A GUERNSEY believed to be the oldest in VFL/AFL history will be on display at St Kilda’s coming 140th anniversary celebrations.

The Saints have unearthed a club jumper that was worn by James Burt Stewart in his one year with St Kilda in 1888.

The canvas lace-up guernsey had been kept by Stewart’s descendants at their home in Ararat.

The exact date of the jumper can be verified by multiple clues – research shows that Stewart spent only the one season with the Saints after the team merged with Prahran at the end of 1887 and accompanying the jumper was a Prahran member’s ticket from 1887 that shows he vice-captained the club that year.

St Kilda historian Russell Holmesby said there were no jumpers still in existence that were older than Stewart’s.

“The National Sports Museum have some jumpers that go back to the 1890s but this is older than all of them,” he said.

“Some clubs, like Collingwood didn’t even exist then, so we’ve got a tangible piece of our history that is older than the entire Collingwood Football Club.”

James Stewart’s jumper will be on display at St Kilda’s 140th birthday celebrations and Hall of Fame presentation on May 4.

Tickets are on sale for the event here: https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/stkilda/EN/buy/details/FUNC504