Rare medal awarded to footballer and politician to be auctioned

The star-shaped medal was awarded to William Clegg when his Sheffield Wednesday side won the Sheffield Association Cup in May 1877 – defeating Heeley by four goals to three.

It was the first trophy ever to be won by the Owls and followed a game played at the city’s Bramall Lane ground in front of 6,000 fans.

A spokesman for Bonhams auctioneers, which will sell the medal on June 1 in Chester, said: “The medal, which was discovered in a box of assorted items brought into the Bonhams’ Exeter office by an unassuming client, has attracted a pre-sale estimate of £1,500 to £2,000.”

Clegg, born in Sheffield in 1852, played for Sheffield Wednesday alongside his brother Charles Clegg.

The pair were the first brothers to both be capped for England and were also the first Owls players to play for their country.

Upon retiring from football through injury, he became president of Sheffield Wednesday and vice president of Sheffield and Hallamshire Football Association and, from 1895, was the leader of the Liberal group on Sheffield City Council.

Clegg became Lord Mayor of Sheffield in 1898 and was knighted eight years later.

He married twice and left a son and a daughter when he died in a Sheffield nursing home in August 1932, aged 80.