Soccer History Issue 18 THE FRENCH MENACE; THE MIGRATION OF BRITISH PLAYERS TO FRANCE IN THE 1930S

In the spring of 1932 the pages of the national and sporting press in England informed readers that domestic football was under threat from the ‘French Menace’. This comprised a well-publicised, but rather futile, attempt to attract two of Chelsea’s star players, Tommy Law and Hugh Gallacher, to play in the newly formed French professional league, effectively tearing up their English contracts in return for a reportedly large sum of money. The French Menace followed the ‘American Menace’ and the ‘Irish Menace’, occasions when British players had been induced to break their contracts and migrate to play in the American Soccer and Irish Free State Leagues. The potential migration of players was a menace because in each case, initially at least, there was a threat to the fundamental structures that enabled clubs to control their players: the retain-and-transfer system and (in England) the maximum wage. The British associations were passing through an isolationist phase and had left FIFA, hence agreements on player transfers only held on transactions between the Home Countries. A player moving to a club in another association could do so, in theory, without hindrance and without the payment of a transfer fee. In practice, as each ‘menace’ arose the FA was forced to reach agreements with local bodies to ensure that players could be held to their contract.

Football in France was nominally amateur prior to 1932, but this concealed the advent of a form of professionalism that had gathered pace in the years after the First World War. Certainly by 1925 many of the leading clubs were effectively professional even if the players were registered as amateurs. As debate over the introduction of professionalism proceeded matters took a step forward when the Peugeot backed club FC Sochaux began recruiting British players following the appointment of an Englishman, Victor Gibson as coach towards the end of 1929. The club instituted La Coupe Sochaux in 1930-31 and by early 1932 the authorities had agreed to introduce a new national league for the 1932-33 season. This initially comprised 20 clubs divided into two sections, with the sectional winners playing off to decide the champions. For 1933-34 this was altered to a two-division structure along the lines of the Football League with a total of 37 clubs. For the inaugural season, each club was bound to play at least eight professionals in each game, with four foreign players allowed in the line-up, although there was no restriction on the numbers a club could sign.

I shall begin by considering the nature of the British players who were attracted to France during this period: the numbers involved, the level at which they had previously played in Britain and other common characteristics. I shall then consider why these players moved across the Channel: problems they faced, how long they stayed and what success they enjoyed. Following this I will consider how the migration to France compared with to similar moves to the USA and the Irish Free State, before considering the significance of what may be termed the Nîmes Affair involving Law and Gallacher.

During the period prior to 1932 there were a number of English players who moved to France, most were probably of a status that would be considered part-time professional in Britain, with the amount of ‘work’ they were required to carry out often very limited. The first of these is generally considered to have been Victor Gibson who had previously played for Plumstead before joining Sète, where he was also employed by the club chairman in his shipyard. In the early 1920s Sète became known as a team that recruited English players and a string of men made their way to the Mediterranean club, which soon boasted one of the strongest teams in France. Amongst these was Billy Cornelius who joined Sète in 1922 before moving on to Alès as player-coach. Cornelius was from the Erith area and when it came to looking for some English talent he returned home and recruited Bob Smoker, a former Erith & Belvedere player in the summer of 1928. Soon a small colony of English players had grown up in the south-east of France, with Edward Skiller, Dave Harrison and Bill Barrett at Sète, Smoker, Billy West and Sid Skinner at Alès, Ted Donaghy and Stan Hillier at AS Cannes and Charlie Withington at Nîmes. There were others in the north of the country, for example, William Hewitt and George Berry at Racing Club de Roubaix. In general these players had held amateur status and had previously played for clubs in Kent or the south-east of England. Only four appear to have previously enjoyed Football League experience, all of whom were associated with AS Cannes: Donaghy and Hillier (both former Gillingham players), John Coshall (West Ham) and

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Willie Aitken (Newcastle, Preston and Norwich). Others had held amateur status without making it to the first team including Sid Skinner (at Charlton) and Bob Smoker (West Bromwich Albion). However, after Gibson took over at Sochaux a string of players went over, often for very short periods, even a single match, as the club pushed the barriers towards full professional status. Recruitment seems to have been mostly by word of mouth, a typical case being that of Ernie Payne, a former Woking player, who moved to Roubaix in 1928 after being invited by a contact who had studied at Oxford University and whose father owned a large factory in the city. He also signed for one of the local teams, Excelsior de Roubaix. Others, of course had arrived through the influence of Gibson or Cornelius.

A detailed analysis of the players who appeared in the French professional league in 1932-33, its inaugural season, shows that this pattern of recruitment continued. With few exceptions the players who journeyed across the Channel had links with clubs in Kent, the South Coast, London and the south-east of England. Essentially they fell into four different categories: men who were already playing their football abroad, peripheral professionals (men who had yet to make their mark in the Football League or were at the end of their career), promising amateur players and what might be termed prestige players: valued men who for one reason or another no longer wished to play for the club that held their playing registration.

The largest group were men who are best described as peripheral professionals. Several of these had been previously been registered with Football League clubs but had yet to become first-team regulars. These included Fred Bartlett (Crystal Palace), Trevor Edmunds (Charlton), Owen McCahill (St Mirren), Harold Rivers (Southampton) and Alex Sherry (Preston). Both Tom Pritchard and Martin Woosnam had been registered with the ill-fated Thames club during the 1931-32 season and were now out of work after the club collapsed in the summer. Others were men at the very end of their career who perhaps saw the move as a way of extending their time in football for a year or so: George Harkus (Southampton), Sam Jennings (Burnley) and Fred Kennedy (who was on Oldham’s open-to-transfer list and now playing for Northwich Victoria).

The second largest group, comprising around a third of the British players, were men who were already playing in France. To these could be added Joe Hogan, son of the manager Jimmy Hogan, who had played for Lausanne Sports prior to signing for Racing Club de Paris, where his father was coach, and two Scottish players, Denis O’Hare and Johnny Paton, who spent the 1931-32 season with Cork in the Irish Free State League.

A third group comprised amateur players and was essentially a continuation of an established practice that provided a route for the earlier migrants. Harry Ward of Kent Amateur League club Ramsgate Grenville linked up with Wilson and Cheyne at Nîmes, while Leyton’s inside forward Sidney Bazin, who had represented Essex, signed for FC Sochaux after initially suggesting he would join Walthamstow Avenue. However, the highest profile player from this group was the centre half and captain of Isthmian League club Tufnell Park, Jock McGowan. McGowan, who had represented the Army at football, was described on his departure as “a tower of strength” for the club; shortly afterwards his colleague Bert Lutterloch followed him to Olympique Lillois.

