Now for something completely different

What  is the connection between:

Hastings & St. Leonards United FC, Dunlop Tyres and The Houses of Parliament.

The answer is:  Hastings & St. Leonards C.C.

Last weekend returning from the Warwick Uni Open Day the Jenner family decided to stop at the White Horse pub on the A21 at Hurst Green for something to eat. I decided to go to the Gents as you do and noticed a black & white photo on the wall of Hastings & St. Leonards United FC. It was an old picture taken around the turn of the last century and having taken a picture on my smart phone it provided us with some entertainment prior to our meal arriving, as to what year the photo was taken. We all decided that it must have been taken around 1900 due to the clothing being worn.

Anyway, our attention fell onto the president of the football club namely Harvey du Cros MP. Back home we decided to Google him and find out who he was and this is what we found.

Harvey du Cros MP was elected the Conservative Candidate for Hastings in 1906 and resigned from the House of Commons two years later because of ill health.

Mr Harvey Du Cros was a millionaire Irishman who made his fortune from the pneumatic tyre industry. He ran many companies in the trade, and was the one-time owner of the Dunlop tyre company, which he sold for £3 million in 1896 (how much is that in today’s money ?

Du Cros made his first ‘public appearance’ on 6 January 1904 at the annual dinner of the Hastings and St Leonards Cycling Club, in the Castle Hotel. Chairman of the event was local Liberal MP Mr Freeman-Thomas.

Cycling was a popular local sport and there was a very large attendance. Du Cros had always been a keen cyclist, and it was this that made him realise the need and market for pneumatic tyres, first with cycles, then motor vehicles.

So there we are, amazing what info you can find from an old photo.