In a break from the format of the previous parts of this series, I want to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by the availability of back issues of the staff magazine of the Kodak Company’s British subsidiary, the Kodak Works’ Bulletin,[1] to present company baseball in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s as seen through the eyes of the men and women who played the game. So, here I present excerpts from reports published in the Kodak Works’ Bulletin from 1929 to 1939, written by members of the baseball section of the Kodak Company’s sports and recreation club, the Kodak Recreation Society (K.R.S.), with added explanatory notes and context.

The story is told in two parts: the origin and growth of the baseball section (‘The Softball Years’) and its emergence as a key player in the 1930s amateur baseball scene in London (‘The Hardball Years’).

The Softball Years

BASEBALL. Maybe the heading will surprise some of you regular readers of this Bulletin, maybe not. Least ways, we of the Camera Department have started a baseball league, consisting of the Camera, Press Gang and Electricians, and the combined Dipping and Plating and Lens Department are also contemplating sending a team up to the old diamond.[2]

By the end of the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the idea that a ‘happy worker is a productive worker’ had supplanted moral and religious arguments for providing physical recreation, at least, in the minds of most business owners. There were even instances of companies sponsoring works sports clubs as a remedy to industrial unrest—the football team that would eventually become West Ham owed its origins to one such initiative. Thus, by the 1920s, company sports and recreation clubs were the rule rather than the exception. Similarly, for any business with both male and female employees, sports provision for both genders was also the norm.[3]

George Eastman’s Kodak Company opened its first plant outside North America as early as 1891, just two years after the company’s founding in Rochester, New York. This was in Wealdstone, Middlesex, north of London. By the 1920s, what was known as the Kodak Harrow Works had grown into a ‘mini town with its own research labs, social clubs, sports ground and even a Kodak FC football team’. Many of its 2000 employees were women: clerks, typists, and factory workers.[4]

On-site, all recreational activities came under the umbrella of the Kodak Recreation Society (K.R.S.), and in 1928, the K.R.S. added a baseball section.

Don't stay away on account of lack of knowledge of the game (we none of us are "very" good with the exception of a few of the Dominion boys), but have the coaching of Ed. Lynch—one of the best known coaches in Eastern Canada; what Ted doesn't know about an "ole ball game isn't worth the knowing, believe us! Just now his services are being utilised by the Electrician outfit, who are developing into a workmanlike side, but he is eager to coach any team in the plant the rudiments of the game. What do you say?[5]

‘Ed. Lynch’, known to most of his British colleagues as ‘Ted’, was Edward Lynch, a 48-year-old (in 1929—the date of the quote above) foreman in the camera department at Kodak Harrow. An Ontario native of Irish extraction, Lynch had worked at the Kodak Heights plant in Toronto before being seconded to Harrow in 1928.[6] Lynch was just one of a sizeable number of employees of Kodak’s North American plants working at Harrow on secondment—mostly Canadian (the ‘Dominion boys’ of the above quote), but also including some employees from the Rochester, NY, parent plant. We need only to look at the baseball section’s committee members in 1929—its first full year of operation—to see what role this had in the formation of the section.

THE annual general meeting of the above section took place in the Hall on Thursday evening, March 6th [1930], and was attended by a very large gathering. "Eats" were the first considered item on the programme, and the inner man being satisfied by Miss E. Brown, the serious business of the evening was commenced. The old committee and secretary-Messrs. E. Lynch, H. Swann, E. Jackson, S. Jackson, G. Greene, G. Richardson, Miss G. Roberts, and Mr. C. Scarff, Secretary for 1929, all retired.[7]

Of the members of the committee we can readily identify, we can see, alongside Ted Lynch, some future stalwarts of the K.R.S. baseball section. Ed and Sid Jackson (Edward Henry Jackson (1901–1977) and Sydney William Jackson (1899–1972)) were brothers, born in England but raised in Canada. Like Ted Lynch, employees of Kodak’s Toronto Works, the brothers returned to Britain in 1927 to take up posts at Harrow and, ultimately, resettle in the country. Ed Jackson would go on to captain the Kodak baseball team that took part in the amateur London baseball leagues of the 1930s (see below) and was arguably the section’s most important interwar player. H. Swann, we know from future Bulletin reports, was another Canadian. Meanwhile, Charlie Scarff (Charles Sidney Scarff (1902–1984)), like the Jacksons, British-born, had lived in the US from an early age. As an adult, he worked at Kodak’s Rochester, NY, parent plant before returning to Britain. For the first few years of the baseball section’s existence, Scarff was the author of reports on the men’s game published in the Bulletin, signing them ‘S.C.C.’. We might also infer his authorship from the Americanisms that pepper the reports.[8]

We commence operations at 2 o’clock prompt Saturday afternoons (also fine evenings around 6 o’clock) on the Recreation Field, and then the battle is on; come on out in your hordes or individually and watch our artists perform with the bat, ball and lungs. We guarantee to give you some fun and, occasionally, thrills, or money refunded -just like a before and after ad.[9]

Although not spelled out in these early reports, the type of baseball that the baseball section played in its first few years of existence was softball—this would only become apparent when the section announced the creation of a hardball team in 1935. As well as outdoor games, there were also indoor games in the K.R.S. Hall, which is also where the members of the section practiced. Notable indoor games included the final of the 1929 ‘World Series’ between the Press and Camera men’s teams (see report below).[10]

Although it seems that in its earliest form, in 1928, the section was a men-only affair, by the time it was ready to announce its existence in the pages of Bulletin in the summer of 1929, it was already adding women’s teams, albeit, as the report of the first games between the women’s teams in the following month’s Bulletin made clear, it was still working out how to make play suitable for female employees and vice versa.