The final group, the smallest of the four could be described as prestige players of which there were just three: Alex Cheyne and Andy Wilson, both Scottish internationals, who signed for Nîmes, and Southampton’s Peter Dougall who joined Sète. Neither Gallacher nor Law, the two men who had made headlines in April, joined the venture. Cheyne was undoubtedly one of several disgruntled players at Chelsea, while Southampton’s Dougall had fallen out with the club directors. He elected to join Sète for the 1932-33 season, before returning to England to play for Arsenal and later Everton.

It should also be noted that there was still a handful of players moving to clubs in France outside of the professional league. Two of Ward’s colleagues at Ramsgate Grenville, Albert Newton (a Kent county player) and Calypso Pedder, signed for AS Brest, while Albert Locke, who had previously played with Racing Club de Roubaix and Coventry City, signed for Havre AC, another regional league outfit.

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What factors influenced players to agree to travel to a foreign country, with all the cultural and language problems that may arise? Firstly, it should be noted that France was both politically stable and more welcoming than, for example, Germany or Italy. It also offered more opportunities for foreign players than many other countries. Restrictive practices were the order of the day; for example, foreign players were not permitted to take part in competitive matches in Italy, while in England players from outside the Commonwealth A contemporary cartoon reflecting the fears of many players that they were required to have two years would be unemployed in the summer of 1932. (Birmingham Sports Mail, residency before they could play 14 May 1932) professionally. Another factor was the threat of being unemployed, which was very real for players on the fringes of selection for first-team duties. Football had to some extent avoided the more severe problems faced by industrial workers prior to the early 1930s, but there are signs that the financial position of many clubs at all levels of professionalism was entering crisis. Traditionally players who comprised the peripheral group of men who went to France might normally have been expected to sign for semi-professional clubs in England. A contemporary writing on the financial problems of Birmingham League clubs noted, “The general trade depression and the [radio] broadcasting of first-class matches have played havoc with their income.” ( Sports Argus , 13 August 1932) Men based in the north and midlands were more likely to select the option of a move to the Irish Free State League, for those on the south coast or living in the south-east it was a more practical option to cross the Channel to France. The Players Union believed it to be a viable option and circulated the names of men available to French clubs in June of 1932. The wages on offer were less than available in England: the maximum being set at 2,000 Francs a month (around £21) but with many Football League clubs not in a position to pay summer wages the prospect of regular employment may have been welcomed by those whose situation was insecure. Certainly the amateur players considered the terms to be an incentive. Harry Ward had been a miner at Chislet Colliery in Kent and saw the move to Nîmes as a way of escaping from a dangerous occupation, while according to the Islington & Holloway Press (3 September 1932) the offer made to McGowan was “a very good one” and clearly worthwhile. Those who joined FC Sochaux, a club financed by the Peugeot company, undoubtedly received excellent terms. Leslie Miller, who was one of four Englishmen to arrive in 1930, had previously played for Barking and Northampton Town as an amateur. At Sochaux, where he was initially considered an ‘amateur’ he became one of the stars of the team, scoring one of the goals when Olympique Lillois was defeated 6-1 in the final of La Coupe Sochaux for 1930-31. He remained in France until September 1936, only returning home due to the death of his father. He subsequently spent three seasons at Tottenham, scoring 26 goals from 65 appearances as a winger. His salary was around £15 a week (6,000 Francs), almost double the maximum wage allowed in England and well in excess of the maximum football wage allowed in France. Bernard Williams, a former Dover player, had arrived in France at the same time as Miller, but instead of signing for FC Sochaux, he found work in the Peugeot cycle factory and signed for AS Valentigney, another club linked to the company. When he transferred to FC Sochaux in 1933 he was given an office job (although he is unlikely to have been called upon to carry out much work) and he remained at the club for many years, marrying a local woman and taking out French citizenship. When war broke out he enlisted in the French Army and he later ran a grocery store in the nearby town of Montbéliard.

British players, right through to modern times have a reputation for struggling to adapt to life in different cultures and it was no different in the 1930s. Lanfranchi and Taylor contrast the successful integration of the former amateur players in the late 1920s to the problems faced by the professionals who moved in the

page 22 Soccer History Issue 18 following decade: “Whereas they [the earlier arrivals] were generally successful and well-liked, and tried to integrate, the post-1932 professionals were not remembered so fondly by crowds, fellow players or employers.” ( Moving with the Ball , p. 56) The former statement is undoubtedly true, not least because the earlier arrivals had been forced to integrate as they were nominally employed locally. Expectations were high of some players and it is clear that either the clubs or the players themselves boosted their credentials somewhat. Hugh Vallance and Tom Pritchard were both said to be full internationals and Harry Ward a schoolboy international, although none of this was true. Gus Smith, who several years previously had starred for Dundee but more recently had turned out for the newly formed Wigan Athletic, was a huge disappointment at FC Sochaux, where it was noted that he had clearly dyed his hair to make himself look younger and was unable to last the full 90 minutes. Some of the British players were rather wild and uncultured: Joe Hillier was described by one former colleague as, “like a savage with women” while Jack Trees had his registration cancelled after a contracting “a disease unconnected with football”. A second statement by Taylor, in The Leaguers (p. 232), that “most of those who left in August were back by May,” is perhaps not true of the players who played in that first season. Certainly a number of men returned after unsuccessful trials including the Southampton pair of Harry O’Grady (Sète) and Bill Fraser (Olympique Marseille), Wall of Clapton (another target for Sète), George Leslie of Charlton (Red Star), Bill Devlin (Cowdenbeath, also at Olympique Marseille), Alex Dunn of Armadale (Metz) and Dyer at SO Montpellier, but with only one exception (Fred Bartlett) all the others remained until the end of the season at least. In fact only 9 of the 44 players returned after just a single year in France, while 16 stayed for four or more seasons (although most of these were men who were already in France in 1932). However, the figures conceal the fact that a number of men flitted between the two countries. The aforementioned Jack Trees, having played for Marseilles in 1932-33, was registered with Brighton for the first half of the following season before returning to France. Albert Locke and Joe Hogan were two more who crossed the Channel on more than one occasion.

