Samuel Llewelyn Kenrick (1847 – 1933) was a Welsh solicitor who became the founder of the Football Association of Wales and organised the first Welsh International Match against Scotland in 1876. He thus became known as the “father of Welsh football”.
He was born into the land-owning Kenrick dynasty of Wynn Hall in Ruabon. His father William Kenrick had founded the Wynn Hall Colliery. After attending Ruabon Grammar, he trained as a solicitor (admitted to the profession in 1871) and practised in Ruabon.
His cousin, Florence Kenrick married the politician Joseph Chamberlain and they had a son, Neville – author of the infamous ‘peace in our time’ accord with Hitler. In 1909 Kenrick married Lillian Maud, daughter of the Rev. A. L. Taylor, headmaster of the Grammar School. They had no children.
In 1872, he assisted in amalgamating the Ruabon-based, Plas Madoc football club with two other Ruabon clubs, – Ruabon Rovers and Ruabon Volunteers – to form the Ruabon Druids. The newly created club played their home matches in Rhosymedre before a new ground was created in the nearby Wynn family estate in 1879. At this time, there was no organised league system and Druids played friendly matches against other local clubs – although they occasionally ventured further afield to play in England and Scotland, including a match against the Scottish club Queens’ Park (at Hampden Park no less) – in 1877.