Quite a sensation was caused during the Brownie v. Hawkeye match on July 2nd, when up comes “P.W.” to bat. The pitcher pitches, the batter bats, the umpire cries “strike one,” the pitcher and batter get ready again, when low and behold, all the boys hide their faces, and the girls rush to escort “P.W.” behind the sun screen to adjust things. After a deal of laughter and a little chaff “P.W.” proceeds to bat and gets her revenge on the ball, the game ending with a win to the Hawkeyes.[11]

Ted Lynch’s heart was in the right place, but he clearly lacked the experience of the women’s game necessary to give advice on appropriate clothing choices. (It is worth noting here that the above account was written by a woman, section member Ethel Brown.) At this stage of the section’s existence, players played in their street clothes; uniforms would not be introduced until the 1930 season. We can see in the latter move the section’s confidence in its survival.

Something else to highlight from the above report is that it represents the first mention in the Bulletin of the Hawkeye, the Kodak women’s baseball team that, as the H.E.B.T. (Hawk-Eye Baseball Team), was to become a leading light in the women’s game in England, and, arguably, the highest profile Kodak team of the baseball section’s early years. I have written extensively about the Hawkeye and its contribution to the women’s game in Britain elsewhere.[12]

Finally, it is worth noting that ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Brownie’ were the names of two of the cameras in the Kodak product range. The women’s league also included the Camera and Japan teams—‘Japan’ being the name of the section of the Camera Department responsible for applying black lacquer to photographic plates and cameras, a process known as ‘japanning’.

Although the baseball section was still finding its feet, it was not without ambition.

Next season, we hope to add to the membership of our league and maybe challenge the London Americans at Stamford Bridge. And if any of the “Firestone” or “Goodyear" ball fans should see this, why, just get yourself ready for a battle on the diamond.[13]

The ‘London Americans’ were the flagship team of the Anglo-American Baseball Association (AABA), which flew the flag for baseball in London from the mid-1920s until the mid-1930s, and included players and organisers who had been involved in the game in the capital since the First World War.[14]

The reference to “Goodyear” and “Firestone” as potential opponents also has an AABA connection and shows that members of the Kodak baseball section likely attended AABA games at Stamford Bridge. Goodyear and Firestone, rival tire companies, had both opened factories in London in 1928. In the summer of 1929, they also both put up teams to play the London Americans at Stamford Bridge—albeit comprising American employees on temporary assignment to the London works as the factories geared up to full production.[15]

Although there would be no games against the London Americans, Goodyear, or Firestone, as we will see, the Kodak baseball section would forge a relationship with the AABA.

An important extra dimension to membership of the section was the opportunity to socialise with other members. Annual membership of the section in its early years cost 2/6 for men and 1/6 for women (which would have reflected the difference in pay rates between male and female employees).[16] As these dances were also open to other employees of the Works, they represented a way for the section to make more money to support its activities (this was also true of other sections of the K.R.S., of course). Just how important the section viewed this element of its activities is obvious from how many column inches it devoted to reporting on the dances in the Bulletin.

Well, were you lucky enough to be at our first baseball dance of the season, you will know of course that all records were broken. Mr. and Mrs. Bent very kindly attended, and Mrs. Bent presented the “Maple Leaf” Cup to Mr. E. Jackson, as skipper of the Camera team, and the “Beaver” Cup to Miss P. Stiles, as captain of the Hawkeye girls’ team, medals to the men and boxes of chocolates to the girls. Miss Peggy Stiles made her maiden speech, in which she said that baseball was a —— fine game, and that she had a jolly fine team; and several other things were jolly (in fact, I am wondering whether the cup was filled before the speech or after!) However, they all looked quite proud of their captain and themselves included. […] We believe everybody had a real good time—it wasn’t our fault if they didn’t. This article is being written at the beginning of October, and our next dance is on November 2nd.[17]

Noticeable in the above account is the fact that the winners of the men’s championship—the Maple Leaf Cup—received medals, while the winners of the women’s (‘girls’) championship—The Beaver Cup—received boxes of chocolate. This would be changed in future years to the men’s and women’s team winners, all receiving medals. Regardless, the reports on the championship-winning games are good examples of the way that men’s and women’s games were reported in those early years.

The Camera team lined up against the Press, the best two out of three to be declared the winner of the “Maple Leaf Cup”. The first game was almost a walk-away for the Press. (Great times around the Press section, huh?) But the Camera evened it up in the second encounter. (Great times not so confined this time!) As the “movies” used to say, “came the day” for the third and last, do or die was the spirit with both teams, everybody on their toes and every ounce of pep in the game. Both the players and all spectators who had the slightest inkling of the game agree it was the finest exhibition of indoor baseball seen on the ground; the score speaks for itself.

            1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9 Total

Camera 0          0          1          1          0          1          0          1          0 4

Press     2          1          0          0          0          0          0          0          0 3

Umpires, Bill Gooder; Score Keeper, Jack Hustwayte

The numbers one, two, three, etc., up to nine are the numbers of innings played. The score is immediately below the innings number.[18]

The captains tossed for position, and, the Hawkeye winning, they decided to field, the Camera going in to bat. The teams were so keyed up to play that neither team scored in the first two innings. After that each team scored by one run and two runs until at the sixth innings they both stood at five, and in the seventh the Camera got one, the Hawkeye doing some splendid fielding. Gemma Gregory, their short-stop, was on top form, and Ivy Batchelor, at second base, made a fine catch off the pitcher who just tipped the ball with her fingers, Ivy getting there in time to save (well played, Ivy), thus putting the Camera out, the score being 6–5.

Then the Hawkeye had their chance, but the Camera looked determined to stop them from scoring. One was out with a catch by Enid Phelps at left field (Oh” well played, indeed), two batters got to first and second base, then Elsie Brown hit a jolly good ball, bringing home two and herself reaching third base before the ball was again in play. But hold! The Cup was won the score being 7–6. All honours to the Hawkeye.[19]

The first account was from the pen of Chas. Scarff, as might be guessed (‘huh’, ‘pep’), the second from ‘B.E.’, whom I have unfortunately been unable to identify, although we can safely assume it was a member of one of the women’s teams. One player in the report of the women’s game who is worth highlighting is Gemma Gregory (1911–2005).[20] She would go on to become a star player in the women’s game at Kodak. Alas, I have been unable to date to identify Peggy Stiles, the Hawkeye’s captain.

