Like many of those who lost their lives in terrible conditions during the First World War, the story of the Footballers’ Battalion was largely forgotten until recent years.
However, in October 2010 a memorial to the men who fought in the battalion was unveiled at Longueval on the Somme battlefield, supported by a number of footballing bodies including the PFA, the Football Supporters’ Federation and the Football League.
The significance of the Footballers’ Battalion is that it provided a focal point for the game’s support of the national war effort and went a long way towards restoring the credibility of the sport after it had been, most certainly unfairly, tarnished by elements within the political establishment.
It is for these reasons as well as for the many brave men who lost their lives fighting for their country that it should be remembered.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the general opinion in England was that this was to be a short-lived affair that would be concluded by Christmas.
It was perhaps this sentiment, as much as their public stance that the players were under legally binding contracts for the duration of the season, which led the Football and Southern Leagues to announce that the 1914-15 campaign would run as usual.
The clubs, however, showed their support for the national cause by agreeing to a series of measures to support the war effort: regular collections were held for the various war relief funds, fans attending matches were often addressed by local dignitaries encouraging them to enlist, while stadiums were made available to the military for drill and, in many cases, the erection of miniature rifle ranges.
The position of the association game was not unlike that of Northern Union (rugby league) football and horse racing, all three being essentially professional sports that continued their programme after the outbreak of war.
Cricket was in a slightly different position, having almost concluded its 1914 season, and did not face the same dilemma as to whether to continue or not.
Not surprisingly, there were some who felt that all forms of entertainment should be curtailed in time of war and the campaign to close down football in particular began almost immediately.
One of the earliest antagonists was FN Charrington, a member of the brewing family and a rather eccentric philanthropist, whose comments appeared in the national press before the end of August.
The Dean of Lincoln, TC Fry, joined in the debate, suggesting a number of draconian measures: that all professional contracts should be cancelled, football coupons stopped and no one under the age of 40 should be allowed to attend matches. The Times newspaper too entered the anti-football campaign, offering a platform for the critics and even running advertisements for ‘Petticoats for Footballers.’
Many amateur association competitions, notably the Southern-based Isthmian and Athenian Leagues, simply closed down as essentially did the all-amateur rugby union game.
The response from the FA and the professional leagues was somewhat muted, although the former continued to co-operate with the War Office and there were no calls from the government for football to close down.
An article in The Times of 28 November 1914 gave details of how a number of professional clubs had responded to the war, but although designed to appease some of their opponents it seems to have failed in its objective.
Responses from 15 Football and Southern League clubs indicated that only at Southampton had players enlisted in significant numbers. West Bromwich Albion had formed a Company attached to the 5th South Staffs Territorials, to which many supporters and eight players had signed up, but only 19 players had enlisted in total from the other 12 clubs.
Two days later a follow-up article noted that 20 Hull City players, 11 from Plymouth Argyle and eight from Everton had joined up.
Significantly none of the clubs noted were from London, and the metropolitan clubs attracted further bad publicity when it was announced that just one recruit had enlisted at the game between Arsenal and Bristol City from amongst 5,000 spectators after fans were urged to sign up.
It should be noted that enlistment in the forces at this stage was purely voluntary and conscription was not introduced until 1916. Nationally recruitment figures had been poor in August before picking up in September and October.
One of the strategies introduced was to establish what became known as ‘Pals’ Battalions’ whereby groups of young men with a common background through their work or sporting activities could enlist and fight together.
One of the earliest of these was the Sportsmen’s Battalion, but there were also bodies such as the Artists’ Battalion (principally cricketers and rugby union players), the Cyclists’ Battalion and even the Veteran Athletes’ Battalion.
Although significant numbers of amateur soccer players had enlisted, the response of senior clubs, as we have seen, was not enthusiastic.
Leading rugby union clubs such as Wasps and Saracens proudly announced that 98 per cent of their players had joined up, yet prior to conscription the 11 Football League clubs in Lancashire had provided just 40 recruits in total (although over 4,500 junior players had enlisted).
It was against this background that William Joynson-Hicks, MP for Brentford, was given permission by the War Office to form a battalion of footballers, the 17th Service Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, in December 1914.
Who were the men behind the Footballers’ Battalion?
It is interesting to consider who was present on the platform at the inaugural meeting at Fulham Town Hall, and indeed what significant figures were absent. Joynson-Hicks’ main ally in the football world and the key figure at the meeting was Henry Norris, a high profile and somewhat controversial figure in London football.
A wealthy South London property developer, he first came to prominence as a director of Fulham, whom he guided to successive Southern League titles in 1905-06 and 1906-07, and subsequently a place in the Football League. He then attempted to merge the club with Arsenal but when this failed to materialise he joined the Arsenal board and went on to become chairman.
