Alf Chalk was well known in London football circles at the turn of the century. He played for Upton Park between 1893 and 1902, having also played for Ilford, Barking Rovers, Barking Woodville, and Essex County, and was right-half for Upton Park when they won the gold medal in the 1900 Olympics. According to the limited reports which reached London from Paris, Chalk was one of the Olympic side’s outstanding players. He was one of 18 children of a railway station manager and followed in his father’s profession by becoming a railway clerk. Two of his brothers, Fred and Ernest, also played football and the three siblings were in the Barking Woodville side that won the Essex Senior Cup in 1896. Alf had won it the previous year with Upton Park. (Extra information was supplied by Peter Hamersley, Upton Park FC Historian)
Great Britain