The start of the 1930 season was to prove significant in a number of ways.  First of all, it brought uniforms at last.

PRESS. Colours:—Red, Green, and Yellow Hoops […] CAMERA. (Holders of Baseball Cup). Colours:—Purple, Blue, Gold.[21]

Then, the Japan girls came out to practice, looking quite fresh and bright in their new uniform of orange and black, and after about ten minutes the Hawkeye arrived for their turn, in green and white, which looked very smart..[22]

Just as significantly, the section had a visitor on opening day.

To finish out our opening afternoon, a dance was put on in the evening in the Hall, and was graced by the presence of Charlie Muirhead, Secretary of the Anglo-American Baseball Club, at Stamford Bridge. A very large time was had by all. An outside game was played on Saturday, May 11th, at Wealdstone Football Ground, Lower Mead, between England and Canada. The result was a win for the latter 20–6. Strike three and the batters out![23]

Charles Frederick Denne Muirhead (1890–1949) was another Ontarian, although he had been resident in London since at least 1918. It was largely due to his efforts that baseball in London survived the lean years following its wartime peak when servicemen like Muirhead played for military teams in games that attracted thousands of spectators. He was inducted into the British Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023.[24]

It might be supposed that Muirhead had turned up at Harrow to issue a challenge to the Kodak men’s teams on behalf of the AABA’s London Americans team. However, as a report in the Bulletin a month later showed, Muirhead had something else in mind.

Several weeks back we had two of our girls’ league teams, Hawkeye and Brownie, play an exhibition game at Stamford Bridge, as a preliminary to the big game, the Brownies trimming the Hawkeye by six runs to nil. A good crowd from the Works were in attendance, our girls making a big hit in both senses.[25]

This June 1930 game, which marked the Kodak women’s baseball teams’ public debut, was covered by the national press and was even filmed by British Pathe for one of its newsreels.[26] This kind of attention, which the game would not have received had two of Kodak’s men’s teams gone in the Hawkeye and Brownie’s place, was precisely why Muirhead had extended an invitation to the two women’s teams. Muirhead was a publicity hound, and he knew what attracted press attention. (To be fair to Muirhead, he felt he had to do something to fight against the general indifference of the British sporting press to baseball. At the same time, it has to be acknowledged that, viewed through a modern lens, some of his stunts were in very poor taste.[27])

Back at Harrow, the new season brought with it new teams in the men’s game, including one from another of Kodak’s sites: the Camera Repair Service team from Kilburn (not yet part of the league—that would come the following year). There was also a new team from the Camera Department at Harrow, supplier of original teams for both the men’s and the women’s games. Interestingly, this new team adopted the Hawkeye name.[28]

In terms of the flow of play, the season was again dominated by the battle between the Press and Camera teams for the men’s championship, and the struggle for any of the women’s teams to overcome the Hawkeye. Ultimately, the conclusion was to be a repeat of the 1929 season: the Camera overcoming the Press and the Hawkeye walking away with the women’s series. At the presentation dance later that autumn, the Hawkeye team members finally received winners’ medals instead of chocolates.

Saturday, October 11th, was the date of our Presentation Dance. Whilst not being quite a “balmy summer's evening”, a goodly crowd was there, i.e., “House Full” boards were out by 9pm. The Hadleigh Sheiks Band gave of their best, and a little after nine o’ clock the presentations took place. Mr. E. Jackson, captain of the Camera (men's) Team, received the Maple Leaf Cup, and the team their medals. Miss Peggy Stiles, as captain of the successful H.E.B.T. (Hawkeye Girls’) Team, received the Beaver Cup, and the team their medals. Mr. F. Russell and Miss E. O'Connell both received medals for base-running. Jack Stevens received a wallet prize for the highest number of home runs during the season, and Miss O’Connell received a silver pencil for the highest number of runs; also Miss “Tiny” a special cheer for herself. “Tiny” had hard luck in just being “pipped on the post” by Miss O’Connell..[29]

‘Miss O’Connell’ was Eileen O'Connell (1914-?), arguably the best player to play for any of the Kodak women’s teams interwar. An orphan brought up by her paternal grandparents, Eileen joined Kodak aged just 16, following in the footsteps of an aunt and uncle who both worked for the company. In common with Gemma Gregory, Eileen was a member of the Kodak Athletic Club as well as the baseball section. As her speed around the bases might suggest, Eileen’s event was the 100-yard dash. (Gemma Gregory was also a sprinter.)[30] Frank Russell (1906-?) and his big brother Charlie Russell (1903-?) were two stalwarts of the interwar baseball section. We will meet Frank’s son, Stan, later.

The 1931 season saw further growth in the men’s game, with the Kilburn Camera Repair Service joining the league. However, once more, it was the women’s game that was to excite the greatest interest from parties outside the company.

The Gaumont Graphic shot some parts of one of the girl’s games (H.E.B.T. versus the Japan), and was shown on a general release in most theatres in London.

Baseball is catching on slowly but surely; British Celanese, of Hanover Square, W., are the latest recruits.

