A collection of

club photos

1911-12

1911 – 12 This Club photograph was given to Helen Legge in the late 1950s by the widow of Tommy Town-send who had joined Orion in 1926. Helen was the wife of former Captain and first President of Orion, John Legge: she used to work with Townsend. We received this photograph some ten years ago.

Research in conjunction with the Club’s archivist, Bert Bond, made us sure that it was taken on the 23rd March 1912, when the first Club Handicap was run over 6 miles. We reckoned that the fourth runner from the left in the second row is A S Harley and the first member on the left of the front row is F O (Frankie) Harriss.

Frankie Harriss was the Club’s first Hon. Secretary and his report on the Handicap recorded that "Entries numbered 31. 19 started and finished". The photograph shows 31 in running kit so it seems a dozen of them didn’t like their handicap allowance!

Subsequently, Blackheath Harrier John Copley saw the photograph and, with the help of his mother and aunt, confirmed that we had correctly identified Frankie who was his great uncle. John also told us that Frankie’s brother, who was his grandfather, WJ (Jimmy) Harriss, is also on the front row, second from the right.

Later, after he joined the Club in 2003, Warwick Barton identified his grandfather, Len Barton, second from left in the front row and Joe Spicer, fourth from left, who worked in his great grandfather’s Wal-thamstow business. Len, Harley and the two Harriss brothers were among the original twenty ‘founding’ members of Orion.

1920 – 21 The Club minutes recorded (i) that the photograph due to be taken on 14th March 1914 had

been cancelled owing to bad weather but it "would be taken early next season", by which time the First

World War had broken out, and (ii) a photo would be taken on 19th March 1921. Bearing in mind that the

first post-war run was not until October 1919, this was probably the first Club photograph after the war

and only a "smudged" copy remains. The clear photograph of the 1922 Southern Team makes amends

for this. Hughie Dare was thirteenth and the team fifth.

1911-12

1922-23

1924-25

1929-30

1931-32

1933-34

1935-36

1938-39

1946-47

1948-49

1950-51

1952-53

1954-55

1956-57

1958-59

1960-61

1962-63

1964-65

1966-67

1968-69

1970-71

1972-73

1974-75

1976-77

1978-79

1980-81

1982-83

1984-85

1986-87

1988-89