About Town Club Chinsurah

Town Club Chinsurah, Bengal’s Oldest Indian Club being started in 1883 held a glorious function of laying the foundation stone of the new premises, under erection , on an enviable site recently purchased on the immediate west of the Western Ground , Chinsurah on Sunday afternoon, in presence of a large and distinguished attendance . Mr. H.P.V Towned, C.I.E., I.C.S., Commissioner of Burdwan Division, presided.

Before the problems and hopes of the club are started it is the club’s duty to provide all with an outline of the historic importance of this town of Chinsurah. Here resided Rishi Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Bhudeb Chandra Mukherjee and Akshoy Chandra Sarkar and D.L Roy, the national play wright. Vir Savarkar had described Chinsurah as ‘Home of Indian’ Nationalism, in that Rishi Bankim composed the immortal national anthem ‘ Vande Mataram’ at his rented house at Burrabazar here. Chinsurah was the cock pit of struggle between the English and the French. The Dutch and the Normans for establishment of a base here in order to establish their own empire in the country. The dutch won the battle and created in the present day maidan area, a fort under the nomenclature of ‘Fort of Gustavas’ after the King of Holland .

Town Club is now an institution. Its genesis is not lost in antiquity of history. Dr. Crawford’s Hooghly District Medical Gazzette enlightens us that Chinsurah at that time had only two named roads: 1) Chowmatha and 2) Kamarpara. The Town Club got its inspiration from the road Chowmatha and the sports pople in this area had named it “Chowmatha club’ in 1879. Chowmatha Club authorities christened it under the nomenclature of Town Club, Chinsurah , four years later in 1883 which saw the birth of Town Club, and saw the death of a world Political figure Karl Marx.

The club was first housed at the residential house of Pal family at Beltala, Chowmatha. It was then shifted in a temporary way to a pavilion on the Chinsurah Maidan but it was set on fire by some unknown elements. The club authorities after this devastation got the well decorated ‘Phoolbagan’ and its big house for using it for club purpose since 1917 as a charitable sympathy from late Ganganarayan Sil and his successor late Kaliprosad Sil.The club members and sympathisers had serious doubts whether in the absence of a permanent residence the club had any hope of further existence. Efforts were mounted up and the site of this present building was purchased from the Mondals. The Divisional Commissioner of Burdwan Division , Mr. H.P.V Towned laid the foundation stone of the building on 2nd April 1939. The opening ceremony was done by Late Maharaja Sashikant Acharjee of Mymensingh on April 24, 1940. Some personalities have to be mentioned here as a part of our duty and they are Late Gourishankar Mukherjhee, Late Baidyanath Mallick, Sri Dinnath Mallick, Late Sitaram De, Sri Ganganarayan Dhar, Sri Surendra Nath Sil, Sri Satish Chandra addya, Sri Kesab Chandra Addya, Sri Dinendra Kumar Mondal and others.

Town Club from the very commencement underlined the necessity of developing the sence of strict discipline amongst the members and advocates. This attitude proved healthy and it is still being maintained. Even I.C.S officers who came to Chinsurah on Official assignment and who wanted to be associated with this club had to apply for admission and these application were disposed of according to the merits of individual applicants. In later years , when the club had developed fairly , late Subal Chandra Pal who heralded the club from march to march and progress to progress was the defacto master of discipline at this institution. The demised of Subal Chandra Pal occurred on the 24th July , 1977 and a public memorial meeting under the chairmanship of Sri Nirmal Kumar Sen condoled his death and decided to name the Hall to be constructed after him in his memory and it was decided to him in a suitable function on December 6, 1980. It is a grievous fact that the State Govt. and the local administration as well, had not helped the construction of this building by any monetary assistance. Mr. H.P.V Townend, the then Commissioner , Burdwan Division, while laying its foundation stone on 2nd April, 1940 expressed his own displeasure that the Government had not come to his institution for extending any such help.

The club was started 134 years ago with the object of playing cricket alone. Therefore , the age of local cricket in this district can be contend back from the year 1883, but this cricket saw a fissure when Mr. Wheerler , professor of Hooghly College, introduced football in chinsurah and this club to meet the ambition of Football , accepted it with reluctance . The club played many football encounters with Army teams from Barrackpore and Calcutta with a satisfactory standard of play. Town Club then began two wings : one for Football and one for Cricket. Town club’s success in Football provided it with an ambition to enter the I.F.A Shield for 7 years from 1905 and lastly in 1917. It created a history in 1905 when unfortunately it went down to Dalhousie in Semi Final who won the I.F.A shield that year.

The Club introduced Rugby at Chinsurah but was not successful for what of enthusiasm in the then sports circle. In 1912, the club introduced Hockey amongst its members and Hockey was taken up by D.S.A in 1919. In the meantime Mr. J.H. Bernard , Commissioner of Burdwan Division and President of the club died and this club introduced a beautiful and big silver cup in his memory as a challenge cup in Football in 1916. Town Club played in the local league which was just started , too well from 1923 onwards. Between 1928 and 1933, the club Cricket team went on tours to Gaya, Benaras, Allahabad, Cuttack, Agra, Delhi, Asansol and Dhanbad even the Maharaja of Viziangram hosted the town club cricket team in his palace ground at Benaras. Town Club’s performance in Cricket received high praise from the Calcutta dailies including the ‘Statesman’ and the ‘Englishman’. Late B.D Chatterjee and Late Biren Ghosh of Town Club, were selected for several years to play for Indian XI with European XI in the annual match in Calcutta. The club had also glorious records in Hockey in the past and still maintain them. It produced many national and international players. Town club introduce something new something innovative in the arena of games. In the year 1985, town club was the pioneer of Cricket Coaching Centre in Chinsurah maidan. And in the year 2014 town club again introduced 1st Chess Academy in the Chinsurah Sib-Division of Hooghly District which has generated a huge response and enthusiasm among the chess loving people.

This is sports and club history in succinct way, as shaped from stage to stage during the past 135 years at chinsurah.