Honourable Artillery Company

In the City of London, in the shadow of the financial world’s buildings, amid the thick-set urbanity of the metropolis, is an oasis of pristine green, complete with what looks like a castle and, more importantly, a pair of rugby goalposts. This is the Honourable Artillery Company.

On any given weekday, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people will walk, cycle or drive along City Road, in central London. In one stretch of that road are exactly the sort of stores, franchises, and amenities one would expect to see in such a busy part of the capital. There’s a Sainsbury’s Local, The Angel pub, Pret A Manger, Tesco Express, yet another Pret, Travelodge … totally unremarkable. 

But directly opposite Tesco is an edifice that could hardly look more out of place with its surroundings. It’s a small castle and virtually everyone who goes past it will have little or no idea what its purpose is or what goes on behind it, including the fact that it is home to a rugby club.

The castle provides an extraordinary facade to the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the oldest regiment in the British Army, founded in 1537 by Henry VIII and second only to the Swiss Guard, which protects the Pope, as the world’s oldest military unit.

To the side of the castle is the entrance to HAC. You don’t get in here without prior clearance, and once you get past the security booth, you are greeted by a military and sporting oasis that sits on the border of the City of London. 

The five-acre site includes Armoury House, a Grade II Listed 18th-century manor house, which is home to the HAC’s mess quarters. Armoury House has function rooms, a small museum, and panelled walls full of military regalia, along with portraits of monarchs and heads of state. 

And, just a few yards from Armoury House, are the changing rooms for the sports clubs that play on Artillery Ground, which is also part of this site and at weekends will host football and rugby in the winter, plus cricket in the summer, on immaculately-maintained lawns.

During the week those lawns will host military drills and ceremonial events. It was here, for instance, in 2016 that Queen Elizabeth II came to mark 64 years as Captain-General of the HAC and unveil a bronze bust in her honour. 

At the far end of the Artillery Ground there are rugby posts and the home pitch of the Honourable Artillery Company RFC, which has called this a home ground since it was founded back in 1896.

It is an extraordinary setting surrounded by modern office blocks, the historic houses of Bunhill Row – once home to London’s most famous diarist, Samuel Pepys – and a skyline that features one of the city’s standout examples of brutalist architecture, the Barbican Tower.

Andy Hughes is the co-captain of the HAC RFC and has a matchday ritual for when new opposition teams arrive at what is one of the more wonderful places to play rugby. “One of my favourite things is turning up early, getting changed, greeting people as they’re coming in and then watching the expressions on their faces as they walk through the gates,” he says. 

Some fifteen years after he first joined the club, the joy he gets from simply turning up here on a Saturday afternoon is palpable and it’s not hard to see why. 

The HAC – the company, not the rugby club – was established almost half a millennium ago for ‘the better increase of the Defence of this our Realm and maintenance of the Science and Feat of Shooting Long Bows, Cross Bows and Hand Guns’.

And some fifteen years after its formation the regiment provided officers for the citizen militia at Tilbury which is now a port but was then a fort, as they prepared to defend the country against the Spanish Armada.

And then, in 1641, the HAC moved from Bishopsgate to its current home, and it was during the 18th century that sport was first played here with the Artillery Ground becoming the de facto home of the England cricket team and the equivalent of Lord’s in terms of its status.

A year later, members fought on both sides during the English Civil War, and a century or so on, then helped to restore order in Ye Olde London Town during the Gordon Riots in 1780 when protestants led by Lord George Gordon marched to repeal an act that would allow Catholics to join the British Army.  That protest quickly spiralled out of control and rioting continued for seven days until they tried to storm the Bank of England. Around 15,000 troops were deployed in the capital and three hundred rioters were shot dead by soldiers. 

Fast forward another century, to the Boer War, which again featured many HAC officers, including one of its most famous (and infamous) members, Erskine Childers. He went from serving in the British Army to joining the IRA, but is also known as the author of The Riddle of the Sands, which was later turned into a Hollywood movie.

And it was during Childers’ time that the rugby team started, made up, as has mostly been the case, exclusively of military personnel. “When the rugby club held its 125th anniversary, somebody dug out some old pictures taken during World War Two,” says Andy. “There was some sort of mobilisation happening and the Artillery Ground was covered in tents, with people sleeping on the pitches ready to ship out and fight around the world. 

“You can dive into the history as much as you like,” he continues. “You read a few books and realise there was some sort of militia here that predates Henry VIII. Incredibly, this is still going. So much history gets lost, but this place retains its identity and for us to be a little footnote is very special.”

In the 1970s, the HAC’s sporting clubs were opened up to ‘civilians’. “In the old days, there were not the same pressures that came with being an officer, there was time that could be allocated to playing sports,” explains Major Charles Marment, the HAC RFC president. “As the British Army became involved in more operations and more important tasks, there became less time for leisure.”