Come out to the diamond on the sports ground if you'd like a try out.[31]

Alas,  I have been unable to locate this second newsreel in a year to feature the Hawkeye and another of the women’s teams. Of course, once again, we might ask why, when there was also a men’s game on that day, only the women’s game was filmed. ‘British Celanese’ was the British Celanese Acetate Company, and, although headquartered in Hanover Square, London, its factory was in New Eltham, Kent. With a largely female workforce, the company was another recruit to the women’s baseball cause.[32]

As subsequent issues of the Bulletin were to report, the sports secretary of the New Eltham works, a Mr. Hornsby, had asked the Kodak baseball section to lend Celanese the services of a baseball coach. Ted Lynch duly obliged, and this led to a series of games across the summer of 1931 at both Harrow and New Eltham between the Celanese women’s team and the Brownie and Japan Kodak women’s teams. Sid Jackson, brother of Ed, was brought in to coach the Celanese team for the later games in this series.[33]

Ted Lynch and the Hawkeye, meanwhile, had bigger fish to fry in the form of the ‘European Women’s Softball Championship’—a name invented by Ted Lynch for a challenge he had issued through the press to any women’s baseball team willing to take on the Hawkeye. The St Dyfrigs team, who played baseball under the English code in one of that game’s two heartlands, Cardiff (the other was Liverpool), answered the challenge. The ‘championship’ game was played at Kodak, under American softball rules, in August 1931. The Hawkeye won, and Ted Lynch crowned his proteges, the European Champions.[34]

The Hawkeye also won the Kodak women’s league for the third year in a row. There was a surprise in the men’s league, though, when, after three years of trying, the Press finally overcame the Camera. To celebrate the end of the season, there was the now traditional ‘Brits’ versus ‘Colonials’ game, which is worth examining for what it tells us about the breadth of origins of the players in the baseball section.

The brand of baseball served up this year has improved immensely and out of all proportion to the number of seasons played (this is our third), proof of which was shown by the result of the game played between the Colonials v. The Rest, the latter beating the former ten to nine in a ten innings affair. The game was of the fast and furious kind, no quarter given or asked.

Here’s how the teams were made up. — THE Rest: Kingsman (Press), Hooker (Buffs), Mynott (Camera), Staples (Press), Roberts (Buffs), Robertson (Hawkeye), Richardson (C.R.S.), Sullivan (C.R.S.), Adam (Buffs).

The Colonials: Scarff (U.S.A.), Stevens (Australia), Swann (Canada), Lynch (Canada), S. Jackson (Canada), Perkins (Canada), E. Jackson (Canada), Dean (S. Africa), Mellor (Egypt).[35]

After three full seasons of baseball, the game was firmly established at the Kodak Harrow works, and the section’s coaches and teams were helping to spread it to other company sports and recreation clubs in the London area. The next two seasons (1933 and 1934) would see consolidation and growth, but also surprises, prime among them, the demise of the Hawkeye, as its leading players moved on, married, and/or left the company. Eileen O’Connell would remain, though, and form and lead a new women’s team, the X-Ray, the first women’s team outside the Camera Department.

However, the biggest development in the Kodak baseball section would come with the 1935 season: the debut of the section’s hardball team.

The Hardball Years

We can safely say that this was our best opening so far, and if there were a quarter-of-a-million viewing the decorations in London that afternoon, the rest seem to have been on our recreation ground.

There were representatives from Birmingham and Liverpool, and we had the pleasure of welcoming officials from the National Baseball Association of England, who thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Messrs. Briggs Bodies sent two coachloads of their usual cheerful and energetic people, who made themselves thoroughly at home.

Our hard ball team turned out officially for the first time, and made a colourful show in their new outfits. They put up a good game against their more experienced opponents. The results of the afternoon’s matches were as follows :

GIRLS: Brownies 7, X-Ray 6; Kodak 10, Briggs 7. MEN: (Hard ball) Kodak 7, Briggs 14; MEN (Soft ball) Kodak 14, Briggs 7.[36]

In 1933, Liverpool businessman John Moores, in the US on business in connection with his Littlewoods mail order catalogue business, had his first encounter with major league American baseball. He came away convinced that the game, if presented the way that he saw it, could go over big in Britain. It is not clear the extent to which he was aware that the American game was already played in Britain, albeit on a small scale, but he was certainly familiar with the English version of it: not only was Liverpool one of the few places in the country where the game was played, Moores was a patron of it, and had travelled to the US with a letter to present to the presidents of the American major leagues proposing an international series between English, American, and Irish teams. Moores returned to Liverpool and tried to convince the English baseballers to switch to the American game.[37]

While Moores did not meet with the success he had hoped for, he was successful enough to be able to launch an amateur American baseball league in Liverpool in 1934 under the auspices of his National Baseball Association. As I outlined in the previous part of this series, 1934 was also the year that Donald Kelso brought American baseball back to Birmingham.[38]

By 1935, the NBA had gained enough support regionally to launch a professional league in Liverpool and Manchester, using a combination of novice local players, former players of the English game, and North American professionals, most of whom were Canadian ice hockey players in th English National [Ice Hockey] League. It also set its sights on the biggest prize of all, London, with the launch of two amateur leagues in the capital, the West London and East London Baseball Leagues.[39]

It was natural that the NBA would seek to bring Kodak into the fold. By 1935, seven years into its existence, the Kodak baseball section had supplanted the AABA as the most active and visible booster of the American game in the London area. However, agreeing to join one of the NBA’s new leagues did require the Kodak baseball section to adapt to a new version of the game: hardball.

On the opening day of its season, the Kodak baseball section faced off against a team from Briggs Bodies in both softball and hardball, winning the former and losing the latter, showing that it had some learning to do. ‘Briggs Bodies’ was Briggs Motor Bodies, a Detroit-based firm that supplied car and truck bodies to the Ford and Chrysler car companies. When the Ford Company built a new plant in Dagenham, Essex, Briggs Bodies did too. Briggs would play its baseball in the East London league, supplying two teams. The East London league would also be home to two teams from Ford Sports, the Ford company recreation society. The latter would go on to be one of the ‘Big Three’ company baseball teams in the British game, alongside Kodak and Thames Board Mills. (I will cover the Ford and Thames Board Mills stories in a future edition of this series.)[40]

Interestingly, despite Kodak’s connection with company sport, making it a natural fit for the East London League, which, on top of the four motor company teams, also featured the Pritchard & Gold company team, it instead debuted in the West London League, which was formed largely of new, non-works teams built up around a core of North American players in the capital to play other sports, ice hockey, once again, prime amongst them.

