Richard Bonney (footballer)

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Richard Bonney was a Royal Artillery soldier who lived in Portsmouth in the 1890s. In 1894 he helped start an amateur army football team, Royal Artillery (Portsmouth) F.C. He later became a Portsmouth F.C. director and in August 1904 he became the club’s manager, taking over from Bob Blyth.

The peak of his time as manager came in the 1906-07 season with a FA Cup match against Manchester United. A record crowd of 24,329 watched Portsmouth at Fratton Park, where the game finished 2-2 and a replay at Old Trafford followed, which Portsmouth won 2-1.

In the 1910-11 season Portsmouth were relegated to the second division of the Southern League, and Robert Brown from Sheffield Wednesday was brought in as manager. Bonney’s record as manager was 206 games, with 99 wins, 39 draws and 68 losses (about a 48% win rate).