Football cap from 1905 returns to Wales from Australia

The capWatkins family

The cap dates back to Wales' 3-1 win over Scotland in 1905

By Neil Prior
BBC News

A Wales international football cap, thought to be the oldest still in existence, has come home after decades in Australia.

Stoke City striker Walter Watkins won it in 1905, for the seventh of his 10 appearances for Wales.

Until recently it had been with Watkins' family in Brisbane, but his great niece has now donated it to Wrexham's Football Museum for Wales.

The museum's Nick Jones said it might be among its "most significant pieces".

The green velvet cap, bearing the Football Association of Wales emblem, was handed to Watkins for Wales' 3-1 win over Scotland, a game in which he scored.

Watkins, who also played for Aston Villa and Sunderland, was 62 when he died in 1942.

The cap has spent most of the last century with his relatives down under, but his great niece Diana Byrne thought the time was right to share it with the country of his birth.

"We're extraordinarily grateful to Walter's family for donating his cap to our collection - it could turn out to be one of the most-significant pieces we hold," said Mr Jones, Wrexham council's football museum officer.

Watkins family

Walter Watkins played for Stoke City, Aston Villa and Sunderland

He said: "We know for certain that it's the oldest cap we have in Wrexham but, asking around the Welsh football community, it seems as though it is possibly the earliest surviving cap any of us know of.

"If anyone out there believes differently I'd be delighted to hear from them."

After 116 years, the cap is inevitably showing its age, but Mr Jones believes that only adds to its charm.

"I think one of the most fantastic things about it is, it's clearly been a treasured family heirloom. It's not been hidden away in a case somewhere but has been used to keep Walter's memory alive.

"Some of the stitching has been repaired at some point in the past, and possibly it would have originally had gold braiding and maybe a tassel on the top.

"Fortunately, we have other caps from a similar period in our collection, which could act as a template if we decided to carry out some sympathetic restoration work, but that's for the future."

Born in 1880, Walter Martin Watkins - also known as Martin or Mart - was one of 10 children from Carno in Powys.

He and his elder brother Alfred were both promising amateur footballers for nearby Caersws and they both went on to have hugely successful careers.

Walter enjoyed two spells with Stoke City and Alfred played for Leicester Fosse, Millwall and Southend.

Watkins family

Walter Watkins (second from the left on the middle row) played 10 times for Wales

Their partnership would be reprised for Wales when Walter made his debut against Ireland in 1902.

"Walter and Alfred were part of what you could describe as the first great era of Welsh football, playing alongside legends such as goalkeeper Leigh Richmond Roose and Billy Meredith," said Mr Jones.

"It goes to show what a phenomenal hotbed for football was happening in mid and north Wales at a time when the game in south Wales was really yet to take root, and why Wrexham has been the spiritual home of Welsh football, ever since the Football Association of Wales was formed at Wrexham's Wynnstay Arms Hotel."

After retiring from football, Walter was a coach at Stoke City up until the outbreak of World War One, and afterwards worked as an engineer around Staffordshire until his death in 1942.

Alfred outlived his brother by 15 years and, after leaving the game, settled in Essex.

Meanwhile, the cap travelled to Australia with Walter and Alfred's sister, where it remained until recently.

Its new home has housed the Welsh football collection since 2000.

However, in 2024 a new extension to the site means its thousands of exhibits could go on permanent display in a purpose-built Welsh football museum.

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