The extent to which this West–East divide represented some kind of snobbery is unknown, the more middle-class West London having more ‘prestige’ than solidly working-class East London. It is undoubtedly true that the NBA saw in the West London league a higher degree of competition than the East London League and intended to use it as the springboard to establishing a professional league in th capital (which it would the following year). The Kodak baseball section was, in effect, being used to set the pace in London baseball. In the event, it was a pace it struggled to keep up.

After a bad start, our hard ball team has been finding its feet, and is making a fine show. Our first game, against the Wembley Cubs, at home, ended 13–12 for the Cubs. On June 1st, Streatham, the strongest team in the league, sent us back 21–10, and in our first away game we lost to the Sox by 20–18. On June 16th, we played at Putney, but rain stopped the game. Having had enough beatings, the boys decided it was time to wake up, and in the first game for the London Cup, against the Sox, there was only one team in it, and we won by 23–9. They went on then to beat St. Joseph’s by 33–8, and again beat the Sox on their own ground 16–5. The last victory to date was against Barnes, of the East London League, in the second round for the cup, when the boys won 16–3.[41]

Alas, this optimism was to prove misplaced.

Unfortunately, our record this month is not so good as that of last month, but it is largely accounted for by the fact that our pitcher has been suffering from a strained arm. Although the score 25–11 against us in our cup game with Streatham, on July 13th at home, would lead one to believe that the game was rather one-sided, on the contrary, the final score was rather surprising. It was evident from the beginning of the match that we were up against a far more experienced team, who distinguished themselves particularly in their fielding. We were somewhat handicapped by the fact that Ted Jackson, our pitcher, was playing under some difficulty with a strained arm, and obviously was unable to play up to his usual form. However, in spite of some really good play by all of our team, it was disappointing that Streatham were able to make such a large score. This defeat was followed by yet another two, St. Joseph’s College and Putney beating us. We are still in the London Cup, however, and our spirits refuse to be dampened by such set-backs.[42]

The team ended the season, mid-table, a very credible finish in its first season of hardball. Still, the defection of the top team in the West London League (New London, a team of American Mormom missionaries that was renamed the Catford Saints for the 1936 season) to the new professional London Major Baseball League and dissolution of the league’s second-bet team, Streatham, were to prove blessings for the Kodak team, as it emerged as the strongest teams of the league, which renamed the Metropolitan League for the 1936 season.[43]

In the women’s game, for the 1935 season, the Kodak section found new opponents in the Ford Sports women’s baseball section.

The girls are still going strong, with the Brownies and the X-Ray battling along for the second series. Our girls played Ford’s girls on the latter’s sports ground on Saturday, August 25th. Two games were played before a large crowd of spectators, a game being won by each side. Ford’s girls always give us a great game and are our most formidable rivals. We must specially mention Ida Johnstone for her great all-round play in this match, which was duly appreciated by the crowd.[44]

Ted Lynch even dusted off the old idea of Kodak being the European Women’s Softball Champions.

The replay with Ford’s ladies was played on our ground on September 14th. The visitors brought their strongest team, hoping to take the European championship from us. Our girls were, however, slightly too good for them and managed to hold their position. Strong hitting was a feature of this game; both E. O’Connell and Nan Moon got in two home runs, with full bases each time, and Phil Cloake and Ida Johnson were on top of their form with pitching and catching, respectively.[45]

Phyllis ‘Phil’ Cloake (1912–1988)[46] was the captain and pitcher of the representative Kodak women’s baseball team, which adopted the name the ‘Kodak Aces’, in this new era of the women’s game in London. She and Ida Johnstone (sometimes written ‘Johnson’), another of the Kodak Athletic Club’s sprinters, were also the battery for the Brownies women’s baseball team. Meanwhile, Nancy ‘Nan’ Moon was Eileen O’Connell’s partner in the X-Ray department women’s baseball team, and chief rival for the title of ‘home run queen’ for the baseball section. The Aces would also find new opponents in the Wembley and Harrow Weald women’s teams.[47]

Sobered by its experience in the West London League in the 1935 season, for the 1936 season, the Kodak baseball section reorganised its men’s baseball section, committing fully to the hardball game.

Five hard-ball teams are being formed among the boys for out house league, namely:—C.R.S. (captain, G. Port); Camera (captain, J. Adam); X-Ray (captain, G. Brooks); Paper Coating (captain, Bill O’Hara); E.M. & P. (captain, W. Howman).

Our team for the London National League will be picked from these, so we should have a pretty full season.[48]

Buoyed by the success of the launch of the NBA leagues, which by the start of the 1936 season, included three professional leagues (in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and London) and an increasing number of amateur leagues, the baseball section was keen to help foster enjoyment of the game.

Keen interest in being roused by the rapid advance of baseball around this country, and many spectators enjoy the game, although, perhaps, somewhat mystified regarding the rules; therefore, to give added enjoyment, we publish the simple rules as selected by the National Baseball Association embracing the principles of the game and printed in the Baseball and Sport News.[49]

On the diamond, with the way cleared by the departure of the New London and Streatham teams, Kodak was to prove dominant in the Metropolitan league in the 1936 season (a dominance it was to retain all the way to the suspension of baseball in London at the outbreak of the Second World War).