The club’s finest hour came in 2011, when HAC RFC won the RFU National Junior Vase, defeating Old Edwardians 37-6 in the final at Twickenham. At its peak, nine rugby teams were turning out for HAC but the figure currently stands at three, although they would like to introduce a women’s team at some point. 

But, due to this still being an active military site, there is a limit to how much rugby can be played on this pitch and so the club also has an agreement with Chiswick Rugby Club to stage a number of its fixtures in west London.

Some rugby fans will have visited HAC for the ‘Sarries in the City’ pre-season game. It was an idea cooked up by Saracens to try and expand the club’s fanbase in central London and the most recent fixture was held in 2021, when they entertained Ulster. 

But even if you got to see the game, and also enjoyed a spot of corporate hospitality, that still wouldn’t have granted you access inside Armoury House.

Yet the chance to soak in all this rich history as well as a post-match pint and dinner inside HAC’s mess – surely a contender for best ‘clubhouse’ in amateur rugby – has helped to attract a small army of away fans from Letchworth Garden City, the most in-form side in this or any other league for that matter, and their opponents on the day we visit. The travelling supporters inform Rugby Journal that the team is on a 32-match unbeaten run and is currently top of Regional Anglia 2. When we pose the question, ‘who was the last team to beat you?’, of course, it had to be today’s hosts.

Nobody seems entirely sure if this run of success is an English club record, but if you’re trying to make history, then you’ve found the right place. 

And while other clubs will have a trophy cabinet, Armoury House has a medals room devoted to those honoured for serving king and country, including six recipients of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award in the British honours system.

Major Charles is our tour guide for the afternoon. “Primarily Armoury House is a military mess,” he says. “If you came here on a Friday night, you might see a reunion with an orchestra playing and everyone will be in their finest kit. They will get the silver out, the candles, it’s waiter service… But on a Saturday afternoon, it effectively becomes a sporting clubhouse. So, unless you get invited here for a party or a piss-up or sport, you’re not getting into Armoury House!” 

This is also one of the few places where civilians can freely mix with officers.

Nowadays, HAC is a Territorial Army unit but also provides surveillance for both the Army and Nato’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. “Most reservists will get opportunities to serve all over the world: America, Cyprus, Germany,” explains Charles, “but we’ve also done operational tours in Bosnia, as well as virtually every tour in Iraq and Afghanistan – two members who died in Afghanistan are listed on our roll of honour.

“The regiment has currently mobilised about 30 men and women who are training Ukrainians in Wiltshire,” continues Charles. “Obviously, that is very important work and important that we do it quickly.”

Yet sport has long since been an important part of the regiment and its culture.

“Much like any regiment, it’s very important to have and maintain a sporting ethos, it embraces everything that soldiering is about,” says Charles. “The brotherhood and sisterhood of soldiering is about teamwork, and it’s about physical robustness. 

“The team we will watch today is mainly made up of civilians, but they play in our colours and play under our standards and ethos. They are very proud to wear those colours and I’m very proud of this team. Not least because they keep getting promoted!

“These teams also serve as a wonderful advert for the regiment,” he continues. “Nobody ever asks them, ‘are you a soldier? even though they are all effectively civilians. And of course, if we had to scale up because our country was in peril, and recruit another thousand men and women, the first people we would be looking to are our sporting teams, because they’re fit, they understand leadership and teamwork. They’ve already done half the job for you!”

That said, if you go through the squad you will find many players have some sort of connection to the Army, through a grandparent, uncle or auntie. It is however, quite an eclectic squad. “Most of the team works in and around the city, although they’re not all the stereotypical sort of ‘city boy’,” explains Andy. “We’ve got guys who are musicians, teachers, charity workers … one of the strengths of the club is that it’s a real mixed bag of professions and backgrounds.”

The musician is Dan Maruyama who has been a professional pianist for twenty years but has also somehow managed to avoid breaking a finger playing for HAC.

The captain of the 1st XV is Lawrence Ekow Anfo-Whyte who was born and raised just over a mile away in Dalston, a reminder that even though we’re in one of  the wealthiest parts of the country, prosperity often rubs shoulders with poverty in London. “I grew up on a council estate,” he explains. “I went to school down the road and walked past this place every day from the age of twelve. I’m 32 now and I had no idea it existed until I joined eight years ago. But it’s a beautiful place.”

Joining the club also means making a commitment to improving the local community, something which is obviously very close to Lawrence. At the moment, its charity partner is Toynbee Hall, whose mission, dating back to 1894, has been to tackle poverty in East London and its most famous patron was John Profumo, the MP who resigned in 1963 after becoming embroiled in a sex scandal – after which he devoted much of his time to the charity.

Charity, however, literally begins at home for HAC, which as an entity has charitable status, which means this land is protected. One suspects that if the Ministry of Defence owned it, this would have long since been sold off and it was once said back in the 1980s that if you put an inch of gold on top of the ground, theground would still be worth more. You can add another inch or three since then.