Overall the number of players involved was fairly minimal. A total of 44 British players appeared in the league during 1932-33. It has been possible to identify all but one of these men: 17 of whom had been registered with Football League clubs previously and two each with Scottish League and Irish Free State League clubs. This was around the same number of English players that had featured in the American Soccer League at its peak, although the ASL also numbered some 70-80 Scottish players at this time. The numbers of players moving to the Free State League is less well recorded, but with only ten clubs (one of which, Bohemians, was amateur) there were fairly limited opportunities. Cork FC recruited nine newcomers for the 1931-32 season: two from the Irish League, two from England and five from Scotland. The following season Shelbourne brought in eight new men including six from Football League clubs. These mass recruitments were generally an exception to the rule, and some of the more provincial clubs had few outsiders. The total number of players registered in the Football League during 1931-32 was 2,543, so Alex Sherry, who joined Olympique with less than 100 men featuring in Ireland and France, the Marseille from Preston in the summer of number prepared to migrate was a tiny percentage of the total. 1932 (Ian Payne)

The Nîmes Affair was a somewhat odd incident that acted as a precursor to the increased migration of players in the summer of 1932. It began on 13 April when the Daily Mail sports pages led with the story: “French Bid For Two Famous Chelsea Players’, while the Daily Herald led with “French Bid For Law And Gallacher”. The club concerned was Nîmes. The Herald noted that “For sometime past, representatives of certain football clubs in France, and possibly Spain, have been trying to induce players on the books of Football League clubs to sign contracts for them.” The wages on offered seemed to vary from day to day and from newspaper to newspaper: was it £15, £18 or even £20 a week, or possibly £20 a month? Gallacher certainly considered a move, but the terms he demanded were too high as he recalled

page 23 Soccer History Issue 18 many years later: “I was quite prepared to take a chance on it if I could get favourable terms. I asked for a cash payment of £3,000, £20 a week summer and winter and a four-year contract.” ( Weekly Chronicle , 19 August 1950) The deal seems to have been a non-starter for Nîmes, significantly Les Sports du Midi , a weekly football paper with which the club chairman Georges Pujolas was closely associated, barely mentioned the story. Chelsea, however, was a club riddled with internal disputes and it is possible that Law and Gallacher created the story to provide them with greater negotiating power over their contracts. Many of the players were clearly unhappy at the decision to effectively sack Alex Jackson towards the end of the 1931-32 season and this may have also contributed to the decision of Cheyne to join Nîmes. The importance of the Nîmes Affair is that it acted as publicity for the French professional league and alerted English players to the fact that there were jobs to be found across the Channel. The likelihood of either Law or Gallacher actually agreeing to play in France was never particularly high and once players began trials during the summer months their connection with France was largely forgotten.

British players were the dominant national group amongst foreign players involved in that first season, but the central European group of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary as a block provided greater numbers. The main reason for this, as has already been shown was that British players were already in France in significant numbers and when the number of newcomers (28) is taken into account they are not particularly greater than the numbers of Austrians and Hungarians.

As time passed the number of foreign players permitted was reduced firstly to three and then, from 1938, two, although as the number of professional clubs expanded employment opportunities were not significantly affected. Improvements in the British football economy made the move to France less attractive, particularly as wages in Britain were much higher. In contrast the wages offered in France were more attractive for central European players, whose numbers increased, while political uncertainty following the rise of Fascism in Germany was undoubtedly another factor for players from this region. A total of around 130 British players eventually featured in the French professional league in the period 1932 to 1939, with many of the later players travelling just for a single season. As time went on the nature of the men crossing the Channel changed somewhat and certainly by the middle of the decade many were journeymen professionals from the lower divisions, who perhaps saw the move more as a 12-month engagement to fill their need for employment. These men were often unpopular, failing to settle and integrate in a way that the first wave of players had done in the professional league.

To conclude, the English (and they were mostly English, with very few Scots) players who participated in the first French professional league in 1932-33 were generally men who had already been attracted to France for one reason or another or men who were on the periphery of League football in England: men who were just embarking upon or finishing their professional careers. They were generally drawn from clubs based in the south and south-east of England. Those who stayed beyond their trial period generally lasted for the full season and often two or more seasons, despite any problems they may have had with issues such as language and social and cultural integration. However, these are the characteristics identified for men who featured in the 1932-33 season, in later years the nature of the British migrant player in France was to change somewhat towards, typically, a journeyman player who perhaps saw the move as merely a way of making money and was therefore less likely to stay for a prolonged period.

Main Sources: Daily Mail; Les Sports du Midi; W Capel Kirby & Frederick W Carter, The Mighty Kick: Romance, History and Humour of Football (London, 1933); P Lanfranchi & M Taylor, Moving with the Ball (Oxford, 2001); M Taylor, The Leaguers, the Making of Professional Football in England, 1900-1939 (Liverpool, 2005); M Barreaud, Dictionnaire des Footballeurs Étrangers du Championnat Professionnel Français(1932-1997(Paris, 1998). Thanks to Antoine Mourat for information on FC Sochaux, Peter Holme of the National Football Museum for details of individual player registrations, Andy Porter for information about Tottenham players, Paul Joannou for detail on Willie Gallacher, and Brian Spurrell, Ben, Ray & John for arranging to transport copies of Les Sports du Midi to me.

page 24 Soccer History Issue 18 BRITISH PLAYERS IN THE FRENCH PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE, 1932-33 SURNAME FIRST NAME 1931-32 1932-33

Aitken Willie AS Cannes AS Cannes Balmforth George Reading Sète Barrett Bill Olympique Lillois Olympique Lillois Bartlett David Excelsior de Roubaix Excelsior de Roubaix Bartlett Fred Crystal Palace Club Francais Bazin Sidney Leyton Sochaux Berry George Olympique Lillois Fives Cable Alfred Charlton Athletic* (29/30) CA Paris Caiels Alf Olympique Marseille Olympique Marseille Cheyne Alex Chelsea Nîmes Donoghue John Wrexham* Excelsior de Roubaix Dougall Peter Southampton Sète Eastman Sochaux Fives Edmunds Trevor Charlton Athletic Red Star Edwards R E Sochaux Sète Harkus George Southampton Fives Hayward Fives Hillier Joe Sochaux Sochaux Hillier Stan AS Cannes AS Cannes Hogan Joseph Lausanne Sports Racing Club de Paris Jennings Sam Burnley Olympique Marseille Kennedy Fred Northwich Victoria Racing Club de Paris Lutterloch Bert Tufnell Park Olympique Lillois McCahill Owen St Mirren CA Paris McGowan Jock Tufnell Park Olympique Lillois Miller Leslie Sochaux Sochaux O'Hare Denis Cork CA Paris Parkes Arthur Club Français Club Français Paton John Cork Excelsior de Roubaix Payne Ernie Excelsior de Roubaix Excelsior de Roubaix Phoenix Fred Mansfield Town Racing Club de Paris Pritchard Tom Thames Olympique Marseille Rivers Harold Southampton Sète Sales Arthur Queen's Park Rangers Alès Sherry Alex Preston North End Olympique Marseille Smith Gus Wigan Athletic* (32/33) Sochaux Smoker Bob Alès Alès Trees Jack Olympique Marseille Olympique Marseille Vallance Hugh Kidderminster Harriers Alès Ward Harry Ramsgate Grenville Nîmes West Billy Alès Alès Williams Bernard Sochaux Sochaux Wilson Andy Queen's Park Rangers Nîmes Woosnam Martin Thames Club Français

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Soccer History www.soccer-history.co.uk Issue 22 PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES: FOOTBALL AND COMMUNITY SINGING

Community singing is perhaps these days remembered as an anachronism that survived as the form of entertainment provided for fans (and latterly television viewers) at the FA Cup final through to the early 1970s, culminating in a moving rendition of the hymn Abide with me . The programme of songs always seemed to be stuck in a distant era, in contrast to the main form of pre-match entertainment at grounds which at that time generally consisted of recorded music from the top ten ‘hit parade’. However, the association between football and community singing was much more than its presence at the game’s annual showpiece event and the relationship between the two dates back to the late 1920s. This article will offer an outline description of the community singing movement, a fashionable phenomenon that seemed to sweep the country in a brief period from 1926, and consider in more detail its presence at British football grounds during the 1926-27 season.