In the Metropolitan League, we have been fortunate in winning every game to date, our opponents being Kingsbury Cubs, Putney and Wembley Pirates; we were successful in scoring over Putney on their own ground. Our team this season is certainly made up of hard hitters and future “Babe Ruths” (home-run hitters), our big scores being Stan Manning (3), Tiny Nava (3), Ted Jackson (2), Jock Adams (1). In our first NBA Amateur Cup match on Saturday, June 13th, we are looking to those “boys” for an outstanding performance, and those who come along to support us will not be disappointed.[50]

Louie Pasquale ‘Tiny’ Nava (1914–1984), the son of an Italian waiter and his English wife,[51] was to prove yet another key Kodak player as the team had its most successful season to date.

The honours that fell to the Kodak men’s team were: winners of the Metropolitan League, securing 225 runs against 43, without losing a single game during the season: reached the semi-final of the All England Amateur Cup and lost to Durex, a Birmingham team. This match divided itself Into a pitchers battle between Ted Jackson (pitcher for Kodak), who struck out seventeen and only allowed two hits, and Bissett, of Durex, who struck out sixteen and allowed three hits. Arthur West, with his naval precision, scored a hit in this game.[52]

The story of Sid Bissett and the Durex team I told in the previous part of this series.[53] One of the team’s unsuccessful encounters was also one of the more interesting in terms of illustrating the way that the game was played in Britain at the time.

Our boys did well in only allowing the Wasps to sting them by nine runs to nil. There was good play on both sides, with the advantage to the home side, as our pitchers have not played on a raised plate (which conforms to the regulations) as fitted at these stadiums, and consequently, the pitching of the ball was not so accurate as usual. This possibly had a bearing on our fielding, which some thought was a little erratic; however, L. Nava had the crowd with him when he made some splendid catches.[54]

The diamonds of company teams, which were laid out on sports fields shared with other sports, did not feature pitchers’ mounds.

After the success of the 1936 season, Kodak was riding high and fielded two teams for the 1937 season, with its second-string team playing in a re-worked Metropolitan League, while its first team entered a new, top-tier amateur league, the London Senior Baseball League.

Our hard ball team, with their good play, have secured an entry into the London Senior League, and will meet competitors such as No-Varys, Josephians, De Haviland, Philco, Brigands, and Hackney, and we shall doubtless give our supporters a higher class of game and many thrills.[55]

The Philco Radio company baseball section was also to furnish the Kodak Aces women’s team with another team to prove their mettle against.[56]

The season opened on May 1st with a representative girls’ team meeting the Philco girls, and our team certainly showed that they had not neglected to keep themselves in top-top form, as the score of 33–8 proved.[57]

However, the most high-profile game that the Aces would play in the 1937 season would be against the West Ham Hammerettes, the women’s baseball team affiliated with professional club West Ham in the NBA’s London Major Baseball League. The write-up of this game, played at West Ham stadium, was to furnish the only full account in the British press of an interwar women’s baseball game under the American code that I know of. The Aces won that game, but lost a return match at Harrow the following season.[58]

Arguably, the most remarkable thing about the 1937 season, unquestionably the busiest of the Kodak baseball section so far, was how little reported it was in the Bulletin. From the summer of 1929 through to the spring of 1937, the baseball section had sent in reports to the Bulletin on an almost monthly basis; however, the 1937–1938 edition of the Bulletin, which covered the 1937 baseball season, contained only three reports: an account of the opening day, a mid-season summary, and an end-of-season wrap-up. Was this perhaps a measure of just how busy the section now was? Or, perhaps, now that most games took place off-site against non-Kodak teams, it was felt that this was something for the local press to cover, not the Kodak staff Bulletin? (If it was the latter, this was to be a forlorn hope, as the British press, even at a local level, continued to largely ignore the ‘American game’.)

Alas, what the Bulletin had to report was that Kodak had overstretched itself trying to run two hardball teams.

Since the last notes appeared, the baseball section has been making considerable headway in their fixtures; some twelve matches have been played since the beginning of June, Kodak winning five. We were unfortunate to lose by only one run against the Pirates, the final score being 22–23. Two friendly games resulted in a victory and a defeat, for we again lost to the Pirates by 7–11 while the senior team defeated Hackney 22–8.

The match against the Kingsbury Cubs in the Metropolitan League proved exciting in the first four innings, then the Cubs drew ahead, the final score being 9–4 in their favour. However, the new members of the section showed what they could do against one of the oldest teams in the League.

Another defeat, 5–17, was registered when we met the Old Josephians, our new members not yet being quite strong enough to hold their own.[59]

Kodak would not carry home any trophies for the 1937 season. Realising its error, the section returned to running only one hardball team, which it entered in the second-tier amateur Metropolitan League for the 1938 season. By this time, the wheels had begun to come off the NBA’s attempts to popularise professional American baseball in England: the London professional league had ended after only two seasons, while the Yorkshire and Lancashire leagues merged and went semi-professional to survive. This made the amateur London Senior League the ‘top-tier’league in London; it even included one of the former professional teams, the Romford Wasps, who would go in the league, although in a hotly contested fight with De Haviland Comets.[60]

It is worth mentioning here of interest to us in this series, that 1938 was the year that Thames Board Mills entered the London leagues for the first time; and it was joined in the East London League by Mansfield House­—marking the re-emergence onto the baseball scene of the Fairbourn House University Settlement, whom we last met back in Part I of this series.[61]

Kodak’s decision, which cannot have been easy, proved the right one, as it went on to win the 1938 Metropolitan League championship and come runner-up in the London Cup, losing out in the latter to the De Haviland Comets, the runners-up in the Senior League.[62]

Towards the Close of a very successful season, we had two exciting matches to play before determining our final position in the Metropolitan Baseball League. On Saturday August 24th, we defeated St. Patrick’s Nationals 11–6 after many thrills, and on Sunday we had a few shocks, but settled down to win 17–9 runs against Kingsbury Cubs.