Major Charles has spent 32 years in the Army Reserve and served his country all over the world. When you’ve seen that much action, you can become matter-of-fact about events most of us would consider life-changing. 

However, there is one moment in the history of the HAC that is impossible to downplay. Following the 7/7 bombings of 2005, when 56 people died, this land effectively became a temporary mortuary. 

Each of the tents that covered Artillery Ground was devoted to a different explosion. It was a painstaking process that lasted three weeks. One of the coroners later told Buzzfeed that they would go back to their hotel each night and get pissed. “We’d go to bed at 2:00am, then be up again at 6:00am to go through it all again. It was probably a bad way of coping, but at the time it seemed like a good way to deal with things.”

Charles was also very much in the thick of it. “Yes, that was a really quite an extraordinary day,” he says. “I was serving then and, all of sudden, the whole site was being requisitioned and all the forensic evidence was also stored here.” 

Given its proximity to the London Underground stations at Moorgate and Old Street, but also the fact that this is a military site that could immediately go into lockdown and also had space to accommodate all the medics, forensic teams, and government officials, HAC was the logical and practical choice to carry out such an important procedure. “I always remember meeting the guy who installed the generator, and he said it would have powered Salisbury,’ recalls Charles. “The trouble was, because it was the summer, and because of things like Henley and Ascot, and weddings, there wasn’t a lot of canvas or tents to go around. 

“So, all the tents had to come from Holland,” he explains. “And all of the bodies and the remains were brought here. So, then there had to be a chapel, there had to be like an undertaking service. Then obviously you needed restaurants to feed everybody. It became a small town.

“As a regiment, we tried to make things as comfortable as we possibly could for the families when the remains of their loved ones departed in hearses. 

“That’s what the Army does really well,” he adds. “It arrives in a part of the world where everything’s broken. Then, you know, all of a sudden someone finds a brush, someone knows how to make a cup of tea, someone’s put up a tent, it springs from there and that’s what we did.

“I got the Salvation Army involved,” he continues, “and they were just bloody brilliant, because nothing will faze them and they work exceptionally hard. When they turned up it was chaotic, they set up soup kitchens and served all-day breakfasts. It was just a massive team effort by a very resilient group of Londoners.

“The saddest thing was that word had got out that the bodies were here. The families were outside and were not allowed in. However, if your loved one hadn’t come back that night, chances are they were dead. That was very distressing for all concerned.”

Charles also had to get involved in organising the funeral of Sir Edward Heath, who died ten days after the bombings, while HAC was still dealing with the aftermath of 7/7.  The former Prime Minister had fought in north-western Europe with the HAC during World War Two. 

“He was our commanding officer,” explains Charles. “What happened is that I was the officer in charge of his coffin, so I remember saying to somebody on-site, ‘I’m not being a glib, but can I borrow a coffin to do a rehearsal?’”

While Heath’s portrait is kept downstairs, the Long Room on the first floor is home to life-sized paintings of some of the royalty who, like Queen Elizabeth II, were also bestowed the title of Captain-General. One of them was Edward VIII, and Charles points to a rare painting of the king in uniform – he only had a very brief spell as HACs Captain-General before abdicating in 1936.

Pride of place is given to a small portrait of Henry VIII which is thought to be one of only three paintings that he sat for. 

Given the level of prestige and history linked to HAC, you’d think there’d be a queue of players looking to join. Yet Andy tells a story that is being repeated at clubs across the country, about the challenges of consistently putting out several teams each week at senior level and how the numbers dropped among the older player post-Covid. 

Often somebody joins because they’ve moved to London and joined a big firm in the city, having previously played rugby at a private school and they hear about HAC through word of mouth.

Even without the playing numbers of yesterday, the team still won London North West Division 2 in 2022 and were sitting fourth in the Regional Anglia 2 table  going into the match against league leaders Letchworth.

In the match itself, HAC RFC spend the early minutes camped close to Letchworth’s try line, but fail to make that territorial dominance count. Instead, what ensues is a game that ebbs and flows but starts as it finishes with the hosts unable to force a way past Letchworth’s rearguard, as the visitors win 16-10 and the unbeaten run is extended to 33 matches.

Post-match provides an opportunity to chat with the opposition and find out exactly what it is like to make your first visit here. “It’s been surreal, utterly surreal. What an amazing, amazing place,” says Letchworth supporter Gary Ryall.  “I’m ex-service, so you just feel so proud coming here. You walk up the stairs and think of the hundreds of years of history behind it. What an experience, what a place to watch your team play rugby!”

He’s as impressed as Andy always is, every time he visits his home ground. “There are so many things that happen here which don’t happen anywhere else,” he says. “Even now, I still think it’s amazing that we get to play rugby on this turf.” 

Story by Ryan Herman

Pictures by Christopher Kennedy

This extract was taken from issue 21 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.