Gillingham Football Club is an English football club based in Gillingham, Kent. The club was formed in 1893, and played in the Southern League until 1920, when that league's top division was absorbed into the Football League as its new Division Three. The club was voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned 12 years later, when that league was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 the club narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. In 2000, the "Gills" reached the second tier of the English league for the first time in the club's history and went on to spend five seasons at this level, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03. The club has twice won the division comprising the fourth level of English football: the Football League Fourth Division championship in 1963–64 and the Football League Two championship in 2012–13.
The early years: 1893–1920
The local success of a junior football side, Chatham Excelsior F.C., encouraged a group of businessmen to meet at the Napier Arms pub on 18 May 1893, with a view to creating a football club that could compete in larger competitions. To do this, the club required an enclosed playing area where an admission fee could be charged, which Excelsior lacked. New Brompton F.C. was formed at the meeting, incorporating a number of Excelsior players. The group also purchased the plot of land which would later become Priestfield Stadium, where a pitch was quickly laid and a pavilion constructed. New Brompton's first team played their first match on 2 September 1893, with the new team, sporting Excelsior's black and white stripes, being defeated 5–1 by Woolwich Arsenal's reserve team in front of a crowd of 2,000. As a "curtain-raiser" immediately prior to this match, New Brompton's own reserves played a match against Grays, which was therefore technically the first match played by a team representing the club.
New Brompton joined the Southern League upon its creation in 1894, being placed in Division Two because it was one of the last clubs to be invited to join the league. Upon joining the league, New Brompton turned professional, with the players agreeing to be paid 12 shillings per match, and promptly won the Division Two championship in the 1894–95 season. With a record of one defeat and eleven victories from twelve matches, the team concluded the season with a "test match" against Swindon Town, who had finished bottom of Division One. As 5–1 winners, New Brompton gained promotion to Division One the following season. In 1896 the club appointed its first manager when William Ironside Groombridge, who had previously served as the club's financial secretary, took charge of team affairs. Groombridge served the club, as secretary and sometimes manager, until well after the First World War.
New Brompton struggled in Division One, generally finishing close to the foot of the table, but did reach the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in 1899–1900, losing 1–0 to Southampton. In the same season the club was forced to play a league fixture at the home ground of Woolwich Arsenal when Priestfield was closed due to crowd trouble in a match against Millwall.
In the 1907–08 season, under the management of the former England international Stephen Smith, New Brompton finished bottom of the table, avoiding relegation only due to the expansion of the league, but did achieve a cup victory over First Division Sunderland, remembered for a hat-trick from Charlie McGibbon.
In 1912 the directors passed a resolution to change the club's name to Gillingham F.C., and the team played under this name throughout the 1912–13 season, although the change was not officially ratified by the shareholders until the following year. To coincide with the change, the team began sporting a new kit of red shirts with blue sleeves. The side again finished bottom of the division in the 1914–15 season, but avoided relegation for a second time when the league was suspended due to the escalation of the First World War.
Once the competition resumed after the war Gillingham, once again wearing black and white, continued to fare poorly, again finishing bottom of Division One in the 1919–20 season. For a third time, however, the club avoided relegation, due to the subsequent elevation of all Southern League Division One clubs to form the new Football League Third Division.
Into the Football League: 1920–1938 In the club's first match in the newly created Football League Division Three, Gillingham held Southampton to a 1–1 draw in front of a new record Priestfield crowd of 11,500, with Tom Gilbey scoring the club's first goal in league competition. Under new manager John McMillan the team struggled and finished the 1920–21 season bottom of the table, and in the years to follow there was little improvement, with the club regularly finishing in the lower reaches of the bottom division. Gillingham did not manage to finish in the top half of the table until 1925–26, when the team finished in 10th place, due mainly to the goals of Dick Edmed, who was promptly signed by Liverpool for a fee of £1,750, a new Gillingham record. Manager Harry Curtis departed soon afterwards to take over at Brentford, and former Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Albert Hoskins stepped down a division to manage the club, but he could do little to change the team's fortunes and left in 1929 after Gillingham finished bottom of the table once again.