He was behind the Gunners move from Woolwich to Highbury and for a short while he ran both clubs before pressure forced his resignation from the Fulham board. Mayor of Fulham from 1909, like Joynson-Hicks and William Hayes-Fisher he was a member of the Conservative & Unionist party.
William Joynson-Hicks seems to have had little involvement in the game of football, being more of a motoring man (he was chairman of the AA from 1908 to 1923). A patriot and hard-line right-winger (politically) he eventually served as Home Secretary in the Conservative government from 1924 to 1929. William Hayes-Fisher was trained as a barrister but, apart from a brief spell from 1906 to 1910, he had sat in the House of Commons as MP for the Fulham constituency since 1885.
One of the original directors of Fulham FC when the club became a limited company in 1903, he maintained an interest in the game and had recently sponsored a Parliamentary Bill on behalf of the FA aimed at halting football coupons during the war. Captain Henry Wells-Holland, the Clapton Orient chairman, was another individual with strong aspirations.
A former Mayor of Hackney (where he had been an Alderman on the Borough Council), he had tried and failed to win a place on the Football League Management Committee on numerous occasions. He was not a natural ally of Henry Norris, having strongly opposed Arsenal’s move to Highbury, but clearly he had now put this behind him in favour of the National Interest.
The Football Association were strongly represented through both the secretary (Frederick Wall) and the president (Lord Kinnaird), but the Football League had no official presence.
How successful was the Footballers’ Battalion in its early stages?
The organisers hoped to enlist a full battalion of 1,350 men apparently from the ranks of both amateur and professional players and staunch supporters of senior clubs. Athletic News dreamed of a future where there might be “the Chelsea Company, the Tottenham Company, the Millwall Company, the Fulham Company, and so on.”
However, these numbers were rather ambitious for there were few relatively few professional footballers in the south of England (the Footballers’ Battalion recruit men from clubs south of the River Trent) and many of these were northern men who returned home shortly after war broke out to jobs in heavy industry or the munitions factories in their home areas.
Furthermore, Army recruitment programmes at the time were principally aimed at unmarried men, of whom there were estimated to be around 600 amongst the ranks of professional footballers. Nevertheless, initial interest was high, with 4-500 present at the inaugural meeting, but of these only 35 enlisted on the day.
Those who signed included the following: Arsenal (Ratcliffe), Bradford City (Frank Buckley); Brighton & Hove Albion (Archie Needham, R Routledge, F Spencer, and J Woodhouse); Chelsea (W Krug, D Girdwood, and E. Foord); Clapton Orient (Fred Parker, Jimmy Hugall, Nolan Evans, Harry Gibson, Richard Dalrymple, William Jonas, Eddie King, Arthur Tilley, Richard McFadden, T Pearson); Croydon Common (E C Williamson, T Newton, D Upex, C Smith, AJ Tomkins, and Percy Barnfather); Crystal Palace (J Bowler and William Middleton); Luton Town (Hugh Roberts and Frank Lindley); Southend United (F Robson); Tottenham Hotspur (George Bowler and William Oliver); Watford (Reginald Williams, Alex Stewart, and Joe McLauchlan).
By the end of the year The Sportsman newspaper recorded just 34 additional names. Only Croydon Common and Clapton Orient can be said to have responded with enthusiasm, while not one player from either of the clubs associated with Norris actually signed up at the meeting (Ratcliffe of Arsenal was an administrator and not on the playing staff). By March the number of recruits had reached 122: less than 10 per cent of the hoped-for figure.
Even then the players had an assurance they would not see active service until the end of the 1914-15 season, and there was an agreement the men would be released to play on Saturdays. The early days were often spent playing football matches against other clubs or different regiments, but this was very much the calm before the storm and they went on to feature in some of the worst of the fighting at the Somme, Arras and Cambrai.
What happened to the men of the Footballers’ Battalion?
The men were called into action at the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916, which became one of the bloodiest battles ever fought with more than a million casualties. The Footballers’ Battalion suffered heavy losses with many also wounded. Amongst those killed in action were Walter Tull (Tottenham and Northampton), Evelyn Lintott (Queen’s Park Rangers, Bradford City and Leeds City) and Richard McFadden (Clapton Orient) who had been awarded the Military Medal, while high profile individuals who were wounded included Frank Buckley and Vivian Woodward, the England international player.
Many more of their number were seriously injured suffering shrapnel wounds or from gas attacks which left them unable to continue their careers when peace returned. In all around 300 professionals served in the Footballers’ Battalion from the 4,500 men who made up its ranks. Of these around one in five never returned and a further 2,000 were wounded.
There were also, of course, many other professional footballers who lost their lives during the First World War after enlisting with their local regiment and indeed the roll of honour of war dead included every senior club.
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