By winning these two matches our team became champions of the above League ; this is the second time in three years that they have secured this honour, a very fine performance in face of the opposition met. Before the season closes, the team has a very strenuous match to play against a Senior League side for the London Baseball Cup. This fixture will take place against De Havilland’s Comets on September 25th, and we hope to have the support of a good number of followers for this ball game.[63]

Once again, the Bulletin would only feature three reports of this season. However, given its success in the 1938 season, it looked forward to the 1939 with a renewed sense of purpose.

A junior team is to be formed for 1939, and Mr. Teddy Lynch is prepared to give talks and instructions, starting in January, and then members will be ready to start playing in spring; once the details of the game are mastered the keenness becomes infectious.

It’s a man’s game that keeps the mind alert and develops the spirits of a sportsman. Oh, boy! The excitement’s great.[64]

September 3rd 1939, the day that war was declared, was the day that the final of the 1939 Metropolitan League Pennant was due to be played, with Kodak in contention.[65] It wasn’t to be. A day earlier, Ted Lynch and his wife, Lucy, had returned to Britain from a visit to Toronto to see their adult children. Ted Lynch would return to Canada permanently in August1941.[66] His last duties as founder, manager, and coach for the Kodak Harrow Works’ baseball section, was to coach a Kodak team in a series of friendly games against the Canadian Army and a team formed of members of the American Eagle Squadron on the RAF in the early summer of 1941.[67] These would also be the last baseball games at Kodak before the return of peace.

A year before those final games, many of the employees of the Kodak works had evacuated their children to Canada on board the Duchess of Atholl (the ship, coincidentally, that had brought Ted and Lucy Lynch back to England in 1939).[68] This effort, organised by the Kodak Company, with one of its company doctor’s accompanying the children, included children of some of the baseball section stalwarts, including Charlie Scarff, his successor as secretary of the section, Harry Staples, and Frank Russell.[69]

The children would return at war’s end. Frank Russell and Harry Staples’ sons, Stan and Peter, having spent their formative years in the US, would go on to lead the revived Kodak team to victory in the 1950s and earn their England caps in 1961.[70]

But that is a story for someone else to tell.

Jamie Barras, October 2025

 Back to Health, Friendship, and Baseball

Notes

[1] Both the British Library and the Harrow Local History Collection hold complete runs of Kodak UK’s Kodak Works’ Bulletin 1919–1946. In the case of the British Library, this is part of their Kodak Historical Archive holdings: Limited, Kodak, Kodak Historical Archive, 1885-1980. British Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. GB 59 KODAK. The Bulletin can be viewed by requesting its using its box number: Kodak A2870. A searchable listing of the archive contents can be found at Archive Hub: Description of 'Limited, Kodak, Kodak Historical Archive, 1885-1980. British Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. GB 59 KODAK' on the Archives Hub website, [http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb59-kodak], (date accessed :12/10/2025). Alas, there is insufficient detail in the descriptions to know if the holdings include more material on the baseball section.

[2] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 62.

[3] Wray Vamplew, Sport, industry and industrial sport in Britain before 1914: review and revision, Sport in Society, 2014, 19:3, 340-355, DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2015.1057942.

[4] Mike Brooke, ‘Historic Kodak factory reborn as the Eastman Village’, Harrow Observer, 9 August 2025; Seamus Donaghy, ‘The history of the Kodak factory in Harrow – from film rolls to flat whites’, Harrow Online, https://harrowonline.org/2025/06/01/the-history-of-the-kodak-factory-in-harrow-from-film-rolls-to-flat-whites/, accessed 12 October 2025.

[5] See Note 2 above.

[6] Biographical Information for Ted Lynch from ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (Operations), accessed 16 December 2024. Ted Lynch, birth year and job at Kodak Harrow: 1939 England and Wales Register, Harrow, and UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, SS Empress of Britain, 22 July 1939; Lynch’s job at Kodak Heights: entry for E. Lynch, 1921 Census of Canada, Toronto Ward 5.

[7] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 10, 1929–1930, 250.

[8] Biographical information on Ed and Sid Jackson: ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com Inc. (Operations), accessed 8 October 2025. Entry for Edward H. and Sidney W. Jackson, passenger lists, Mont Royal, arrived Southampton, 9 June 1927, UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, entry for Edward H. Jackson, 1939 England Register, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com Inc. (Operations), accessed 8 October 2025; years of dearth: Births, Marriages, and Deaths, search, https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl, accessed 8 October 2025. Biographical information on Charles Scarff: entry for Charles Sidney Scarff, family tree, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com Inc. (Operations), accessed 8 October 2025. For Swann as another Canadian, see: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 13, 1931–1932, 137.

[9] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 250.

[10] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 135.

[11] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 85.

[12] https://www.ishilearn.com/diamond-lives-typists-factory-girls-and-clerks, accessed 12 October 2025.

[13] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 96.

[14] Andrew Taylor of the Folkestone Baseball Chronicle Facebook page has written extensively about the AABA. https://www.facebook.com/FolkestoneBaseball/, accessed 12 October 2025.

[15] Firestone is named as London American opponents in: ‘Baseball in London’, London Daily Chronicle, 3 June 1929; Goodyear can be inferred as opponents from the reference to the ‘Akron, Ohio’ (Goodyear’s US base) team in: ‘Baseball Gets a Start, London Daily Chronicle, 20 May 1929. Note that Firestone was based in Cleveland, Ohio, something referenced in the report. We can imply that the Firestone team at least was formed of US engineers on temporary secondment by tracing the movements of John Walter Kiracofe, who played for the Firestone team: ‘Londoners See A Baseball Match’, Daily Express, 27 May 1929. Kiracofe arrived in England along with a number of other Firesone employees on 6 October 1928, on board the America, UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960, accessed 9 October 2025. Coincidentally (or perhaps not) the Rhodes Scholars who played for the London Americans in the game against Firestone arrived on the same ship. Kiracofe specialised in setting up new Firestone plants, sometimes hazardous job: ‘Revolt Perils 10 Akronites’, Akron Beacon Journal, 9 October 1934.

