Did Hockey Really Start in the UK?
Mckenna Schmitt
2025-04-27 13:52:08
Count answers: 4
The sport may have been played in Britain at least 50 years earlier than the first officially recognised match in Canada, where is it now a national sport and general obsession. A recently-discovered letter sent by the famous naturalist in 1853 asks his young son if he has a good pond at school, adding: 'I used to be very fond of playing at Hocky [sic] on the ice in skates'. The evolutionary theorist had himself attended the school as a boarder between 1818 and 1825 himself, and it is thought his reference to enjoying 'hockey on the ice' relates to this time. The letter casts serious doubt on generally accepted Canadian claims that ice hockey was invented in the country in the 1870s and that the first proper match was played in Montreal in 1875.
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