Dick Sloley

Dick Sloley attended Cambridge and was an all-round sportsman, excelling at water polo and swimming and swimming for his University. He was also a double Blue at football, playing in any forward position. He made his England amateur international début against Ireland in 1919 and the following year was honoured with the captaincy of his country against Belgium. Later that year he was in the Great Britain XI that lost to Norway at the Olympic Games in Antwerp. A member of the famous Corinthians at the time, he first played for them in 1913 and toured Brazil with them. He also had spells at Brentford and Aston Villa. His only two Football League appearances were for Villa against Bradford Park Avenue and Preston North End in October 1919. After the Olympics, Sloley joined Ealing FC and remained with them until hanging up his boots at the end of the 1926-27 season, but he remained with the club as Chairman. He was also a schoolteacher, football referee and a radio broadcaster.

During the First World War Sloley served with the Army Service Corps and while in Egypt learned to fly with the Royal Flying Corps. But, despite being a man of many talents, he was probably better known as the man who had a dream to create the Argonauts Football Club in 1928. He wanted to create a team made up of the best amateurs of the day and get them into the Football League, like Queen’s Park in Scotland. He even had the vision of playing home matches at Wembley Stadium – even though he had no players at the time. He failed at the first attempt to join the League and the creation of the team was put on hold. But, as he had a lease on Wembley, his beloved Ealing played eight matches at the famous stadium in the 1928-29 season but won just two of them, including the first ever amateur game played at Wembley, when they beat Hastings and St Leonards 1-0. Two more failed attempts to get the Argonauts into the League resulted in the end of Sloley’s dream. He died in 1946 at the University College Hospital, London, where, in the 1930s he was secretary of their nursing school