50 Football Heroes: in War and Peace

19/12/2019  -  5.32

Robert Bradley and Douglas Gorman

“50 Football Heroes: in War and Peace” tells the fascinating stories of fifty association football heroes.  The profile of each footballer details their football career, varying from internationalists to playing at lower levels in the game, together with the circumstances of their selfless act of bravery, many in war but others in peacetime.  Recognition ranged from the award of the Victoria Cross and other military decorations through to awards by the Royal Humane Society.  In some cases recognition was given in the courts, by work mates or the football authorities.  In others the recognition was simply the gratitude of the person rescued and his/her family.

We decided to collaborate on this book as we wanted to find out more details about the circumstances of the acts of bravery than we had found in football clubs’ official histories and players’ “who’s who” books.  Often a club book would record the recognition awarded to the players but not the circumstances that led to the award.  Through the searching of newspaper archives we uncovered recognition to other players.

In writing the individual profiles it led us to learn more about theatres of war in the two World Wars and a better understanding of the circumstances leading to the recognition of the footballers’ bravery.  Some of the players were involved in major actions in the First World War including the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, the Battle of the Tardenois, the First Battle of Gaza, Passchendaele and the Second Battle of Arras.  In the Second World War they included the Normandy landings, the siege of Malta, the invasion of Italy, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the raid on Dieppe, North Africa, the airborne crossing of the Rhine, Greece and bombing missions over enemy territory.  We also discovered how footballers became servicemen.  Some joined up with friends and work mates.  Unsurprisingly many became physical training instructors.  Some were frustrated with the delay in the recruitment processes and found quicker ways of joining up.  Others were either too young or too old at the outbreak of war and found other ways of serving their country, i.e. the Home Guard and the Police.

Research on some players produced better results than others especially when award citations were found.  We hope that the publication of the book will lead to more information coming forward to add to the profiles.  We also decided to produce a more detailed summary of the players’ football career as they moved from club to club and being guest players for other clubs as their armed services postings and duties allowed.  Some players represented their service in wartime inter-service matches and also their country in wartime internationals.  These are all included.  Each player has a narrative page with a photograph together with one or two pages detailing their football career in tabular form.

Selecting just fifty heroes was a difficult task.  We decided to have broadly a third drawn from each of the World Wars and peacetime.  We also ensured that players came from all four countries in the United Kingdom.  We decided not to always re-tell the stories of bravery that have been well covered in other books but instead look for lesser known players.

From the footballers in the armed forces, 25 served in the Army, 7 in the Royal Air Force and 2 in the Royal Navy.  In addition, one was a Police officer.  Two of these players were also recognised for life-saving in peacetime.  Former Football Association secretary Ted Croker was awarded a CBE for his services to football and a King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct while serving in the Royal Air Force.

One of the most moving stories was that of Willie Angus VC who was briefly on the books of Celtic FC (top left photograph in the cover image above).  He was awarded the Victoria Cross for the rescue of James Martin, his friend from his home-town of Carluke, Lanarkshire, and suffered horrific injuries.  Two other recipients of the Victoria Cross featured are Donald Bell VC and the Reverend Bernard Vann VC MC and Bar Croix de Guerre with Palm.

The peacetime heroes were often involved in life-saving incidents near canals, rivers and swimming pools while others helped in rescues from fires.  Many of these incidents resulted in recognition by the Royal Humane Society.

Biographies

Robert Bradley is a West Bromwich Albion season ticket holder, statistician and historian. 

Douglas Gorman is a Scottish football historian. 

This is the authors’ first book together although they have collaborated many times in writing football history articles often with a West Bromwich Albion/Scottish theme.  Douglas has co-authored a book on Campbell Orr, an influential early football administrator, and assisted in the compilation of a definitive book of United Kingdom amateur international records.

“50 Football Heroes: in War and Peace” is available here.