The following is reproduced by kind permission of J D Gordon.
The Reverend James E Pease
The Kildalton Challenge Cross
The Kildalton Challenge Cross was presented to the Islay Golf Club by Mrs Lucy Ramsay in 1900 to replace the Lagavulin Quaich. It was a Silver Celtic Cross and though presented to the winner of the tournament, it could not be won outright. It would remain the property of the Islay Golf Club. The winner would receive a small silver replica. The Lagavulin Quaich had been won for the third time by Mr Charles Cameron in 1899 and as was traditional the Quaich was therefore his to keep. Mrs Ramsay’s Trophy was a replica of a Silver Celtic cross presented in 1882 to her husband, John Ramsay of Kildalton, by the Antiquarian Society of Scotland in recognition of the work that he had done to preserve the Celtic cross at Kildalton church which dates from AD 800. In 1968 the Kildalton Challenge Cross was stolen from the Trophy Cabinet in the Machrie Hotel and has never been recovered. However Mrs Margaret Paterson, a member of the Soutter family who have been associated with the Islay Golf Club since 1915, arranged with the Ramsay family to have another Cross replicated, and in 1970 donated a new Kildalton Challenge Cross to the Islay Golf Club.
In 1900 the Reverend James Ernest Pease became the first winner of the Kildalton Challenge Cross. The Rev. Pease was a vicar from Norfolk and he was a very fine golfer. He was born in Beverley in Yorkshire on 2 1st February 1869 and his father was a vicar in nearby Routh. He went to school at Malvern College in Worcester and from there to University at Pembroke College Cambridge where he studied theology. He graduated with a BA in 1891 and was ordained Deacon in Norwich in 1893. Then in 1894 he became a priest. His first appointment was as a curate at Hevingharn in Norfolk where he served from 1893 until 1906 when he was appointed Vicar of Haveringland & Rector of Brandiston, near Scarborough in Yorkshire. It was here that he met his wife and was married on June 24th 1914 to Janet Little. They had one son. In 1916 he returned to Norfolk when he was appointed Rector of Heydon and Vicar of Guestwick, where he served until his death on December 19th 1926, at the age of 57. It is likely that James Pease learned to play golf while at school at Malvern College as the Worcestershire Golf Club had been established on the common alongside the college in 1879. At Cambridge he was awarded his Blue for golf, playing in the Varsity match against Oxford in 1892 at Royal Wimbledon, which Cambridge won, 12 holes up. While at University, and before he was ordained he played golf at the Beverley & East Riding club in Yorkshire and amongst other competitions, he won the Fraser Medal five times in a row. When he moved to Norfolk, Pease was to become a member, at various times, of Royal Norfolk, Royal Cromer, Blickling, Sherringham and Great Yarmouth golf clubs. He won the Norfolk Amateur Championship at Royal West Norfolk in 1897. In 1899 he was made Captain of Royal Norwich Golf Club, where his handicap in 1902 of +2 remains to date the lowest handicap held by a member. The following year at Royal Cromer his handicap was +3 and in 1906 his handicap is on record at Great Yarmouth Golf club as being +4. During the period at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century he was to win numerous golf competitions in Norfolk.
Golf Illustrated 27th July 1900
ISLAY GOLF CLUB
A TOURNAMENT for the KILDALTON CHALLENGE CROSS — open to members of the club will take place on Machrie Links. Commencing at 10.am. On 8th August. All entries with note of handicap must be received before 6 p.m. on 7th August. Maximum Handicap 18 strokes or 9 holes
Peter Reid. Secretary.
In it’s first year 26 golfers entered the Kildalton Challenge Cross; and at the end of the second days play 3 golfers were left. This was because halved matches after 18 holes went through to the next round, making the mathematics more difficult than today. The Rev. Pease received a bye into the final where his opponent was a Mr J Melville who had defeated Mr R Ketton in the semi-final. According to the report of the proceedings in the Oban Times of 18th August 1900 the final was a bit one sided. ‘Mr Melville went to pieces and the Reverend Pease won comfortably 5 holes up’. The edition of Golf Illustrated of 14th August 1900 had reported ‘The Rev. Pease has been carrying all before him at Machrie Islay. He has the advantage in being familiar with Mount Zion’. (Mount Zion was the name of the third hole at Machrie).
It may be that the Rev. Pease came to Islay in 1900 having seen the advertisement which the Islay Golf Club had placed in Golf Illustrated, or had seen one of the articles in Golf or the Golfing Annual about the course at Machrie. However he and his friend Robert Ketton, who had lost in the semi-final, were both very keen on fishing and shooting, and this may have been the main reason for their visit to Islay. It would certainly explain why future visits never managed to coincide with the playing of the Kildalton Challenge Cross.
