany the English community were instrumental in introducing rugby and cricket to Germany, which did not thrive long-term, and also tennis and football, which did. TASW was one of those pioneers, becoming president of the lawn tennis club in Baden-Baden in 1881 and then the football club (1893) and first president of the Southwest-German Football Union. He was in contact with the German pioneer Walter Bensemann and with John Bloch, president of the English Football Club Berlin. 

TASW was one of the important football pioneers in the German Empire, particularly in the south of the country which became the driving force behind the Deutche Fussball Bund (DFB), the German Football Association following its foundation in 1900.

In 1909 the London Gazette records: 

        Whitehall, January 6, 1909

The KING has been pleased to give and grant unto the Reverend Thomas Archibald Starnes White, M.A., His Majesty's Royal licence and authority to accept and wear the Knight's Cross of the First Class of the Order of the Lion of Zahringeu, conferred upon him by his Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden, in recognition of valuable services rendered by him.

TASW died on 8th November 1911 and was buried on 11th November.  An inscribed window in the church was made to his memory the following year. His grave was restored in 2012 by a local sports club with a photo and report in a local newspaper, describing him as Geburtshelfer des Sports (Man Midwife of Sport).