Herbert Kilpin was a founding father of Italian football — and he was born on Mansfield Road in Nottingham
We explore the life and the legacy of the remarkable Nottingham legend...
Nottingham’s sporting history is filled with heritage and legends — but did you know that a key father of Italian football is from our fair city?
We’ve delved into the story of Herbert Kilpin, exploring how the boy who grew up playing football on Forest Rec became The Lord of Milan and created one of the biggest football clubs in the world.
There are also lots of things you can do in Nottingham to follow in his footsteps, such as visiting his birthplace on 191 Mansfield Road and The Kilpin Beer Cafe on Bridlesmith Walk. For more features about Nottingham, subscribe to The Notts Edit to receive our articles in your inbox for free.
How Nottingham’s founding father of Italian football finally found a place in history
By Sam Swain
Photos by The Notts Edit
It’s hard to argue that Nottinghamshire isn’t having something of a moment right now when it comes to sport — in particular around football. Nottingham Forest are flying in the Premier League and their women's side has become professional and is chasing promotion to the Women’s Championship. Meanwhile, Mansfield Town and Notts County are chasing promotion to the EFL Championship and League One respectively.
It's not just in the present day that Nottingham has been influential around the footballing world. January 6 2025 marked 50 years since Brian Clough’s appointment at Forest which saw them become one of only six English European Cup winners (and two-time winners at that). However, its provenance transcends just sporting achievement.
Italian football in particular seems to go hand in hand with Nottingham. Forest play in Garibaldi red. The story of Notts County lending Italian giants Juventus their black and white stripes is common knowledge. And, the founder of AC Milan Herbert Kilpin is a name that might be familiar to most Nottingham football fans, thanks to the fascinating book The Lord of Milan and LeftLion documentary of the same name.
But it’s only recently that Kilpin has been re-embraced by the Rossoneri.
The makings of a legend
Born on Mansfield Road on January 24 in 1870, Kilpin grew up playing football around what was the recently opened Arboretum, before taking inspiration from Italian rebel Giuseppe Garibaldi and starting a fiercely competitive team that played at the Forest Recreation Ground.
As many were in the late 1800s, Kilpin worked in the lace and textile industry, and it was through this he met with Edoardo Bosio. Bosio and Kilpin’s mutual love of football helped them form an instant bond, and when Kilpin moved to Italy to work for Bosio, he also joined the Torino Football and Cricket Club — Italy’s oldest football club.

Before long, Kilpin moved to Milan, and in 1898 founded Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club — now known as Associazione Calcio (AC) Milan. The club found immediate success and Kilpin led them to three Scudetto — Italian League Champions.
Kilpin died in 1916 aged just 46, but AC Milan continued being successful, growing to be one of Italy and Europe's biggest clubs, winning 19 Scuddetto, seven European Cups, along with a whole host of other silverware. They had legendary managers such as Arrigo Saachi, Fabio Capello, and Carlo Ancelotti, as well as players such as Gianni Rivera, Franco Baresi, and Paolo Maldini.
However — owing to the rise of fascism in the mid-20th century — the name Herbert Kilpin was effectively erased from the club’s history, as Benito Mussolini removed any insinuation of foreign influence on Italian institutions.
Rediscovering Kilpin
The work of Nottingham lawyer Robert Nieri brought the name of Herbert Kilpin back to life. His book The Lord of Milan (available at Nottingham Books) is a brilliant read, telling the story of Kilpin, his origins in Nottingham and his life and legacy in a way that evokes brilliant images of a historic Nottingham. The book led to LeftLion’s documentary (available to watch on YouTube) and contributed significantly to the Kilpin name, which finally received recognition both at home and in Milan.
The Nottingham Civic Society installed a plaque on Kilpin’s birthplace on Mansfield Road in 2016, and he’s also received recognition in the form of a bus which travels past his former residence. The Kilpin Beer Cafe on Bridlesmith Walk also contains many tributes, with artworks and ales in his honour.
In Italy, AC Milan and the city have continued to reconnect their history to their founder. December 16 2024 marked the 125th anniversary of AC Milan’s foundation, with the great and good of AC Milan in attendance at San Siro for the celebrations. Maldini, Seedorf, and Ibrahimovic — all players synonymous with Milan and their more recent history — watched on as Milan took on Genoa in Serie A.
The players donned a special kit in the iconic red and black selected in 1898. “Our colours will be red like fire and black to invoke fear in our opponents!” said Kilpin when he founded the club. The crest of the anniversary kit is the same as the original crest, with red and black stripes set next to the cross of St. George — which still features on the current crest today.

In the 2024-25 season, Milan aren’t having the best time, having been well out of contention for the title and even European qualification throughout the season. In the anniversary fixture they played out a lacklustre home 0-0 draw with mid-table Genoa. However, one result and one season do not diminish the celebration of the club’s history.
The club announced on December 13 that Herbert Kilpin had been laid to rest at Milan’s Famedio — a tomb in the Cimitero Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery) where Milan’s most influential and significant people are buried.
Club archivist Luigi La Rocca had long lobbied for this to be Kilpin’s resting place, detailing in The Guardian how in 1998 he rediscovered the unmarked grave of one of Milan’s most famous adopted sons and had the remains reinterred into a modest plot in the Cimitero. He had campaigned for Kilpin to be moved from there into the Famedio — a more fitting resting place for The Lord of Milan.
Even several years after the book crowning him with that title was published, I still find it quite surreal that one of the clubs I grew up admiring was founded by a working-class man born not far from where I live — and that some of football's most iconic moments just wouldn’t have happened had it not been for a football obsessive who played on a pitch just a short walk away.
Maybe I’m surprised it’s not something that’s really shouted about from the rooftops. But then I also think there’s a distinct humility about the life and legacy of Herbert Kilpin. Even though he created AC Milan, he never made himself captain.
And so, maybe it’s more fitting that — much like the pub that bears his name — his story is nicely tucked away in Nottingham’s rich history.
Read about more Nottingham legends:
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