William Gosling was one of three brothers who were outstanding sportsmen at Eton and were later prominent in county affairs in Essex. William was in the Eton cricket and football XI in 1888 and won the high jump at the school sports that year. He took a commission in the Scots guards, with whom he served in both the Boer War and the First World War. When on leave from his regiment, he played football for Chelmsford, Casuals and Old Etonians and, having played for London against Sheffield in 1892, it was through his sporting contacts in Essex that he was invited to join the Upton park team when they went to Paris for the 1900 Olympic tournament. In 1903 William married Victoria, the daughter of the Marquess of Lothian and following the death of his brother Robert in 1922 he took over the family seat at Hassobury, near Bishop’s Stortford. He was appointed High Sheriff of Essex in 1927, a post which Robert, the eldest of the three brothers had held 20 years earlier. It was Robert, in fact, who enjoyed the most distinguished sporting career. He played cricket for Eton, Cambridge University and Essex, and won his blue and five England caps at football between 1892-95. The youngest brother, Thomas, also won a soccer blue at Cambridge. (Extra information was supplied by Peter Hamersley, Upton Park FC Historian)
Great Britain