With the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I approaching in a couple of weeks, the contribution that footballers, clubs and the game itself played in events is being honoured. Sir Trevor Brooking helped to launch the For Club and Country Project this week, an initiative to raise awareness of the connection between the two. In total, 60 English football clubs are getting involved, in addition to the FA, Premier League, the English Football League and the Professional Footballer’s Association.
In 1914, shortly before the war began, 4,000 men were considered professional football players. 2,000 of them joined up to the war, but not immediately. In fact, after the war broke out on 4th August 1914, most players were unable to leave for the war due to the fact that they were tied to a contract and were not permitted to go to war unless their club allowed it. This led to the need for some high-profile figures to call on clubs and players alike to do their patriotic duty. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes wrote in September 1914: “If a footballer had strength of limb let them serve and march in the field of battle.” By 1915, competitive football was suspended.
The Football Battalion
Partly as a response to Conan Doyle’s impassioned plea, a special battalion, the 17th Service Battalion, was formed and quickly became known as the Football Battalion. England Centre-Half, Frank Buckley was the first person to join. Because he had previous army experience, he was given the rank of Lieutenant and eventually rose to become a Major. By March 1915, 122 professional players had joined the Football Battalion, including players from all over England and Scotland, and the entirety of the Clapton Orient team. As it was everywhere at the time, the losses were extreme. Fourteen England Internationals lost their lives. Eleven former members of Tottenham Hotspur were killed during the war, as well as seven players from Hearts. Seven men from Newcastle United died, nine from Bradford City, five from West Ham, three from Manchester United and probably the most famous player of the time, Edwin Latherton from Blackburn Rovers. Major Frank Buckley estimated that of the 600 men to join the Football Battalion, 500 of them had died by 1930, either as a direct result of the war, or from wounds inflicted by it.
With so much death, pain and misery surrounding the world, it is difficult to think that anything could distract from the horrors of war. But if anything could, it was football. The game was played in every country that British troops found themselves in, as a way to keep people fit and to stave off boredom. The crew of naval destroyer HMS Dreadnought saw very little action during the war, despite being in one of the biggest and most fearsome navy vessels of the age. With little else to do, a football pitch was made at the Scapa Flow naval base in the Orkney Isles. Despite complaints that the pitch was too boggy, they played on, and you can find a commemorative cup in the Imperial War Museum. In Tunisia, meanwhile, there are records of men playing against officers in a match in Salonika.
Lily Parr, Footballing Legend
Back at home, the beautiful game was not forgotten. While millions of men were fighting and dying in the trenches, 900,000 women were making their own contribution. For the most part, this meant working in munitions factories, making the bullets and bombs that would be hurled at the enemy across the Channel. But these women needed to blow off steam, not to mention the fact that there were still plenty of young, old and wounded people in Britain who needed some respite from the awful stories coming in.
So the factories encouraged the women to form football teams. Seen as a bit of a novelty at first, the games soon took off due to how seriously and well the women played. The biggest star of this era was Lily Parr, who played for the Dick, Kerr & Company factory in Preston. Lily Parr should be a name known to all. After all, she remains the greatest goal scorer in English history, with over 1,000 goals scored in a career that started when she was 14 years old and ended 31 years later. The highlight of her career was a Boxing Day game in which Dick, Kerr hosted Saint Helens at Goodison Park. The game was watched by 51,000 people in 1920. To put this in perspective, the average attendance at Goodison Park for the 2016-17 season was just 39,310. Parr’s team
The Christmas Truce
It is football that is responsible for one of the most affirming and unexpected moments in the entire war. On Christmas Eve, 1914, reports began to come in of German soldiers putting up lanterns and small fir trees on the edge of No Man’s Land. It was not long before they were singing carols and shouting messages at each other. The next morning some German soldiers began to tentatively cross into No Man’s Land. The British Expeditionary Force that were staring back at them initially feared a trap, but before long, they were crossing over to meet them, exchanging gifts, shaking hands, taking photographs, and of course, playing an impromptu game of football. It became known as the Christmas Truce.
This truce was not respected throughout the Western Front, but then nor was it the only occasion that hostilities were ceased. But it is an enduring image, a human moment at a time when humanity was the last thing anyone expected. And what better expression of the universal appeal of the beautiful game that it could be played at that time and under those circumstances.
Football Remembers
Because the anniversary of the Armistice coincides with Remembrance Sunday (11th November), there are a number of events to commemorate those that gave their lives during the war. As well as the tree-planting initiative being carried out by For Club And Country, the four footballing bodies are sponsoring a play at Waterloo East Theatre. The Greater Game tells the story of the 42 men from the Clapton Orient (now Leyton Orient) team who signed up en masse for the war.
There will also be some special matches, known as the Games of Remembrance. The English and German Army’s Men’s and Women’s football teams will be playing special matches on the 8th November. The women’s game will take place at Notts County, starting at noon, while the men’s match is held at Nottingham Forest, starting at 8pm.
