Whilst researching a story for an exhibition about a very eminent lady hockey player of the early 20th century, The Hockey Museum discovered that she had travelled on the very first voyage of the liner Queen Mary.
That, of course, is the original Queen Mary that set sail for the first time in 1936. The lady in question was travelling to the IFWA Conference in the USA and a month or so later the Home Nations’ teams followed her on the Queen Mary on their way to the tournament that always accompanied the conference.
We have in the collection at The Hockey Museum two wonderful scrapbooks that record both journeys and the tournament.
All of this information makes for a fascinating story but we then discovered that the captain of the Queen Mary for its maiden voyage, and for some time thereafter, was a hockey player from Bebbington HC in Cheshire. His name was Commodore Reginald Peel, one of three brothers who all played at the Cheshire club. They were clearly accomplished players and one of the brothers Frederick went on to win 10 caps for England.
Commodore Peel also had the distinction of serving in the Royal Navy during both the First and Second World Wars. In WW2 he had a very distinguished record, including captain of a surface ship which fought off an attack from the infamous German submarine U36.
This is just a short insight to the wide ranging material that is received by The Hockey Museum every week.
If you know of any interesting hockey stories, have any hockey material or fancy an involvement with this amazing project, please drop a line to www.hockeymuseum.net.
