For a good number of years I have been a keen buyer of Worksop College-related items on eBay. I have picked up some quite amazing items over the years, ranging from Worksopian/Cuthbertian magazines of old (now redundant of course due to the digitised versions offered on this website) to slightly more unusual items such as swimming certificates and even an old personal photo album containing pictures of two pet tortoises (!!) – amongst pictures of the College in the 30s and 40s of course.

The most recent addition to my collection was a silver medal awarded to H.J. Henshall for 1st place in the “Inter House Race” in 1926. It’s quite amazing how much money must have been spent on creating these medals; I am sure a number would be awarded each year – the medal is hall-marked and I therefore assume is indeed silver.

But what of H.J. Henshall? Well, it appears that this medal could have been awarded for either winning the open Mile race (5:15.60) or the senior Victor Ludorem (55 points) at the College Sports in 1926. He also won the steeplechase (not a track event as we know it today, but a multi-terrain cross country run; we know another medal exists for this). He was in the lower VIth at the time and couldn’t repeat his victories in 1927 and was beaten in the mile by G. Laing (5:11.50) – N.B. Laing would go onto to become the first Worksop boy to play for the England Public Schools rugby XV and went onto play for Blackheath and captain the Army XV.

After H.J. had left the College we hear briefly of him in 1927 (I assume it’s him and the OW correspondent got sloppy..): “M. Huby (Cross 1916-1924) and J. H. Henshall (Cross 1924-27) are together in Canada, learning farming at Ootsa, British Columbia”.

What happened after his foray to Canada, perhaps we’ll never know – but then again that’s what makes this stuff so interesting. Are there any Henshalls out there who know – only time and the Internet will tell…