What exactly is community singing? Dave Russell has described it as “the performance of popular songs and hymns by large groups of (usually) untrained singers who had gathered together either specifically to sing or for another activity which was then partially appropriated for musical purposes.” There was a rich history of unstructured community singing in British social culture, which had manifested itself in areas such as the Victorian music hall and amongst the troops during the Great War. In the mid-1920s this was given a more formal structure with the establishment of a Community Singers’ Association in 1925 and towards the end of 1926 a more widespread ‘community singing movement’ emerged, promoted heavily by sections of the national press. The motives were linked to a number of factors but principally a desire to promote social cohesion at a time when Britain was a divided nation (1926 was both the year of the General Strike and a much longer lasting strike of coal miners) and competition within the newspaper industry for readers. It is worth noting that the ‘social cohesion’ promoted was one with a right of centre perspective – programmes for community singing invariably included popular songs from the Great War and nationalistic songs such as Land of Hope and Glory and the National Anthem. The Conservative Party even lent its backing to the movement, apparently to try and counter opponents who would disrupt party meetings by singing the Red Flag . Community singing was not the sole property of the political right, there was after all a Labour Community Singing Book , and the labour movement had its own rich history of singing that stretched well beyond the Clarion Singers. The singing movement that began in the mid-1920s, however, did not encompass the left, and there is no trace of the Red Flag being sung as part of the various programmes of community singing that took place at football matches.

Football fans had certainly sung in a spontaneous fashion at matches back to the late nineteenth century. Southampton fans, for example, had developed their own ‘whisper’ – the Yi! Yi! Yi ! chant. Bradford City fans are known to have sung at matches during the club’s 1911 FA Cup campaign, while Tottenham fans sang “an unkind dirge for the visiting team” during their FA Cup fifth round tie with Blackburn in February 1925. ( The Times , 23 February 1925) There is also evidence of spontaneous singing by fans in Wales and Scotland. Swansea fans are known to have sung at matches during the early 1920s (see for example, John Northcott’s article in SH 11 on I’m forever blowing bubbles ) and fans of the Old Firm were well known for the singing of their partisan songs at this time. It is perhaps of significance that all the examples presented relate to ‘big’ matches, such as Cup-ties and derby games, when interest and tension were much higher than usual. How often fans sang at matches is ‘Cartoon’ from Glasgow’s Evening Times, unclear, but fans were perhaps singing more than in the pre- 4 February 1927. war period, and one possibility is that the promotion of

page 3 Soccer History Issue 22 www.soccer-history.co.uk community singing at matches from the end of 1926 was an attempt by the newspaper industry to build on and exploit a practice that was already present at matches. However, it should be noted that ‘community singing’ was rather different to the spontaneous outbursts of song that had taken place before: it was planned, structured and controlled by the organising bodies.

The Daily Express , the newspaper that most heavily promoted community singing, began to organise events at football matches during the 1926-27 season. The first of these was held at Craven Cottage prior to the Second Division fixture between Fulham and Reading on Boxing Day 1926 (27 December, the 26 falling on a Sunday). “It is bound to appeal to the football crowd as a jolly form of seasonable harmony, a fine lung-expanding exercise, and a splendid way of passing the time before the teams take the field,” announced the Express (23 December 1926) in its pre-match publicity. The singing was to be led by the band of the Welsh Guards with Thomas P Ratcliff as conductor, and would take place for half an hour in the period from 1.40, with the match due to start at 2.15. Supporters were to be handed a free song sheet as they passed through the turnstiles to ensure they could join in. The Express heralded the event as a huge triumph, indeed its enthusiasm seemed to know no bounds: “The effect was electric, stupendous. The wondering crowds gathered in the streets outside to listen to the new miracle of Boxing Day.” (28 December 1926) The event contained several of the key features which were to be associated with community singing at football matches for the next 40 years or so, including a rendition of Pack up your troubles and a conductor dressed in white flannels directing events from a raised platform. Over the following weeks the Express sponsored community singing events at matches almost on a weekly basis. The second of these was held at St Andrew’s on Saturday 1 January before the Birmingham versus Leicester City match when Birmingham’s Sports Argus , unusually for a rival newspaper, also deemed it a success: “The crowd joined lustily in the singing of famous old songs, and they appeared to appreciate the innovation.” (1 January 1927) Thereafter events were held at a range of London grounds (Arsenal, Chelsea, Clapton Orient, Tottenham) and at other venues in the southern half of the country, including Bristol Rovers, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon and West Bromwich. It is not clear why the Express did not venture into the northern industrial areas, which after all formed the heartland of the professional game. It may just be that the surviving editions of the newspaper are those for London and the South, it might be because Thomas Ratcliff (who conducted almost all the events sponsored by the Express ) was unwilling to travel further afield, the geographical reach may have been linked to the newspaper’s marketing campaigns or it might conceivably be that the Express lacked the confidence to venture into industrial areas where a strong labour movement could have been mobilised in opposition.

The organisation of community singing at matches was not solely in the hands of the Express, and within a matter of weeks it had spread throughout the country. In the North West the Manchester-based Daily Dispatch was particularly enthusiastic in its promotion of singing, beginning with the FA Cup third round tie between Southport and Blackburn. The Dispatch had the aim “of extending Northern interest in the mass singing movement.” (10 January 1927) From the end of January the Dispatch was promoting up to 15 community singing events at football (association and rugby league) matches each week. Taking a typical Saturday, in this case 29 January, events were held at five senior grounds (Barnsley, Blackpool, Nelson, Oldham and Port Vale), five non-League grounds (Chorley, Manchester North End, Stalybridge Athletic, Winsford United and Workington) and three rugby league grounds (Leigh, St Helens and Warrington). By early March the Dispatch claimed to have organised singing at over 70 matches, including the international between Wales and England at Wrexham. While the Express promoted indoor concerts as well as singing at football matches, the Dispatch had more of a grass-roots approach and in addition to its forays into football, it organised workplace events in the mills and factories of the region; these usually took place in the canteen during the lunch break and were aimed at lifting morale amongst the workers. The Dispatch was also more shameless in its use of community singing as a promotional tool, and each Monday there would be photographs of groups of singers at events that had been sponsored the previous Saturday, with a few lucky individuals from a selection of venues qualifying for cash prizes. In the Midlands community singing took place at Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolves during January. The Birmingham Gazette was rather more select than the Dispatch , sponsoring singing at just three matches in the closing months of the season: Birmingham vs. Tottenham (26 February), Aston Villa vs. Birmingham (19 March) and Coventry vs. Exeter (23 April). The first two events were led by Joseph Lewis and Harold

