Staines Town - Football and The Wars

23/11/2018  -  1.00

Steve Parsons

Football in Staines dates back well into the 19^th century, but as soon as the Great War broke out, the Staines club decided to do the patriotic thing and suspend its football operations and reform itself as a rifle club, to aid in the training of this important military skill for the war effort.

Once hostilities ceased, football came back onto the agenda, with the club taking patronage – and the name – of one of the town’s most important motor factories: Staines Lagonda FC was on the map in 1919. 

Research on identifying Staines footballers who died during conflicts is in its infancy, but thanks to work by Don Burt MBE and Jenny Scripps (both of Spelthorne Museum), we can be reasonably sure that the following are among the Staines players to lose their lives during the Great War.  Two of them lived in Mill Mead, meaning that they had only a short walk to work at the lino’ factory, and that on a Saturday they would probably traverse the same path to get to the Club’s ground at Hammonds Farm.

Private Edwin HIGGS

First Team player for six seasons, from 1907 to 1913.

Born in Northwood, he was married to Sarah, and they lived (at least initially) with his parents, William and Mary Higgs, at 27 Bremer Road, Staines.  He was a labourer at the Staines Linoleum Company.

Enlisted in Hounslow for the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 1st Bn.

Died of wounds in Flanders, Belgium, when aged 35 on 27.10.1917

Lance Corporal Ernest Edwin HISCOCK

First Team player in 1908/9, and then in the Reserves in 1909/10, and again from 1912-1914.

Worked for the Staines Linoleum Company

Served with the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) 18th Bn.

Died aged 24 on 17.2.1917 at The Ancre, in the Somme, France.

Lance Corporal Bert POND

Played in the First Team and Reserves from 1911 to 1914.

Born in Staines, he too was a labourer at the Staines Linoleum Company, living at 18, Fairfield Terrace, Mill Mead, Staines; he was married to Elizabeth.

Enlisted in Hounslow with the Royal Fusiliers 4th Bn., and was sent to France in November 1914.

Died on 16.6.1915 in the Battle of Bellewaarde, Ypres, Belgium, aged 26 and leaving a 4 year old son, Herbert.  He is commemorated at the Menin Gate memorial.

Private Ernest SYLVESTER

First Team player from 1909 to 1914.

Born in Staines.  He was a factory hand (probably at Staines Linoleum), and the son of William and Mary A Silvester of 3, Mill Mead, Staines.

Enlisted in Staines with the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) B Company 20th Bn. Died at the age of 26 on 23.05.1917.

Just twenty years later, war again interrupted every aspect of life, including football.  Staines Town FC had in fact ceased a few years before war was declared – not because of any premonition of doom, but simply because their Mill Mead ground was needed for a new reservoir, and no replacement was forthcoming.  As it transpired, the Staines Reservoir was not brought into use until after the end of World War II, for fears that enemy bombers could breach the banks or poison the water.  But the football club was one of the very few that actually restarted during the war – in 1943 to be exact – adopting the name Staines Vale because the Staines Town name was at that point associated with some undischarged debts. 

Among the players in that 1943/4 season was a left winger named Crane, who played despite losing a hand in the war, and having to have it replaced by a wooden one.

By the 1945/6 season, some of the old players had returned from service, although outstanding players such as Ken Saunders and Peter Nicholas were still being called up and thus unavailable to the team.  One of the ‘Staines Originals’ to resume his playing career that year was Phil Laurens, who remained ‘keen and cheerful’ despite having what was described as a lucky escape in Italy.  His mule had trodden on and activated a mine, and as a result of his wounds, he had lost the use of an arm.

Biographical Information

Steve Parsons is a lifelong Staines Town supporter who attended his first match in 1971, when he saw The Swans, who were then in the Athenian League, draw 1-1 with Addlestone. Steve is the Club Historian and has been Club Secretary since 1992.