Birmingham Charity Cup

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham's Charity Cup, commonly referred to as the Birmingham Charity Cup, was a football competition for teams from Birmingham and the surrounding area.

History

It was inaugurated in 1882 by Joseph Cofield, a player with St George's and the secretary of the Birmingham and District Football Association, who had been voted a benefice of £30 by the association; Cofield promptly pledged it as the starting fund for a new trophy, to be played for charity. The trophy was duly presented by the city's mayor, Richard Chamberlain, to Aston Villa as the first winner of the competition in the 1881-82 season, defeating Walsall Swifts 4–1. From 1910 onwards, the preliminary rounds were scrapped and the final became an invitation match. Other than during the First World War, the competition took place every year until 1939 with the exception of the 1925-26 season, when it was abandoned due to the General Strike. It fluctuated between being contested at the start and the end of the football season.
The competition was discontinued after the Second World War, other than on two occasions in the 1960s when the youth teams of Aston Villa and Birmingham City competed for the trophy. After this, the competition was discontinued altogether and the trophy itself used for the Birmingham Senior Amateur Cup competition.

Trophy

The trophy was made by Birmingham silversmith William Spurrer, and contained 14lbs of silver. It was surmounted by a figure of a footballer and bore shields engraved with the initials of Chamberlain and the members of the Birmingham County Football Association's committee at the time of the competition's inauguration, the city's coat of arms, and representations of its main industries. The main bowl of the trophy featured two engraved drawings, one of an 1880s football match, complete with top-hatted umpire, and one of "the poor and sick succoured by the heavenly spirit". The plinth had a number of shields engraved with the names of the winning teams, although for unknown reasons some were missing.

Winners

were the most successful team in the competition's history, winning it on thirty occasions outright and sharing the trophy five times. The club's youth team also jointly won the trophy twice when it was briefly revived in the 1960s as a youth competition.