The club's website states that it was established in Barnes in the 1920s. For many years the club played at the
Harrodian Club before moving to its
Barn Elms location in 1987 when the grounds were sold to form a school. In 2005, this claim was amplified in
The Daily Telegraph by BBC sports presenter
John Inverdale. Inverdale, who stated that he was "[f]or reasons that I'm not altogether clear about, ... one of a number of vice-presidents" of Barnes RFC, wrote that "in 1839, according to the club records, Barnes RFC were born, playing fixtures against a whole mish-mash of teams of which no match results have been kept." In 2008, the rugby club's website weakened this claim, stating only that "Barnes Rugby Club is a club with a rich history and was established in Barnes in the 1920s. Although there are indeed possibilities that our earliest recorded match was in November 1862 versus Richmond and played at Barn Elms, it is from the 1920s that our true history is clear." As of 2018, similar wording remains on the current version of the rugby club's website. ==Honours==