Striker Fred Cheesmur set a new club record in the 1929–30 season when he scored six goals in a match against Merthyr Town. This remains the highest number of goals scored by a Gillingham player in a professional match, but was a rare high point in a season which saw Gillingham forced to apply for re-election to the league. The following year the club abandoned its traditional black and white striped shirts in favour of blue shirts and white shorts, colours which have remained associated with Gillingham ever since, although the black and white stripes are still visible in the current version of the club's badge. In 1932–33 former Crystal Palace manager Fred Maven led the club to its highest league finish to date, finishing the season in 7th place, but it was a feat which could not be repeated and the team returned to struggling at the foot of the table the following season.
In the 1934–35 season centre-forward Sim Raleigh, the club's top scorer the previous season and a player seen as a future star, suffered a brain haemorrhage following a blow to the head in a match against Brighton & Hove Albion on 1 December. Although he played on he collapsed during the second half and died in hospital later the same day. The club launched a fund which raised over £250 for his widow and child.
In 1938 the Gills finished bottom of the now-regionalised Third Division South once more, and were required to apply for re-election to the Football League for the fifth time since joining it in 1920. This time the club's bid for re-election failed, with Ipswich Town registering 36 votes to Gillingham's 28 and being promoted into the League. At the time it was considered a distinct possibility that Gillingham, saddled with heavy debts incurred during the preceding unsuccessful seasons, might not survive, but the club carried on, and returned to the Southern League the following season, albeit without manager Alan Ure, who was replaced by Bill Harvey.
The wilderness years: 1938–1950 The club's second stint in the Southern League was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, which saw newly appointed manager Archie Clark and most of the players assigned to work at the local dockyards. When competitive football resumed, Gillingham played in the first incarnation of the Kent League, winning the title in both 1944–45 and 1945–46. In the second of these seasons the team also won the Kent Senior Cup, Kent County Challenge Cup and Kent League Cup, to complete a clean sweep of every senior trophy in the county. Following their Kent League triumphs, the Gills returned to the Southern League for the 1946–47 season, in which the team again won two trophies, claiming both the Southern League Cup and the Southern League title itself, and registered a club record 12–1 victory over Gloucester City. Striker Hughie Russell scored nine goals in the match, and missed out on double figures when he hit the bar late in the game.
Although Gillingham missed out on the Southern League title the following season, finishing as runners-up, the team again captured the Kent Senior Cup, as well as setting a club record attendance of 23,002 for a cup match against Queens Park Rangers. Gillingham applied for re-election to the Football League in the summer of 1948 but, despite producing a glossy brochure detailing the team's achievements, the club saw its application rejected, with only one vote cast in its favour. Despite this disappointment, the team continued to perform strongly in the Southern League and successfully regained the league title in 1948–49. In 1950 plans were announced to expand the Third Division South from 22 to 24 teams and, based on the team's local success in the interim, Gillingham gained re-election to the Football League, receiving the highest number of votes amongst the candidate clubs.
Return to the Football League: 1950–1974 Gillingham's first game back in the Football League saw the Kent club hold fellow new entrants Colchester United to a 0–0 draw at Priestfield in front of 19,542 fans. The 1950–51 season saw the Gills both concede and score nine goals in individual matches, and finished with them bottom of the table, a performance which was repeated the following season. In 1952 striker Jimmy Scarth set a Football League record when he scored a hat-trick in approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds against Leyton Orient, which was officially recognised as the fastest hat-trick in the history of the Football League until February 2004.
Gillingham's fortunes on the field gradually improved and the team finished in the top half of the Third Division South on three occasions, helped by the goals of Ernie Morgan, who in 1954–55 set a new club record by scoring 31 league goals. In 1956–57 and 1957–58, however, the Gills found themselves once again rooted to the bottom of the table, and this meant that with the restructuring of the league system for the 1958–59 season, the team was placed in the newly created Fourth Division – a top-half finish would have led to placement in the new national Third Division. 1958 also saw the departure of long-serving manager Archie Clark, who had held the post since before the Second World War, with Harry Barratt taking over.
The Gills were still in the Fourth Division in 1962 when Barratt was replaced as manager by Freddie Cox, who inherited a team which had just finished 20th in the table. Cox set about fashioning a new team noted for its formidable defensive capabilities. After finishing in 5th place in 1962–63 Gillingham went on to gain promotion the following year, winning the first divisional championship in the club's history. With goalkeeper John Simpson setting a new club record by conceding only 30 goals all season, the team finished level on 60 points with Carlisle United, but with a fractionally better goal average, and so claimed the title.