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Casey, respectively musical director and deputy station director of 5 IT, the Birmingham station of the BBC. Casey performed the role of Ratcliff, “He stood on a high platform and was clad in a point duty policeman’s white mackintosh. His task was to translate the gentle beat of Mr. Lewis’s hand into physical contortions violent enough for the massed crowd to see.” ( Birmingham Gazette , 28 February 1927)

In Scotland the lead was taken by Glasgow’s Evening Times , which declared, “The Desire of the ‘Evening Times’ is to encourage the excellent practice of Community Singing to warm the Hearts of the Spectators with the Good Fellowship which participation in Mass Harmony engenders, and to do something to relieve the Tedium of Waiting before the Start of the Match and during the Interval.” (21 January 1927) The first occasion that the Evening Times sponsored singing was at the Scottish Cup tie between Partick Thistle and Stenhousemuir at Firhill Park on 22 January, followed by the fixture at Ibrox between Rangers and Hearts the following Saturday. In the weeks that followed the Evening Times sponsored singing at up to three matches each Saturday and did not limit its activities to Glasgow, sponsoring events at Brechin, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, Dundee and St Johnstone. Community singing differed slightly at Scottish grounds as it was not limited to the pre-match period and would also take place during the half-time interval. Significantly, the Evening Times was both a rival of the Evening Citizen (of the Express Group of newspapers) and part of the Allied Newspapers group, which also included the Daily The song sheet for the Scottish Cup tie Dispatch . between Brechin and Celtic, February 1927

The high point of community singing in 1926-27 came at the FA Cup final at Wembley. It was to the credit of the Express that they were able to come to an arrangement with the FA to hold community singing before the match, confirming their role as market leader in the field and their reporters excelled in hyperbole in their reporting of the events. The singing of Abide with me particularly excited James Douglas ( Sunday Express , 24 April 1927): “Then comes the supreme splendour and glory of the day. The manscape stands up with its bare head and sings ‘Abide With Me’ as it has never been sung before. I confess that the majestic reverence and sincere solemnity of the hymn unmanned me. The soul of the people revealed itself spontaneously in waves of glorious harmony.” Legend has it that Abide with me was included in the programme because it was a favourite of King George V and Queen Mary, although it had been gradually introduced to the programme of singing for events sponsored by the Express for several weeks previous to this. The first occasion it was sung at a match was before the FA Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Southampton at Stamford Bridge on 26 March, when it was a surprise success. “When Mr. Ratcliff, the conductor, gave the signal to the Grenadier Guards Band to strike up the opening bars, there was an atmosphere of curious expectancy. Would a football crowd, so far accustomed to rollicking Army choruses, rise to this more solemn occasion?” ( Sunday Express , 27 March 1927)

How popular was community singing? There is certainly evidence that, given the right conditions, fans would join in enthusiastically. The Community singing at the 1927 FA Cup final was recorded and later made available on two 78 rpm discs It was both a novelty and an enjoyable addition (Bryan Horsnell) to the entertainment offered by the football. It

page 5 Soccer History Issue 22 www.soccer-history.co.uk was best experienced at matches where there was a big crowd, plenty of atmosphere and good weather. It should be borne in mind that the facilities for spectators at most grounds at this time were rather spartan, with the vast majority standing on uncovered terracing and open to whatever the elements delivered. A sudden downpour could dampen even the strongest enthusiasm and not every occasion of community singing was deemed a triumph. The Sports Argus report of the proceedings between Burnley and Aston Villa at Turf Moor noted that, “The community singing before the game was not a success,” (22 January 1927), but there again the match was played in driving sleet and only around 7,000 fans turned out. On the other hand there were several instances of supporters breaking out into spontaneous community singing at matches. At Coventry on 19 February, “Plymouth were accompanied by a lusty following whose community singing before the opening of the match almost drowned the performance of the Coventry Silver Band.” ( Sports Argus , 19 February 1927) The following week, “There was a little spontaneous community singing among a section of the 15,000 spectators as the Albion players came on the field, and the song ‘Pack up your troubles’ seemed very appropriate to the present position of affairs at The Hawthorns.” ( Sports Argus , 26 February 1927) While at Molineux in April, “A contingent of Manchester [City] supporters amused themselves with a little spontaneous community singing before the game.” (Sports Argus , 2 April 1927)

Community singing continued to take place at matches over the next few seasons, but gradually became restricted to big match occasions: the FA and FA Amateur Cup finals and international matches. The Express lost the contract for singing at the Cup Final to the News Chronicle in 1933, with TP Ratcliff transferred his allegiance with the contract, remaining as the figurehead conductor. However, soon after the war the Express won it back and retained it until 1971 when they announced their withdrawal. The programme of songs seemed to barely recognise the passing of years and standards such as Pack up your troubles and It’s a long way to Tipperary continued to be sung into the 1960s. Regional songs also appeared on the programme depending on the clubs involved, thus if Newcastle were playing, Blaydon Races would be included, She’s a lassie from Lancashire was a perennial whenever a Lancashire team appeared and On Ilkley Moor baht ‘at accompanied Yorkshire clubs. Thomas Ratcliff was eventually succeeded in his role as conductor of the Wembley singing by Arthur Caiger and latterly Frank Rea.

It seems that community singing was more popular in the North than in other regions, for as one The song sheet from the1960 FA Cup final between observer of the phenomenon noted, “… in the heart Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers of the people, more especially in the North, still (National Football Museum) persists the love for concerted singing; the Daily Express happily gave the lead and all over England voices long mute broke into simultaneous song.” ( Newspaper Press Directory , London, 1928, p. 65) This article is essentially a starting point for research and the editor would welcome offers of articles on this subject covering a specific region (for example, the North West, the North East or Yorkshire) in detail.

Further Reading: Dave Russell, Abiding memories: the community singing movement and English social life in the 1920s in Popular Music, 27, 1 (2008). Main sources: Daily Dispatch; Daily Express; Sunday Express; Birmingham Gazette; Evening Times (Glasgow). Thanks are also due to the National Football Museum and Bryan Horsnell for providing illustrations.

page 6 Soccer History www.soccer-history.co.uk Issue 22

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Soccer History Issue 20 www.soccer-history.co.uk WORLD CUP WILLIE: HOW A LION WITH A BEATLE HAIRCUT CHANGED THE COMMERCIAL FACE OF THE GAME

To modern fans the term ‘football mascot’ immediately conjures up images of an adult dressed in some furry costume clowning around with the aim of entertaining the under 10s in the crowd at a match, or perhaps a group of young children whose families have paid an arm and a leg for the privilege of leading their favourite team onto the pitch. Both are part of the fabric of the modern commercial game; indeed almost every professional sports team these days seems to have its own furry creature: simultaneously a marketing tool, expression of corporate and club identity, and entertainer. Mascots, however, have a long and relatively honourable association with soccer dating back over a century or more, although the origin of the species was a source of good luck rather than commercial opportunity.