The records show that the Rev. Pease came to Islay on four occasions. In 1900 he was also present at the clubs AGM, as was his friend Robert Ketton and on the 4th of August he won the Silver Match box donated by Miss Ramsay of Cairnmore with a score of 86. In 1901 he was back on Islay attending the clubs AGM on 10th July. However he did not play in the Cross that year. He was back again in 1902 winning the July medal with a score of 79. In 1903 he missed out on his trip to Islay because he was on a four-month trip to Newfoundland. However, he was back in 1904 attending the clubs AGM on the 13th July. This seems to have been his last visit to Islay as no further trace can be found of him in the records.
Robert Ketton accompanied Pease on all his trips to Islay. Ketton was a wealthy Victorian landowner who lived at Felbrigg Hall, which is some 15 miles north of Norfolk. He was a founder member of Royal Cromer Golf Club and was their Captain in 1889 & 1890, and also Sherringham Golf Club, being their Captain in 1895 and 1900. In 1900 he had a handicap of 9 and he also took part in the first Kildalton Challenge Cross and had been runner up to Pease for Miss Ramsay’s Silver Matchbox. Pease had been to New Zealand to visit his brothers in 1896, so a trip to Islay was unlikely to be a daunting prospect! In fact, the rail network in Britain was very good and from Glasgow Central station the 8.30am train to Gourock connected with the steamer The SS Columba, bound for East Loch Tarbert. This arrived at noon and a coach connected with the SS Glencoe at West Loch Tarbert. This steamer arrived in Islay in the late afternoon, some four hours later. However by 1904 his friend Robert Ketton was increasingly becoming a recluse on his estate in Norfolk and may well have been unprepared to return to Islay. This would also tie in with Pease’s impending promotion from curate to vicar when presumably more time had to be spent on religious matters rather than on the golf course. After he moved to Yorkshire, there is little further mention of Pease in the competition results at the various clubs at which he was a member.
By winning the ‘Cross’ in 1900 the Rev. Pease was to set a trend and was to typify many of the other competitors in the ensuing years. Undoubtedly he was as a very fine golfer, and it seems entirely fitting that the first winner of the Kildalton Cross should have been a golfer of the calibre of the Reverend James Pease.
| Competition Results | Rev. J E Pease | |
| 1891 | Fraser Medal October | Beverley |
| 1892 | Fraser Medal April & October | Beverley |
| 1893 | Fraser Medal April & October | Beverley |
| 1895 | Scratch Prize | Sherringharn |
| Easter Aggregate | Sherringham | |
| 1897 | Norfolk Amateur Championship | Royal West Norfolk |
| Colman Cup | Royal Norwich | |
| 1898 | Midsummer Gold Medal | Royal Norwich |
| Scratch Record Medal | Royal Norwich | |
| Hughes Silver Iron Medal | Great Yarmouth | |
| Challenge Medal | Great Yarmouth | |
| 1899 | Scratch Record Medal | Royal Norwich |
| Tradesmen Challenge Medal | Sherringharn | |
| Stopford Gold Medal | Sherringham | |
| 1900 | Silver Match Box | Islay |
| Kildalton Challenge Cross | Islay | |
| Blackheath Medal | Great Yarmouth | |
| 1901 | Stopford Gold Medal | Sherringham |
| Autumn Aggregate prize | Sherringham | |
| 1902 | Challenge Cup | Sherringham |
| John Scott Scratch Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| April Handicap Cup | Royal Cromer | |
| Beecher Bogey Cup Silver Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| July Medal | Islay | |
| 1904 | John Scott Scratch Medal | Royal Cromer |
| Bond Cappell. Cup Silver Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| Suffield Cup | Royal Cromer | |
| Whitsun Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| November Medal Silver Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| 1905 | Captains Prize | Royal Cromer |
| November Medal | Royal Cromer | |
| Blackheath Medal | Great Yarmouth | |
| 1906 | John Scott Scratch Medal | Royal Cromer |
| Hughes Silver Iron | Great Yarmouth | |
| 1907 | John Scott Scratch Medal | Royal Cromer |
| Gillman Cup | Royal Norwich | |
| Scratch Record Medal | Royal Norwich |
| Course records | Rev. James E Pease. | |
| Beverley & East Riding | 78 | 24/9/1892 |
| Blickling Golf Club | 83 | 24/1/1895 |
| Royal Norfolk | 76 | 20/9/1898 |
| Royal Cromer | 70 | 1906 |
| Great Yarmouth Golf Club | 73 | 1906 |
Produced for the Centenary of the Kildalton Challenge Cross, By John D Gordon
The author wishes to thank. all those who made this publication possible, in particular Dr John Pease, Doug Bludden & Roger Trower.
Copyright c John D Gordon Copyright, Designs and Patents acts 1988 All rights reserved