Title:
Russell Cup
Inscription
Chief Local Representative's Golf Cup
Presented by J.M. Russell
First presented:
1935 (probable) - 1940 (known)
Last presented: (Current)
 
See photo:
 
 
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History

Note:


There are seven parts to this story!
  1. What was the "Chief Local Representative"?
  2. Who was J.M. Russell and when did he arrive in Bahrain?
  3. When did J.M. Russell leave Bahrain?
  4. What was J.M. Russell's golfing history in Bahrain? Where was the Russell Cup first played?
  5. What was format of the competition?
  6. Who was "Tough Russell"? - he who confuses things.
  7. We may be older than we thought!

Initial research for this page was performed by the Club's historian during November 2015, which resulted in a clubhouse wall display for the Russell Cup & Memorial Trophy competitions held on 4th/5th December 2015. This then became an article in the Opens Programme for March 2016. The main source of information for the article was Wikipedia (for the older historic content), the Archives of the India Office (online since 2014 at the Qatar Digital Library, www.qdl.qa), and the Diaries.
1. What was "The Chief Local Representative"?

Noting the inscription on the Cup, a www search revealed (in 2008) some informative details from the Saudi Aramco website (www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196801):
[The British Colonial Office stipulated that] ...The company developing Bahrain must be a British company ... and the company must maintain on Bahrain Island a Chief Local Representative whose appointment must be approved by the British Government, and who must, in all his dealings with the Sheik of Bahrain, work through the British Political Agent.

The British Political Agent represented the British Government in Bahrain, and reported to the imperial administrations in India and ultimately to The India Office in London. Bapco was established on the 1st August 1930, and Major Frank Holmes was appointed as its first Chief Local Representative. J.M. Russell was a subsequent Chief Local Representative.

The following is a list of the appointments to the post of Chief Local Representative (as found from documents located within www.qdl.qa):
This list is shown in full as there are two other CLRs, in addition to J.M. Russell, who are of relevance to the Awali Golf Club:
2. Who was J.M. Russell and when did he arrive in Bahrain?

The Mesopotamia Persia Corporation Limited (MesPers) was a shipping company that handled much of the ship cargo landing at the wharf at Manama, their premises initially on the sea shore next to the pier where ships docked. MesPers seems to have had a social club with catering facilities, and the expatriate elite apparently being invited to its premises. Charles Belgrave visited several times, both to play tennis there and to dine.

The Diaries reference Russell's arrival:
(22nd March 1931) Walker is very ill again and at last he has asked to be relieved, a man called Russell from Bundar Abbas is coming to act for him but I think only for the time being, he has a wife who is the daughter of an Austrian General who lived many years in Persia.

The Diaries also provides some more gossip, but on J.M. Russell's wife:
(25th March 1931) ... They were talking about the new people coming to Mespers, she, the daughter of an Austrian general who used to be Financial Adviser to Persia before the War, they had a great deal of money and lived in some state in Teheran entertaining all the Diplomatic people, but the father died lately leaving no money and only debts so she married this man in Mespers, she is quite nice according to what people say, probably much better class than the ordinary run of Mespers wives, their name is Russell.

Similarly, Russell's arrival in Bahrain is recorded in the British Political Agency's Administration Report for 1931. It highlights that Russell replaced P.W.B. Walker of the Mesopotamia Persia Corporation Limited, arriving from Bundar Abbas in April 1931 [source] - becoming the company's Manager based in their Manama office.
3. When did J.M. Russell leave Bahrain?

In the Diaries, there are several entries about J.M. Russell, the last of which refers to Russell's departure from Bahrain.
(31st March 1935) Called to say goodbye to Russell & found all the airways passengers there as the machine had turned back owing to the wind, among them Lord Long, a pleasant young man en route for India. Russell came in to see us later on.
So J.M. Russell held charge of the Bahrain Branch of Mesopotamia-Persia Corporation Limited until the 31st March 1935, when he "proceeded on leave", relieved by G.W.R. Smith, who also became the Chief Local Representative. Thereafter, within the Archives of the India Office, there are no further letters written by J.M. Russell as the Chief Local Representative, only those including the name of his successor G.W.R. Smith.

Finally, to nail down the answer to the question "when did J.M. Russell leave Bahrain?", this confirmation [Source] of April 1935, written in 1948, was discovered in August 2020.

We also know where Russell was employed in 1937: the "Administration Report of the Persian Gulf for the Year 1937" by the Political Resident based in Bushire, Iran, for the year 1937 [Source] includes:
"The Mesopotamia-Iran Corporation Limited. - This Company was reformed during the year under the name Gray, Mackenzie and Company, Limited. For the first part of the year, Mr. J.M. Russell was the Company's Agent, and for the remainder, Mr. S. W. Gregor".
4. What was J.M. Russell's golfing history in Bahrain? Where was the Russell Cup first played?

From the Diaries, the earliest entry with specific golfing relevance (to Russell) is that of
(10th September 1933) "Motored out in the afternoon, with M, to look for sites for a new golf course. Went to various places, about four cars full of people, & eventually settled on a site on Budeya Road. Russell was the only one against it. We went round to Mespers later".
From this we deduce that Russell (of MesPers) was not only interested and played golf but, as Belgrave considered his opinion worthy of consideration, also may have been a committee member of the Manama Golf Club too.

We know that golf was being organised and played by Bapco workers in the vicinity of Jebel Dukhan at the end of 1933. However, we have no competition records, and only have hearsay claims that it was 3,4,5 or 6 holes - not a complete course. It seems very unlikely that the Russell Cup would have been played for at the Jebel course.

Bapco made the land reservation request for the Awali Township [source] permanent camp on February 7th 1934. The reservation documents included a map [source] that showed a nine-hole course laid out between the upper camp (with the first tee near the Al Dar Guest House), and proceeding in a clockwise direction with the furthest hole near the Manama Road gate.