The concept of the mascot predates most professionally organised sports, for example a number of British Army regiments had live animals as good luck charms in the nineteenth century. One well-known instance is that of the 95th Derbyshire Regiment of Foot, who adopted a ram during the Indian Mutiny Campaign in the 1850s; the ram subsequently became a symbol associated with the city of Derby and, of course Derby County who were given the nickname of ‘the Rams’. The use of the word ‘mascot’ became popular in the early 1880s with the advent of the operetta La Mascotte (translated as The Mascot), which was performed in both England and the United States from 1881. It was soon after this that mascots began to become associated with sports teams on both sides of the Atlantic. The first athletic mascot in US College sport is believed to have been ‘Handsome Dan’, a bulldog donated to Yale University by a student in 1889. A decade later a correspondent in The Athletic News was able to write, “Mascots are the fashion in the football world now-a-days.” (22 February 1909). That journal’s editor JAH Catton was even inspired to write on the subject:

This is an age when even sensible people believe in mascots. The superior persons who at once assume that this is an amiable weakness peculiar to feeble minded footballers need not be seriously considered. I remember that Harrow Wanderers, a party of gentlemen cricketers from the old school on the hill, used to carry a mascot on their tours in days gone by. Moreover, was there not a yellow terrier on board one of the yachts which defended the America Cup when Lord Dunraven first challenged. The mascot is not the invention of those who are weak in the head and chase a football. (The Athletic News , 8 March 1909)

Indeed football seemed overrun with mascots during the 1908-09 campaign. Most appear to have been employed to produce luck in the FA Cup, a competition where perhaps that extra margin of fortune was the difference between success and failure. That season Manchester United was supported by a billy goat, Newcastle by a Great Dane, Sunderland by a black cat, Bradford City by a bantam cock and Sheffield Wednesday by a live monkey adorned in blue and white ribbons. United’s success, with billy goat in tow, was followed 12 months later by a Barnsley team, who were runners-up, backed by an ass known as Amos. It is of interest to consider the story of Sunderland’s black cat as perhaps typical of how mascots were ‘born’. The animal was found inside the Roker Park ground when the club met Bury on 2 January 1909 during a relatively lean spell on the field. The team responded with a 3-1 win and two weeks later went on to win 3-2 at Sheffield United in the first round of the FA Cup and the cat was quickly adopted as the club mascot. Its success was not just a result of the association of black cats with good fortune, but by the fact that the cat is an obvious predator of the magpie, nickname of the club’s bitter local rivals Newcastle United. Although these early football mascots were essentially symbols of good fortune they were also used in marketing albeit in a very limited way. Postcards of Sunderland’s black cat were soon selling more than the combined total of those of all the team’s individual players, while there was also a popular series of postcards featuring Amos, Barnsley’s ass.

page 8 Soccer History www.soccer-history.co.uk Issue 20

Some 1960s Mascots with World Cup Willie in the centre; clockwise from top left hand corner: Clarrie Blue (Aston Villa), Beau Brummie (Birmingham City), The City Gent (Bradford City), Sky Blue Sam (Coventry City), Sammy Shrimper (Southend United), Ozzie Owl (Sheffield Wednesday), Prince Val (Port Vale) and Avenue ‘Arry (Bradford Park Avenue)

page 9 Soccer History Issue 20 www.soccer-history.co.uk

The practise of employing live animals as mascots seems to have declined when football resumed after the First World War, to be replaced by adults, often dressed in costumes and representing the local community or club identity. In the 1920s Millwall had a figure dressed as a lion, while amongst the post-1946 characters were Portsmouth’s sailor man, Bristol Rovers’ pirate, a figure dressed as an ARP warden at Bristol City and the Everton toffee lady, while at Carlisle there was a stuffed fox named Olga (an anagram of ‘goal’). Olga was the property of George Baxter a supporter who dressed in a blue tailcoat and white trousers and a white top hat. He would trot onto the pitch before each home game and place Olga on the centre circle, then when the teams came out he would collect Olga and meet the two captains. These characters were there to entertain the fans; they engaged in banter with both home and away supporters and sometimes led the singing of club songs. However, by the mid-1960s problems caused by the prevalence of hooliganism meant that interaction with the crowd was often no longer a viable, or indeed safe, option.

The 1960s had also seen the emergence of a marketing revolution in English football, partly in reaction to a steep decline in attendances, which was led by the likes of Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robins at Coventry and Vic Bernard at Stockport. It was therefore in fitting with the new spirit of commercialism that the Football Association decided to use a marketing image to promote the 1966 World Cup finals. A modern character-licensing firm, Walter Tuckwell & Associates, was engaged to work on the project and a marketing design produced: the Jules Rimet trophy imposed upon the Union Flag. Why the FA wished to promote the event as a celebration of Britishness rather than Englishness is unclear, but nevertheless this was the logo selected to promote the tournament. Walter Tuckwell was an interesting figure, born in Australia but brought up in New Zealand and very much a Kiwi. Described as, “A David Niven look-alike, although a bit chunkier,” he had previously worked for J Arthur Rank and Walt Disney before establishing his own company in the late 1950s. His business involved brokering the rights relating to characters to manufacturers who would pay royalties. The company had previously worked on well-known children’s fictional characters, such as Noddy, or characters from television and film, (James Bond, Dr Who) with most of the products aimed at children. There was a feeling within the company that the FA’s image was too staid and formal and unless more life was breathed into the project it was unlikely to become a financial success. One afternoon FA officials were present in Tuckwell’s offices at Piccadilly in central London when this issue was raised and it was agreed that the company could produce another character that would appeal to youngsters. The task was entrusted to freelance commercial artist Reg Hoye and young New Zealander Richard Culley. They got straight to work and after rejecting the idea of a bulldog came up with a lion, World Cup Willie, that same afternoon. Hoye produced four images which were submitted to Dennis Follows, the FA Secretary, and the figure selected became World Cup Willie. Described as 'a lion with a Beatle haircut, a Union Jack jersey and an address somewhere in Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park' the character went on to become hugely popular. World Cup Willie could be found on all manner of merchandising from soft toys to t-shirts, bags, caps and even beer; singer Lonnie Donegan produced a pop hit ‘World Cup Willie’; the character was everywhere and quickly entered the culture of British football; there was even a World Cup Willie Collectors’ Club for a while.

Although World Cup Willie eventually faded from the scene, the venture was a commercial success for the FA and the character is still remembered today, over 40 years later. The concept of using a marketing character to promote major sports tournaments was new, but is one that has been replicated many times since. In 1968 the Winter Olympics was blessed with an unofficial mascot ‘Schuss’ a little man on skis and every Games (summer from 1968, winter from 1976) and World Cup tournament since has had its own mascot or, these days, group of mascots.

