Born in Oxford in 1867, Edmund Francis HIND continued the Town club's habit of having a newspaperman as Secretary/Manager, when he was appointed to take over from Gilbert Gillies in January 1900. Hind had lived in the area since 1891, and turns up on the 1901 census as a "Journalist and Coal Merchant," of 7, Compton Street. He also served as Grand Master of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows.

In 1893 Hind became the prime mover behind the formation of the Chesterfield & East Derbyshire Football Association. Hind was aware of the area's peculiar position of belonging to Derbyshire while looking to Yorkshire first in economic and social terms, and thought the area would benefit from having its own autonomous football association. The north-east Derbyshire area was a lucrative one, with many active clubs, and the Derbyshire FA was loath to surrender control of it; something of a "cold war" grumbled on between the two bodies until a full-scale conflict broke out in 1913 that resulted in the disbandment of the Chesterfield FA. Hind had been at that organisation's head since its inception and the 1913 "football war" left him embittered and broken; he died a few years later at the early age of 49.

Hind's Chesterfield Town involvement was insignificant- perhaps he had fingers in too many pies, or perhaps the looming presence of Gillies in the background, still, had an effect. Either way, it ended with the club's first re-election attempt in May 1902.

Jack Hoskin

Jack HOSKIN was the son of a butcher and became involved in local football in the Brampton area. He was working as a clerk for a local colliery when the football club offered him the job in succession to Hind. He was another senior official of the local FA.

Hoskin guided the Town club through the best of its Edwardian era. The hopeless 1901-2 side was rebuilt and Hoskin's first team finished 6^th just one year later. Fans took to Hoskin's sides, built as they were around the best in local football talent. Hoskin was responsible for bringing Sam Hardy to the club and, with the future England keeper between the sticks, his 1903-4 side finished 5^th - remarkable for a side with a ramshackle stadium and a 3,000 average gate.

Hoskin left under something of a cloud, replaced by the directors in what appears to be panic, or carelessness. Certainly the players saw his value, and raised enough from a whip-round to buy the man a roll-top desk. The man they chose to replace him, named FURNESS, is the most mysterious of our ex-managers. He is most likely to have been Tom Furness, a Brampton man and another with links to the coal trade. If he was, then he was a director of the club, too, and most likely appointed as an economy measure. His record on the footballing front was unfortunately dreadful, and he was relieved of his duties after just one season.

George Swift

To succeed Furness the club chose their first Secretary/Manager with a national football pedigree. Born in 1870 near Telford, Shropshire, George SWIFT was the son of an Ironworks shingler and started his working life as an engine fitter in Crewe. He had spells at clubs in the Wellington and Crewe areas but came to prominence as a footballer with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Loughborough and Leicester Fosse, where he started 186 Football League games, scoring five times from the left-back position.

George's playing career wound down at Notts County. He joined Leeds City as Trainer in1905 and struck up a harmonious relationship with Gillies, who recommended him to Chesterfield Town. Other clubs were turning to football men to manage their sides with great success, and the Chesterfield Town board saw their club being left behind, in this respect. It was a momentous decision to make, and acting on Gillies' advice, Swift was appointed on a two-year contract.