INTRODUCTION

EDGAR ABBOTT was the initial promoter (with W.H. Talbot) of the Japan Brewery Co., Japan's first real joint-stock company, which is today the global enterprise, Kirin Brewery Co. He was the initiator of the amalgamation of the football, baseball, athletics, and cricket (and tennis) clubs in Yokohama in 1884 to form the multi-sport Yokohama Cricket & Athletic Club (YC&AC). He was an outstanding athlete and recorded the fastest times in Japan in the 19th century over 100 yards and 150 yards. He was among the best footballers and cricketers and excelled at every sport he turned his mind to.

EARLY DAYS

EDGAR ABBOTT was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer on 25 November 1849, the fourth of eight children, mainly born in and around London, of whom only four (three brothers and one sister) survived beyond childhood. His family was prominent in the brewery business. Edgar's father, Edwin Morton Abbott, took over the Bow Brewery in the East End of London from his father Edwin. Edwin had originally owned another brewery in Wapping and had first bought into Bow Brewery in around 1829 and then, in around 1849, taken over the Bow Brewery made famous by George Hodgson when he pioneered the export to India of a new beer called Indian Pale Ale (IPA) that could not only survive the rough six-month sea voyage to India better than competing beverages like porter but actually improve its taste during the journey. Before Edwin Morton took over Bow Brewery, the business was already in decline, largely due to the appearance of strong competition from IPA brewers based in Burton–on-Trent.

Edgar and two of his brothers attended Marlborough College but left the school in 1862 probably before Edgar turned 12. His entry in the Marlborough College Register gives his father's address as ‘The Brewery, Bow, Middlesex.’ The likely reason for the abrupt departure of the Abbott brothers from the school was that in January 1862 the business of Bow Brewery was suspended and a meeting of the creditors soon afterwards decided to liquidate the business by a deed of assignment rather than by initiating bankruptcy proceedings. Abbott was obliged by an indenture to hand over all his assets for distribution among creditors at the end of the month. In fact, Bow Brewery had been struggling for some time as evidenced by a meeting of its creditors in 1860.