BC HISTORY: The Man who Founded BC Soccer Association.
Reverend William Washington Bolton 1858 - 1946
William Washington Bolton (normally known as Rev. W W Bolton) was born in 1858 in Kilburn, London, England and raised in Wimbledon. In 1877 he attended Caius College Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1880 and later received his MA in 1884. He was active in many sports, including soccer, rugby, boxing and represented Cambridge on the track. Bolton was also President of the Cambridge University Athletic Club, and a member of London’s Field Club. While in college, Bolton was ordained an Anglican Minister in 1881, and served as Curate in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire from 1881 to 1884.
Bolton migrated to Victoria in 1887, where he became Rector at St Paul’s in Esquimalt, taught at the church’s school and founded the St. Saviors Parish in Victoria West. In November 1888, Bolton was instrumental in arranging one of BC’s earliest soccer games, between St. Paul’s School and Victoria Rugby Club.
In 1890, Bolton left Victoria to serve as a Minister in San Francisco for eight years, at St. Luke’s and St. Mary Virgin churches. During his time in California, he arranged and took part in two notable expeditions to explore Vancouver Island, travelling by foot and canoe between the northern and southern tips, sponsored by Victoria’s Province newspaper. His exploration papers are in the Royal BC Museum Archives.
In 1898 W W Bolton returned to live in Victoria, teaching at the Collegiate School and was very active in the Victoria sports community. He was President of the Victoria Athletic Association in 1902 and of the Victoria District Association Football League in 1903 and 1904. At that time, soccer in each region of BC was organized independently.
Bolton developed a proposal for a new governing body for the whole sport, the “BC Association Football League”. R W Timms of Vancouver and others were involved, but Bolton was clearly the initiative’s guiding mind. Within a few months he gained broad support and the new Association was founded on December 29th, 1904. This covered the
Lower Mainland, Victoria, Ladysmith, and later the Nanaimo district for senior, intermediate, junior and juvenile play. With hopes that eventually the Interior clubs would also affiliate.
As part of this restructuring, a Vancouver Island FA was also established in December 1904 and since this was before a national soccer body was formed in 1912, Bolton applied to the English FA to affiliate, who advised that the name be changed to the BC Football Association, better reflecting its function as a governing body. Bolton served as the BCFA’s second President in 1905-1906.
Bolton’s attention then seems to have focused on education. He was one of three teachers who founded the University School in Victoria in 1906, serving as its Principal and Warden through to 1920. That's when Bolton left the school, and Victoria, to spend five years in the South Pacific, including as Inspector of Schools in New Zealand, teaching on the small island of Niue and travelling to other South Pacific Islands.
In 1928 Bolton retired from the University School and moved back to the South Pacific. He settled in Tahiti, chronicling island life, and this was where he died in 1946, aged 88.
In the lead up to FIFA World Cup 2026™, BC Soccer and the BC Soccer Heritage & Hall of Fame will be uncovering stories from the individuals and teams that helped develop soccer in British Columbia.
Have a piece of history? Please contact BC Soccer Heritage to help preserve the legacy of those that grew the beautiful game across Beautiful British Columbia.