[16] ‘Baseball, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 3.

[17] See Note 10 above.

[18] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 96.

[19] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 11, 1929–1930, 96.

[20] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187441582/gemma-burkill, accessed 12 October 2025.

[21] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 258.

[22] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 35.

[23] See Note 22 above.

[24] https://www.wbsc.org/en/news/british-baseball-hall-of-fame-announces-class-of-2023, accessed 12 October 2025.

[25] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 62.

[26] I cover this game, its reporting, and its context in terms of Muirhead’s fondness for publicity in my piece on the Hawkeye: Note 12 above. The newsreel footage survives: https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/241284/ , accessed 29 March 2025.

[27] ‘“Spades” At Baseball’, The Era, 6 August 1930. A game between the London Americans and a team of African American variety artists. The shockingly racist headline is a reference to the name of one of the shows in which the variety artists were appearing (‘Spades are Trumps’).

[28] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 114.

[29] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 12, 1930–1931, 62.

[30] Details of Eileen O’Connell’s early life and her aunt and uncle’s employment by Kodak can be gleaned from the 1921 England Census, entry for Eileen O’Connell, Wealdstone district, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (Operations), accessed 9 October 2025. Eileen O’Connell and Gemma Gregory in Kodak Athletic Club, takng part in 100-yard dash: ‘Gas Light Company’s Sports’, Middlesex County Times, 23 June 1934.

[31] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 13, 1931–1932, 38, 39.

[32] https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/British_Celanese, accessed 12 October 2025.

[33] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 13, 1931–1932, 58, 76, 82, 83.

[34] ‘He Won Girls’ Baseball!’, Daily Herald, 27 August 1931. The game was reported with remarkably little fanfare in the Bulletin: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 13, 1931–1932, 122.

[35] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 13, 1931–1932, 137.

[36] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 18.

[37] I cover the story of Moores’ conversion from ambassador for the English game to evangelist for the American game here: https://www.ishilearn.com/diamond-lives-versions, accessed 13 October 2025.

[38] https://www.ishilearn.com/diamond-lives-health-friendship-and-baseball-part-iv, accessed 13 October 2025.

[39] West and East London leagues: ‘London’s League Baseball’, Evening News (London), 23 May 1935; ‘Baseball: East London League’, Sunday Express, 19 May 1935.

[40] Briggs Motor Bodies: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Briggs_Motor_Bodies, accessed 13 October 2025. Briggs and Ford in East London league: see Note 39 above, second reference.

[41] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 57.

[42] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 75.

[43] Mid-table finish: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 92. Metropolitan League 1936: ‘Fourteen Amateur Clubs Seeking Baseball Fame’, Daily Express, 5 May 1936.

[44] See Note 43 above, first reference.

[45] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 110.

[46] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157802029/phyllis-caroline-vant, accessed 13 October 2025.

[47] Ida Johnstone in Kodak A.C.: see Note 30 above, final reference. New opponents: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 17, 1935–1936, 203.

[48] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 18, 1936–1937, 14.

[49] See Note 14 above.

[50] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 18, 1936–1937, 37

[51] Years of birth and death for Nava: search, ‘Louie P. Nava’, Births, Marriages, and Deaths: https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl, accessed 13 October 2025. Parentage: entry for Pasquale Nava, Southwark, 1911 England Census. Presence in Wealdstone: entry for Louie P. Nava, Harrow district, 1939 England Register, ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (Operations), accessed 13 October 2025.

[52] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 18, 1936–1937, 128–129.

[53] See Note 38 above.

[54] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 18, 1936–1937, 75.

[55] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 18, 1936–1937, 221.

[56] https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Philco, accessed 13 October 2025.

[57] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 19, 1937–1938, 7.

[58] West Ham game, 1937: ‘Homer’, ‘Round the Diamond: Kodak’s Win’, West Ham and South Essex Mail, 23 July 1937; ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 19, 1937–1938, 55. Rematch, 1938: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 20, 1938–1939, 16.

[59] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 19, 1937–1938, 55.

[60] Final of the 1938 London Senior League: ‘Baseball Fails To Thrill’, Uxbridge and West Drayton Gazette, 23 September 1938. This article is a classic example of the attitude of some English commentators towards the American game: ‘If baseball has come to this country to stay, the newly-formed Island Vikings have an opportunity to perform a great service—by introducing something a little English into the game’.

[61] ‘London Baseball’, Reynold’s News, 19 June 1938.

[62] The result of the cup match was not reported in the Bulletin directly but can be inferred from the caption accompanying the photograph of the 1938 Kodak team: ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 20, 1938–1939, 153.

[63] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 20, 1938–1939, 86.

[64] ‘Baseball’, Kodak Works’ Bulletin, Volume 20, 1938–1939, 153.

[65] ‘Baseball Team Walk off the Field’,  Daily News (London), 14 August 1939.

[66] Listing for Edward and Lucy Lynch in the passenger list for the SS Duchess of Atholl, which arrived in the UK on 2 September 1939; UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960; listing for Edward Lynch, passenger list, SS Modasa, which left the UK on 25 August 1941; UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, accessed at ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (Operations), on 13 October 2025.

[67] ‘Baseball’, Harrow Observer, 30 May 1941; ‘Baseball’, Harrow Observer, 11 July 1941; ‘Canadian Visitors’, Harrow Observer, 18 July 1941.

[68] https://www.johndreid.com/ww2-british-child-evacuees-to-canada/, accessed 13 October 2025.

[69] The Staple, Scarff, and Russell children can be found under the heading ‘Children’s Overseas Party’, in the passenger lists for the Duchess of Atholl, departing Liverpool, 17 August 1940, UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, accessed at ancestry.co.uk, Ancestry.com (Operations), on 13 October 2025.

[70] ‘Baseball Internationals’, Harrow Observer, 27 July 1961.