I.E. Snell
Ivan Edward Snell: (Lawyer and Full-back/Striker)
It was Ivan Edward Snell and his Corinthian colleague, Charles Wreyford Brown, who successfully negotiated the end to the ‘Split’ on behalf of the A.F.A and the fact that Ivan had been heavyweight public school boxing champion in 1903, may have had an influence on the settlement! It was Ivan’s comments to the newspapers that opened an avenue of discussion in 1912, when he was quoted as saying, “In the course of time...one of the very finest sporting institutions the world has ever known (Corinthian F.C.) will sink into comparative oblivion, and all because two bodies of men can find no means of compromising on one point of difference.". It was this comment that began the process of reconciliation.
The oldest (30 years old), and most experienced player in the tour party, Ivan had appeared over eighty times for the Casuals and over ninety times for Corinthians. He toured six times with the Corinthians and made a Christmas tour with the Casuals. He played football for Oxford University (with J.C.D Tetley), the Old Carthusians, Middlesex A.F.A. and two appearances for the England A.F.A. team. In 1910, along with C.E. Brisley and J.C.D Tetley, he toured Brazil and it was this tour that inspired the foundation of the Sports Club Corinthian Paulista. In one game, Corinthian won 5-0, with Snell getting four goals. He was a big man and very strong and was equally at home as a striker, full back or in the midfield.
Ivan was the only son of Edward Snell of Natal, born in South Africa but moved to Britain when he was nine years old. He attended Charterhouse and then went up to Christ Church, Oxford. Through his mother’s ancestry was apparently related to Robert the Bruce!
When he returned from the abandoned tour, he was unable to get into any regiment as an officer, so enlisted as a private in the London (London Scottish) Regiment. A month later on September 1st 1914 he was promoted to Second Lieutenant, he became a temporary Lieutenant and was sent to the Front to join the 1st Battalion which was already there. By the October he was at Ypres and spent the next few months in the front line. In January 1916 he was mentioned in dispatches and received the Military Cross. In 1916 he joined the Royal Highlanders, the Black Watch as a staff officer, and in 1918 he was promoted to Brigade Major and then Captain. He remained with the regiment until 1921 when he resigned his commission.
In 1925, on recommendation of the Home Secretary, he was appointed by the King, as one of two Metropolitan Police Magistrates for London, and a year later was fined £4 at Kingston Upon Thames Police Court for speeding on the Portsmouth Road in Cobham, admitting he drove faster than the twenty miles an hour limit (32mph). He asked for five previous offences to be taken into consideration. He held the post of Magistrate for the next 23 years.
He lived in Hayling Island in a large house that he would open to disadvantaged boys. A newspaper report in 1930, stated, “Captain Snell knows that they are not really bad, but most of them are just boys who began badly because they never had a chance. The majority of the ‘holiday makers’ had been reared in slums, some were seeing the sea for the first time in their lives, and they thoroughly enjoyed their fortnight at Hayling. Instead of wandering about the grimy street they played on the clean beach, splashed in the health-giving sea, lived in bathing costumes all day long and were cleansed mentally and physically by the sparking atmosphere and clean sunshine of Hayling. These boys are trying to be good, to forget and live down their unfortunate pasts, and their holiday at Hayling, where they were taught to 'play the game' was a tonic which can do nothing but good.”
His son, Christopher Villiers Ivan Snell, was killed in action in the Second War with the Grenadier Guards in Italy.
Ivan Edward Snell died in August 29, 1958 at the age of 74. His wife, daughter and second son survived him. He was a C.B.E. and an M.V.O.