2010 will be the first time that all 20 Barclay’s Premiership clubs will bestow a place on their shirts for the British Legion’s poppy of remembrance. In the past few years, football crowds have become used to minutes of applause in respect to their fellow professionals and for other celebrated figures of the game that have died; though admittedly, applause appears to hide the otherwise boisterous minority observed during a minute’s silence. The Poppy Appeal has become more visible with Britain’s involvement in recent international conflicts and certainly sportsmen and women have contributed a great deal to help those affected by war injuries. Twickenham has held many events to raise money and create awareness for injured servicemen and women. Sport has a great history in war and in previous generations it was common to see sporting heroes of the day to enlist for frontline service, something unimaginable by today’s professionals.
World War One was the first time that British men enlisted en masse to fight for their country; something common on the continent but new to Britain, but this was a desperate occasion. One of the most popular ways of drumming up support was through the ‘pal’s battalion’. This simply was creating platoons of men from local industries or communities; it was literally fighting at the front with your next door neighbour and best school friend. As we know, the war wasn’t over before Christmas and many battalions were massacred. 584 out of the 720 men of the Accrington Pal’s were killed, missing or injured on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Rows upon rows of houses, in the small Lancashire town, had their curtains drawn in their early days of July 1916. Communities were destroyed by the futile clamour over the top, over and over again.
Perhaps one of the most moving stories is that of the Hearts team. The squad of the 1914/15 side had won their first title since 1897 and had won eight games on the trot, including a game against the Danish national side. It was during this season that amateur sports like rugby, golf and hockey had stopped, as more men signed up to go to the front. In fact, the Glasgow Herald questioned after the November 1914 Old Firm clash how much the fates of Rangers and Celtic mattered when the ‘greatest of all internationals’ was being played in Europe. It was not until late November when the Royal Scots was formed and all of Hearts’ first XI and five reserves enlisted. Many of their fates were sealed along with many others on the first day of the Somme. Inside forward Henry Wattie and Duncan Currie both fell on the first day. Paddy Crossan was wounded by a shell and his lungs ruined by gas. He was so badly injured that his right leg was labelled for amputation, he begged the German surgeon not to amputate saying, ‘I need my legs, I’m a footballer.’ His leg was saved and he survived the war but died in 1933.
It wasn’t just football that suffered. World number one and New Zealand tennis player Tony Wilding was killed by shell fire. England’s rugby captain Ronnie Poulton-Palmer was killed at Ploegstreert Wood. Around 34 county cricketers were killed in combat, including the Warwickshire all-rounder Percy Jeeves. It is said that P.G. Wodehouse’s character Jeeves was named after him. Wodehouse had been a great fan.
The same thing happened during World War Two, though many sportsmen were not posted to frontline positions like their previous generation. High-profile footballers like Tom Finney served in Monty’s Eighth Army in North Africa and Stan Matthews served his time in the RAF. Not all were fortunate, Hedley Verity, the Yorkshire and English spin-bowler was killed in action at Monte Cassino and the Ajax footballer Eddy Hamel was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
War is no longer fought on such grand theatres and mass enlistment/national service no longer exists. It is no use to ask hypothetical questions of whether today’s professionals would do the same, it is best to reflect that these men represented their countries at the highest level in sport and delayed their careers for more purposeful causes, often with their lives’. Their stories paint ones of humility and heroism, Premiership footballers may play in hostile arenas in Europe; but ultimately it was nothing like Ypres, Passchendaele or the Somme.
World War One was the first time that British men enlisted en masse to fight for their country; something common on the continent but new to Britain, but this was a desperate occasion. One of the most popular ways of drumming up support was through the ‘pal’s battalion’. This simply was creating platoons of men from local industries or communities; it was literally fighting at the front with your next door neighbour and best school friend. As we know, the war wasn’t over before Christmas and many battalions were massacred. 584 out of the 720 men of the Accrington Pal’s were killed, missing or injured on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Rows upon rows of houses, in the small Lancashire town, had their curtains drawn in their early days of July 1916. Communities were destroyed by the futile clamour over the top, over and over again.
Perhaps one of the most moving stories is that of the Hearts team. The squad of the 1914/15 side had won their first title since 1897 and had won eight games on the trot, including a game against the Danish national side. It was during this season that amateur sports like rugby, golf and hockey had stopped, as more men signed up to go to the front. In fact, the Glasgow Herald questioned after the November 1914 Old Firm clash how much the fates of Rangers and Celtic mattered when the ‘greatest of all internationals’ was being played in Europe. It was not until late November when the Royal Scots was formed and all of Hearts’ first XI and five reserves enlisted. Many of their fates were sealed along with many others on the first day of the Somme. Inside forward Henry Wattie and Duncan Currie both fell on the first day. Paddy Crossan was wounded by a shell and his lungs ruined by gas. He was so badly injured that his right leg was labelled for amputation, he begged the German surgeon not to amputate saying, ‘I need my legs, I’m a footballer.’ His leg was saved and he survived the war but died in 1933.
It wasn’t just football that suffered. World number one and New Zealand tennis player Tony Wilding was killed by shell fire. England’s rugby captain Ronnie Poulton-Palmer was killed at Ploegstreert Wood. Around 34 county cricketers were killed in combat, including the Warwickshire all-rounder Percy Jeeves. It is said that P.G. Wodehouse’s character Jeeves was named after him. Wodehouse had been a great fan.
The same thing happened during World War Two, though many sportsmen were not posted to frontline positions like their previous generation. High-profile footballers like Tom Finney served in Monty’s Eighth Army in North Africa and Stan Matthews served his time in the RAF. Not all were fortunate, Hedley Verity, the Yorkshire and English spin-bowler was killed in action at Monte Cassino and the Ajax footballer Eddy Hamel was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
War is no longer fought on such grand theatres and mass enlistment/national service no longer exists. It is no use to ask hypothetical questions of whether today’s professionals would do the same, it is best to reflect that these men represented their countries at the highest level in sport and delayed their careers for more purposeful causes, often with their lives’. Their stories paint ones of humility and heroism, Premiership footballers may play in hostile arenas in Europe; but ultimately it was nothing like Ypres, Passchendaele or the Somme.
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