World Cup Willie also had a significant impact on the commercial side of domestic soccer as clubs realised that there was money to be made from merchandising. At least two clubs, Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday, followed the path taken by the FA and employed Walter Tuckwell to produce club mascots. Both were linked to specific campaigns. At Birmingham this was the ‘Rebirth of the Blues’ campaign launched by new club chairman Clifford Coombes in the summer of 1966. Plans to develop a mascot were

page 10 Soccer History www.soccer-history.co.uk Issue 20 announced in August but it was not until October that the character of Beau Brummie appeared, partly because the firms producing merchandising items were still trying to clear the backlog of orders for World Cup Willie items. The following January Sheffield Wednesday launched Ozzie Owl, coinciding with the club’s centenary celebrations; it is perhaps of significance that Dr Andrew Stephen was both chairman of Wednesday and of the Football Association, and would have been aware of the commercial rewards that the venture might produce. Club shops, previously perhaps little more than a kiosk selling programmes, tickets for away games and badges, were transformed into boutiques selling all manner of items. By January 1969 Birmingham City’s Beautique was offering around 40 separate items for sale ranging from ballpoint pens and scrapbooks to tankards and ash trays. There were two records (‘Keep Right On’ and ‘Home & Away’/’Good Old Brummagem’) and the Beaunanza Monthly Magazine.

Over the next two or three years many clubs followed in their wake: Aston Villa launched Clarrie Blue the Villa Villain, based on a design by local newspaper cartoonist Norman Edwards, Coventry employed a promotion artist to produce Sky Blue Sam, whilst others relied on the outcome of competitions in the local press or in the club programme. Few of these characters remain, although two notable figures from this era are The City Gent (Bradford City) and Toby Tyke (Barnsley). Many others fell by the wayside including Avenue ‘Arry (Bradford Park Avenue), Turfy Topper (Burnley), Tangerine Tommy (Newport County) and Prince Val (Port Vale). The characters were generally introduced with laudable aims, but often there seemed little in the way of ideas on how to develop these. This is how Coventry announced the arrival of Sky Blue Sam: “We felt the need for something – a lovable, jovial character – who would bind our followers into one big happy family. It had to be something that could easily and readily be identified with Coventry City Football Club … We looked for something that would be synonymous with the Sky Blues and acceptable everywhere. Yet it had to be a character-figure that was not a “softy” and at the same time would be one with a certain amount of charm. It had to be easily animated, and like so many cartoon characters, one who could get up to mischief without offending anyone.” (Coventry City programme, August 1969)

Those characters that were successful were linked to sustained and clear plans for marketing, but also became quickly accepted by the supporters. Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday were not only two of the earliest clubs to adopt mascots but they employed a successful company with a proven record (Walter Tuckwell) to carry out the work and launched with a clear campaign in mind which could be used to market products. One of the other early successes, Bradford City’s ‘City Gent’, may have been due to the fact that the club chairman, Stafford Heginbotham, was a toy manufacturer outside of football and would have had better knowledge than most club officials on how to use the character to best effect. Why did so many of these characters disappear so quickly? In some cases it is apparent there was no clear marketing plan (Coventry), in some cases the club entered a decline in fortunes on the field (Aston Villa), in other cases the character was not one that readily appealed to a mass audience (Prince Val springs to mind here). Some disappeared only to return much later on in their modern incarnation, as is the case with Sky Blue Sam. These early characters existed as figures on badges and other items of merchandising but not as ‘real life’ figures. There may have been a life-sized cardboard cut out but these were inanimate objects which were there purely to boost the marketing potential of clubs. Gradually the characters were dropped, although a hardy few remained until the late 1980s when the modern trend towards furry creatures began.

Every Football League or Premiership club is now a major commercial enterprise. Indeed each now has its own store, some of these being of near supermarket size. Many Premiership clubs have stores both in the town centre and attached to the ground and merchandising has become a significant source of income for them. World Cup Willie, the daddy of them all, so to speak, is responsible in his own way, both for the numerous mascots that appear linked to seemingly every major sporting tournament and for the expansion of merchandising and marketing within football – a significant legacy.

Thanks to Jim Brown (Coventry), Jason Dickinson (Sheffield Wednesday), Rod Evans (Aston Villa), Phil Sherwin (Port Vale) and David Steele (Carlisle), Reg Hoye (son of Leo) and Richard Culley for their assistance.

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Soccer History Issue 4 EVERTON’S DAYS AT ANFIELD, 1884-1892

Anfield is the legendary home of Liverpool Football Club to today’s fans, a stadium to inspire fear in the hearts of visiting teams, yet this was not always the case and it is often forgotten that Everton played their home games there from 1884 to 1892. This is a brief account of the Toffees residence at a ground that has become famous as the home of their local rivals over the last century or so.

Everton, as is well known, was founded as St Domingo FC in 1878, adopting the title of the local district 12 months later. Their early years were spent playing in Stanley Park, a public park that had been opened back in 1870, but for the 1883-84 season fortunes had improved sufficiently for them to hire an enclosed field on Priory Road, almost opposite their previous home. This arrangement lasted just one season before the committee moved to new premises between Walton Breck Road and Anfield Road: the ground that was to become known as Anfield. A key figure in the move was John Houlding a local brewer who was to play an even more significant role in the club’s fortunes as time progressed. Houlding has had an extremely bad press regarding his involvement with Everton, although as we shall see some of the criticism is perhaps a little unfair when the facts are considered.

Thomas Keates, the club’s early chronicler, suggests two reasons for the move from Priory Road: that the ground was too remote and that the noise and disruption created by the spectators on match days was not to the liking of the club’s landlord, Mr Cruitt. The former is perhaps most likely to be correct - for although Priory Road was only a short distance from Stanley Park it was poorly served by public transport, which was a distinct disadvantage if the club was to develop a significant number of regular paying spectators. Keates himself records that the total gate money for the season at Priory Road was £45, an amount which increased almost fourfold in the first season at Anfield, providing further evidence that any disruption on match days was unlikely to have created problems.

The outcome of the move to Anfield was that Houlding was able to take a firm hold on the fledgling club. He arranged the deal through which the ground was rented, held the sole rights to provide refreshment inside the ground and also owned the This map of the area around Goodison was drawn up in 1890 and clearly Sandon Hotel, which stood shows how the ground had been developed. Anfield Road is to the north, by the entrance and which Oakfield Road to the south and Kemlyn Road to the east. (1893 Ordnance was the club’s Survey Map, Courtesy of Liverpool Record Office) headquarters, the premises

page 25 Soccer History Issue 4 no doubt being well-patronised by the fans on match days. The whole of the land, including a field leading to the entrance was originally owned by brewers John and Joseph Orrell. However, after 12 months the land on which the actual ground stood was put up for sale, and Houlding purchased it for £5,400 plus legal costs, which apparently amounted to a further £600. Although some of this was paid in cash the majority (approximately £4,000) was in the form of a mortgage on which interest of 3% was paid. The land was rented to the club on an annual lease, which was renewed at the end of each April. His generosity to the club was further demonstrated by the fact that he charged a relatively low rent, initially set at £100 a year. Bearing in mind the scale of his investment it is not surprising that a condition of the rental was that Houlding insisted that he be allowed to nominate his own representative on the committee.

