Background
He was the fourth son of Richard Sykes, owner of the Sykes Bleaching Company, and his wife Jane Hardcastle. He was born at Edgeley House, Stockport, Cheshire, and was known as Dick.
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Richard Sykes
Edit ProfileEducation
Rugby School.
Career
He went to Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire where he was Captain of Rugby in 1857. The following extract is from First 125 years Liverpool Football Club Rugby Union 1857-1982 by I R A Daglish. The game was arranged for Saturday the 19th December 1857 on the Liverpool Cricket Ground at Edgehill.
Fifty players arrived and they decided to play Rugby versus the World.
Liverpool club was founded there and then Dick Sykes spent 18 months in Heidelberg, Paris and Geneva.
He returned to England and helped to form the Manchester Football Club in 1860, being the club’s first Captain. He was a partner in a textile firm in Manchester 'Callender, Sykes & Mather" until it failed in 1878.
Then he went to America and over the years acquired considerable land holdings.
He continued to live in England, but made annual trips to the States where he founded and named five North Dakota towns -
Sykeston, after his family
Bowdon, after his hometown
Edgeley, after his birthplace
Chaseley, after the English home of an old friend
Alfred, "because it was a good English name". He introduced rugby football to colleges and universities in the west of America and also introduced golf links to the northwest
They had two sons.
Connections
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Born
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Died
March 31, 1923 (aged 84)