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Inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 1950. Born in London on March
5th 1876, Bethune Minet ‘Peter’ Patton holds the
distinction of introducing ice hockey to Britain and as a pioneering
founder, in spreading the sport into mainland Europe. Educated at public
schools in Winchester and Wellington, it is believed he learnt to skate
on winter sports holidays in Switzerland. Patton started a form of
hockey early in 1897, a few months after the 210 x 52 foot pad opened at
the Princes Ice Rink in London’s fashionable Knightsbridge district.
In 1902, with the assistance of Canadians resident in London, Patton
helped to establish a more recognisable version of hockey, using a puck
instead of a ball and long flat bladed sticks. A year later, he acted as
President to a five-team league, the first in either Britain or Europe.
This game, the first real ice hockey in Europe, he subsequently
introduced on the continent, with the first match in Lyons on January 25th
1904, where Princes defeated the local team 2-0. He captained Princes in
the first European tournament in Berlin in October 1908, a role he was
to carry out again as the club was victorious in representing Great
Britain at the first European championships, two years later. Patton
also served as captain to the England team in the first of the annual
England versus Scotland clashes. Peter Patton led Princes in countless
European tournaments, either side of WW1, including a runner-up place in
the third LIHG championship held 1913 in St.Moritz. Instrumental in the
formation of the world governing body in 1908, the LIHG (now IIHF),
Peter Patton served as vice president in between 1910/11, 1913/13 and
again in 1923/24, as well as a brief spell as President in 1914. The
founding President of the BIHA in 1914, he held the post until 1934. By the time the 1924
Olympics came round, Peter Patton had bowed slightly to the march of
time, leaving his normal defensive position to become a netminder and
acted as the reserve goalie for the GB squad. He was to be the only
native born member of the Great Britain team defeated 14-1 by the
Montreal Victories in London in January 1927, the first visiting
Canadian team to come to Britain after WW1. The son of a
Brigadier-General and a soldier by profession serving in the 3rd
Somerset Regiment, he rose to the rank of Major with attachments to the
RASC. He saw duty in France from September 1914 to May 1916, and then
with the Serbian Army he was awarded their Order of the White Eagle. On
returning home in July 1919, Peter Patton worked at historical records
of motor units attached to the Serbs, retiring from the army in 1921. April 4th
1930 saw his final appearance for England, aged 54 in a 2-2 draw with
France at the Golders Green rink in London. A year later on October 13th,
he finally hung up his skates and goalie pads following a 4-0 defeat for
London in Paris. Elected vice president
of both Streatham and then Wembley in 1934, and President of the
short-lived Public Schools IHC, he presented trophies in his name for
the newly instigated English National League and for the annual
competition between Oxford and Cambridge universities. His book, Ice Hockey,
which chronicled the early years of the sport in Britain appeared in
October 1936. Away from ice hockey,
Peter Patton also won prizes for ice dancing and over 300 awards for
canoeing and punting during a twenty-year period, mainly on the River
Thames at Cookham where he resided for many years. He was also a keen
skier and one of the founder members of the International Bobsleigh
Association in 1923. For his ground-breaking
role in the development of ice hockey in Britain, his years as a
defenceman and a netminder, and his all-round service to the sport on an
international front, Bethune Minet ‘Peter’ Patton was inducted into
the Hall of Fame in 1950, eleven years after his death in 1939 in
Tiverton, Devon. Compiled with research, provided by |
