CHELSEA FC AND THE MEARS

In 1904, Gus Mears acquired the Stamford Bridge athletics' stadium in Fulham, with the aim of turning it into a football ground. An offer to lease it to nearby Fulham FC was turned down, so Mears opted to found his own club, to use the stadium. Here he is with his team and the bowler hat!

Brompton Cemetery is a popular shortcut for Chelsea fans making their way to and from next-door Stamford Bridge. How many realise they are walking past the grave of Henry Augustus Mears, the club’s founder, every time they use the Central Avenue?

Gus and his brother were building contractors and sports' fans. When the land used by London Athletic Club at Stamford Bridge came up for sale, Gus bought it. He tried to lease it to Fulham FC, but they didn’t take up the opportunity. Instead, one of Gus’s friends encouraged him to set up his own club. Chelsea FC was accepted into the 2nd Division in 1905.

Tragically Gus died aged just 37, and did not live to see how incredibly successful his team would become. However, the Mears family continued to own and run the club for the next 70 years.

Gus shares a grave with his wife, Harriet, and young son, Henry. During the First World War, Henry was training to be a combat pilot on HMS Furious, the world’s first aircraft carrier. Tragically, he became one of the RAF’s first casualties when he was killed in a flying accident in 1918, aged just 18.

As there was already a team named Fulham in the borough, the name of the adjacent borough of Chelsea was chosen for the new club; names like Kensington FC, Stamford Bridge FC and London FC were also considered. Chelsea F.C. was founded on 10 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub (now The Butcher's Hook), opposite the present-day main entrance to the ground on the Fulham Road, and were elected to the Football League shortly afterwards.

Chelsea won promotion to the First Division in their second season, and yo-yoed between the First and Second Divisions in their early years. They reached the 1915 FA Cup Final, where they lost to Sheffield United at Old Trafford, and finished third in the First Division in 1920, the club's best league campaign to that point. Chelsea had a reputation for signing star players and attracted large crowds. The club had the highest average attendance in English football in ten separate seasons including 1907-8, 1909-10, 1911-12, 1912-13, 1913-14 and 1919-20 They were FA Cup semi-finalists in 1920 and 1932 and remained in the First Division throughout the 1930s, but success eluded the club in the inter-war years.