R. Cunliffe Gosling

Who was R. Cunliffe Gosling?

Robert Cunliffe Gosling DL, was a Victorian-era footballer who played as a speedy inside forward for the renowned amateur clubs Old Etonians and the Corinthians. He captained the England team on one, possibly two, occasions and scored two goals.

Described by Sir Frederick Wall, the long-serving Secretary of the Football Association, as "the richest man who ever played football for England", Gosling was the scion of a wealthy Essex family and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. The oldest of seven brothers, four of whom played cricket for Eton against Harrow, he was, recalled the early sportwriter JAH Catton, "the most aristocratic-looking man I ever saw", a view concurred in by his England international colleague C.B. Fry, who described him as "the best-looking man of my acquaintance" and one of the players whose presence in the Corinthians' side contributed to "their reputation up North as a team of toffs".

Gosling's bearing lent him an imposing presence on the football field. He looked, Wall recalled, "every inch the high-born... [his] carriage and gait would have done credit to a court Chamberlain at a levee", and was admirably built, being merely "bone and muscle, not soft flesh". His play, the F.A. man added,