BUCKLE, Robert (1882-95)
Position: Inside forward
Born: Tottenham, North London, 17 October, 1868
Died: Mitcham, Surrey, 14 April, 1959
Spurs Record:
Appearances: Others 54
Goals: Others 28
Bobby Buckle was one of the Tottenham Grammar School pupils responsible for Spurs being founded in 1882. A 13-year-old lad, born locally, there is no record of him playing for the cricket club which preceded the football team but he was certainly around when the decision was taken to abandon cricket in favour of the winter game. He is one of the first boys recorded as having paid their 6d (2.5p) season subscriptions in September 1882 and the club’s first captain.
Records of our first season are scant to say the least, only two games being known and the teams that played in them lost in the mists of time. As match details became known Buckle was revealed as the club’s first outside-left, present in practically every game for which a team line-up is known and a consistent scorer. He remained a regular performer for 10 years, years when the foundations for one of the world’s greatest clubs were laid and when the style of football always associated with Spurs was developed.
Even when he stopped playing Buckle continued to support the club. He was present when all the momentous decisions were taken, more often than not a backer, if not proposer, of the resolutions concerned.
On the playing side Buckle was a speedy little winger, much like his successors Fanny Walden and Terry Dyson. He had the simple job of getting his head down, haring down the wing and sending the ball into the middle for one of the two centre-forwards to turn into goal. Pace and strength were his main attributes. He needed to be strong too. The toughest men on the pitch were full-backs and they revelled in the rough treatment they were allowed to mete out to anyone who tried to go past them. With his speed, Buckle came in for a lot of rough play but it did not stop him, he was a ceaseless worker and frequently praised for his bravery.
Most of the games Bobby is known to have played were friendlies but as Spurs progressed to competitive matches, he was invariably there. He was a member of the first Spurs’ team to play a cup tie, against the London business house, St Albans, in the London Association Cup in October 1885 and played in every round of the East End Cup the following season when we reached the semi-final before being defeated in a replay by London Caledonians. He also played when we made our debut in the London and Middlesex Senior Cups.
Off the pitch Buckle was a true leader. A member of the committee that ran the club from its early days until we became a limited company; he also served as treasurer and secretary. He was one of the main proponents of the move to a private ground in 1888 and in 1895 put forward and spoke eloquently in favour of the resolution to adopt professionalism. It was his proposal that a limited company should be incorporated to run the club in 1898 and he was one of the original directors elected. A year later it was he and Chairman Charles Roberts who persuaded the brewers, Charringtons, to grant the club a lease on the ground behind the White Hart pub that was known throughout its 118-year existence as White Hart Lane.
A solicitor’s clerk in the City, it was only in 1900 when he left the Tottenham area after marrying that Buckle’s immediate association with the club came to an end but he continued to support us from a distance. At the celebration dinners of both 1901 and 1921 he was the man selected to propose the toast to the FA Cup winning teams. We can only wonder at the pride and joy he must have felt when the club he helped create and did so much to establish won the Football League in 1951.