The English FA is searching for the living descendants of the founding fathers of football - the eight men who created the rules of the game and the world’s first football association 150 years ago.
Relatively little is known about some of the eight, who met at the Freemasons Tavern in London’s Covent Garden on October 26 1863 to codify the first 13 laws of the game which gave rise to the global spread of the sport.
The FA is searching both within Britain and internationally for their descendants with cultural historian Jane Clayton from the International Football Institute in Lancashire leading the hunt.
The eight men at that first meeting were Ebenezer Cobb Morley (1831-1924), Charles William Alcock (1842-1907), Arthur Pember (1835-1886), Francis Maule Campbell (1843-1920), John Forster Alcock (1841-1910), Herbert Thomas Steward (1839-1915), George Twizell Wawn (1840-1914) and James Turner, whose dates of birth and death are not currently known.
Charles Alcock was the man who created the FA Cup, which began in the 1871-72 season and was based on an old knockout game he had played at Harrow School while Morley was the first secretary of the FA.
Pember, a barrister, was the first president of the FA from 1863-67 before he emigrated to the United States in 1868 and worked as a journalist for the New York Times and wrote a number of travel books before living in Australia and New Zealand.
Living descendants that can be identified and located, will be sent an invitation to a special ceremony at Wembley in October where their ancestors will be honoured.