On 11th Feb 1934, the Political Agent forwarded this request to his superior, the Political Resident [source] in Bushire. The text contained a noteworthy entry:
"Work on quarters there has actually begun".
Thus, it is highly likely that this Awali Township nine-hole course was complete and available for use at the beginning of the 1934/35 season (September 1934).

The vast majority of the AGC's trophies have been donated on the final departure of the person from Bahrain, or as a memorial to a recent death. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that Russell donated his trophy just prior to his departure at the beginning of April 1935. It is possible that the Russell Cup was first played for in April 1935, or almost certainly within the 1935/36 season. In both cases, it was a competition almost certainly played on the Awali Township course.

Unfortunately, we have no records of actual competitions played at the Awali Township course, which was abandoned towards the end of 1936 due to extra land needed for accommodation, with our current course formally opened on 4th January 1937.
5. What was format of the competition?

The Russell Cup has had a variety of formats over its history. Our earliest trophy photo (see below) is accompanied by a caption that states "Russel Cup. Golf-Match Play All Handicaps". This implies that the Russell Cup, in 1947 was awarded to a match play competition and that, as "All Handicaps" were invited, the competition was handicapped and open to both Ladies and Gents.

However, entries within the Bahrain Islander, from 1958, show that it was no longer a match play competittion. Here are the entries found within the Bahrain Islander regarding the Russell Cup:
The Bahrain Islander entries of 13th/20th February, 1958 show that a qualifying round was held first, then the two finalists played 36 holes the following week, with aggregate net scores deciding the winner. This format was used again in the following 1958/59 season. We do not know when the competition changed from handicapped match play to qualifying/36 holes net stroke play.

The entry of 14th October 1959, for the 1959/60 season, shows another change: the competition has changed to an equivalent of our current McGregor Award, with best four aggregate gross scores from five qualifying competitions.

Although the winning names for the Russell Cup results for seasons 1960/61 to 1963/64. are known, the matching scores are not. However, the scores for the competition of the 1964/65 season are known and are aggregate gross scores over 36 holes: this format has been used ever since.
5. Who was "Tough Russell"? - he who confuses things?

Unfortunately, Belgrave thought it bad form to make reference to a person's given names. This has caused confusion, as there is another "Russell" of relevance to us in the 1930s: there is a later entry in the Diaries that is perplexing, making a reference to a subsequent "Russell":
(27th June 1939) "Dined with Thornburgs to meet Russell - an oil magnate - tough business man type".

Research in 2020 revealed that this "Tough Russell" was an American and colleague of Max Thornburg, the Vice-President of Bapco. This reference from AramcoWorld of February 1969 includes: "...as the Socal dignitaries - A.S. Russell, a director, plus..." within text relating to April 1939, while this reference (December 1941) confirms A.S. Russell as one the most senior employees within Standard Oil (H.D. Collier was Standard Oil's President).

Unfortunately, a Google search condenses "A.S. Russell" to "as russell" and returns nearly 2 billion hits. However, adding a little guesswork, searching for "Alexander S. Russell narrows it down and hits a bulls-eye, revealing he was Chief Engineer in the Manufacturing Department at Standard Oil of California in 1923, was a Vice-President on his retirement, and died in 1961.

Why do we mention Tough Russell here? For two reasons:

  1. Because of the earliest picture that we still have (right) of the Russell Cup. On close inspection, the three winner name plates are Left side: Date/winner not visible (assume 1940), Centre: P. Holdstock 1941, Right side: A.G. Black 1942. Also, we can estimate the base has space for five winners' name-plates in total. One could suggest that "Tough Russell" is the person who donated the trophy - he is known to have been in Bahrain in 1939 - and the left name plate is for a year that is almost certainly 1940.
  2. The photo (above) is an extract from the Bapco publication 50 years of oil production, a copy of which is held in the reference section of the Awali Library. This book is a photographic record of oil in Bahrain from the 1930s to the 1980s and is believed to have been published in 1981.
       The caption associated with the picture makes the statement
    "Mrs. Skinner who arrived in October, 1931, with Mr. Lowenfels, left, and Mr. Russell, two Bapco oil pioneers, and Major Holmes".
    As the photo bears Major F. Holmes, the photo would have been taken before Holmes final departure from Bahrain 20th September 1933 (as recorded in the Diaries).

When the "We might be older than we thought " article was written (by me for the March 2016 Opens Programme), in retrospect, there was an oversight: that of the words "two oil pioneers" in the caption. As J.M. Russell was clearly not an oil pioneer, the photo is of "Tough" A.S. Russell, visiting Bahrain between October 1931 and September 1933... but not having a reason to visit Belgrave (with Thornburg) until 1939.

In summary, Tough Russell, the oil-pioneer person in the group photo, is a complete red-herring in relation to the Russell Cup: he was simply never the Chief Local Representative.
6. We may be older than we thought!

It is not uncommon to be asked "when did you start?". Currently, we say our date of establishment is 4th January 1937. This date is chosen because it is the date for which there is a known document - the date of the formal opening of our current Rifa'a valley course. However, our start date was not always regarded as 4/1/1937 - the document was only discovered in August 2016. Before that, we used to answer "1938".

However, with the timing of the Awali Township course becoming operational, possibly in early 1934, and the probability of the Russell Cup being played there in April 1935, perhaps there is a valid argument to choose April 1935.

Nevertheless, due to a lack of documentation for an earlier-than-1937 date for a formal event, we have locked in "1/1/37". As a consequence of chosing this date, we received the biggest-ever sponsorship specifically to celebrate our 80th Anniversary year: the King Hamad Festival Of Golf, played on 27th/28th October 2017.