In celebration of Richmond’s 140^th Anniversary this year, we have dug deep into our archives to digitise the earliest surviving Membership Roll at Tigerland.

The list, from 1905, was only ever published in the Annual Report of the year, and took up just a single page, listing the members in columns from “J. Asher” all the way down to “T. Young.”

The list wasn’t properly alphabetised nor were first names even printed – but with the help of Ancestry website, Trove newspapers, Club records, BDM registry and the Sands and Macdougall directory, we have been able to piece together some of the names.

The complete list of some 473 names can be viewed here.

Researching the list has been immense fun, many of the names are the players and officials themselves – J Asher becomes John Asher, the club’s first assistant secretary, and J Charles is James Charles, the founder of the club.

But amongst the names are even more intriguing members, like George H Rothwell, the registrar in Richmond for the births, deaths and marriages, and 22-year-old Frederick Waddilove who enlisted in World War 1 under his brother’s name, and was a Stoker Petty Officer onboard Submarine AE1 when it sank, without a trace, in Papua New Guinea on September 14 1914.  The vessel’s wreck was not discovered until December 2017.

It was the first major loss by Australia in the Great War, and Waddilove is recognised as one of the first Richmond residents to die in the conflict.

1905 was a significant year for the club as it was our first ever senior Premiership.

Who knows, maybe one of your ancestors appear in the membership list.