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 5 children (Herbert, Louisa, Helena and Lionel) all born in Wateringbury, 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.

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.

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 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, undoubtedly, one of the most important football pioneers in the German Empire.

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.