"Gentleman versus players", 1896

Photographs from 'The Sportfolio', a book filled with portraits of prominent sporting personalities. Football players for leading professional teams (including Bolton Wanderers, Millwall, Preston North End and the Woolwich Arsenal) are included, together with players for the amateur clubs, such as Corinthians, who often came from public school and university-educated backgrounds.

The players shown below are the impressively moustached John "Jock" Espie of Burnley, a Scottish defender for a professional club; and R.N. Bosworth-Smith, the Oxford University-educated forward for the Corinthians, who is described as having learnt "the ethics of football while pursuing his studies at Harrow".

From the National Cycle Archive; document reference: MSS.328/N10/S/P/1.