Anfield was just a field when the club first occupied the premises, but through the hard work of the members rudimentary facilities were created in time for the start of the new season. According to Keates, “A hoarding of boards was fixed on the walls, and rails round the playing pitch. Spectators stood on the intervening sods, a very humble stand crouching on the east for officials, members, pressmen, and affluents.” The pitch itself was rather uneven with a distinct slope. Everton were still in the process of establishing themselves at the head of the local football hierarchy and faced competition from both Liverpool Ramblers (whose members were mostly former public schoolboys) and Bootle. The new ground was opened with a minimal amount of ceremony by the visit of Earlestown, Everton’s opponents in the Liverpool Senior Cup final of the previous campaign, on Saturday 27 September 1884. The Everton line-up (in 2-2-6 formation) according to the Liverpool Mercury was: Joliffe; J McGill, J Pickering; J Preston, W Parry; Berry, Richards, Whittle, Finlay, Higgins, Gibson. The visitors apparently fielded a weakened team and were hammered 5-0 in front of a gate of around 1,000, the scorers being Higgins, Gibson, Whittle (2) and Richards. Fixtures were mostly against local teams of similar stature and the season ended in disappointment when Earlestown gained a revenge victory to seize the Liverpool Senior Cup.

Professional players were allowed from the start of the 1885-86 campaign and Houlding’s patronage began to assume even greater significance. A number of men were recruited including Job Wilding of Wrexham Olympic (a Welsh international forward), George Dobson from Bolton and George Farmer from Oswestry. Ground improvements were made over the summer and a much-improved fixture list was arranged. The season began with a home game with Burnley on 15 August and other early visitors included Darwen, Blackburn Rovers, Blackburn Olympic and Bolton Wanderers. Attendances were now in the region of 2-4,000 and the foundations had been laid that would enable the club to rise to the very top of the national game.

The ground was still rather rudimentary at the start of the 1886-87 campaign, although the club’s support had increased somewhat and it was recognised there was a need to improve the facilities. A second stand was erected in the first few months of the season and opened for the FA Cup first round clash with Scottish club Rangers on 30 October. Having drawn such attractive opposition the Everton committee showed a rather pragmatic approach by scratching from the competition and playing the match as a friendly to maximise the attendance. Had they decided to play the game as an FA Cup tie they would have had to omit several of their star players from the line-up as they did not meet the strict residency requirements demanded of professionals to play in the competition.

Anfield now had a capacity in the region of 10,000, but with the club’s support still increasing further improvements were needed. The next major developments to the ground came in the summer of 1887. The pitch was levelled out, but more importantly the facilities for spectators were further developed to bring them up to some of the best in the country, the main addition being to create a raised stand behind the Oakfield Road end of the ground. This provided standing accommodation for around 4,000 fans. The cost was around £1,500 - a substantial sum of money - but much of this was recouped by the increase in gate receipts. The ground was now considered of

page 26 Soccer History Issue 4 sufficient standard to host important fixtures and in October Lancashire played Dunbartonshire in front of a 5,000 crowd, while later that season Anfield was selected as the venue for the FA Cup semi-final between Preston North End and Crewe Alexandra.

Anfield was now developed on three sides, the exception being the area behind the goal to the north bordering on Anfield Road. Here a structure similar to that at the Oakfield Road end was built in the opening months of 1886-87 and opened in time for the Boxing Day ‘friendly’ encounter with bitter local rivals Bootle. A record crowd in the region of 15 or 16,000 was attracted, and the committee again showed financial astuteness by doubling the entry fee from 3d to 6d to make the most of the occasion.

A contemporary description of the ground reads:

“The enclosure now bears the resemblance of a huge circus, with its two immense galleries, rising tier above tier, and its covered stands stretching the length of the ground on the one side, and for the greater part of that distance on the other. Every inch of available space was utilised, and the spectacle was of a most imposing description.” (Football Field, 29 December 1888 )

Anfield was selected to play host to the annual international fixture between England and Ireland in March of 1889 but the game was not a particularly big attraction and although England won 6-1 the attendance of around 4,500 paid receipts of just £120. In comparison a Football League game against the mighty Preston North End had attracted around 15,000 paying £215 a few weeks previously.

The ground now had a capacity of between 18 and 20,000 and was probably the finest of all the club grounds in England:

“At each side are large covered stands, behind each goal are other stands holding nearly 4,000 each; and taking all the stands together about 12,000 have a good view of the game from them; while another 6,000 have the same from standing room on the ground. Notwithstanding this, the spectators are almost inconveniently crowded, and gates of nearly 20,000 are not altogether unknown.” (Liverpool Football Echo, 16 November 1889 )

Everton were now the most popular club in England, with gates of 10,000 plus attracted to almost every competitive game. The committee exploited this to the full, doubling entry prices to 6d when they thought the opposition warranted it, although not always with success. When the price was raised for the visit of Notts County in December 1889 the gate plummeted to around 4,000.

When large numbers were attracted the ground became dangerously overcrowded and on the occasion of the visit of Preston North End in November 1889 there was nearly a serious accident behind the Oakfield Road goal:

“When the battle waged close to the posts the occupants of the top rows had a difficulty in following the movements of the twenty-two units struggling below, and so they leaned forward on their fellows in front. These in turn threw the burden on the lower rung, until layer on layer was piled on the bottom supports. These being but human gave way, and the whole pile fell forward like a house of cards. It is a wonderful fact that with so many hundreds involved in the crash that only one small boy was hurt, and he appears to have been sitting beneath the hoarding when it fell.” (Cricket & Football Field, 23 November 1889 )

Shortly afterwards Anfield hosted its first-ever game under floodlights using the Wells’ Light system. Sheffield United were defeated 5-2 on 8 January 1890, and later that week a line-up

page 27 Soccer History Issue 4

An artist’s impression of the incident behind the Oakfield Road goal against Preston in November 1889. Note the high frontage to the standing area which was built of brick and wood. (The Cricket & Football Field, 23 November 1889) described as ‘Everton A Team’ played Lancashire Nomads in front of a 4,000 gate. The Toffees continued to attract huge attendances at the ground, and success at the gate eventually paved way for success on the field. In 1889-90 they finished as runners-up to Preston, pipping their rivals from Deepdale for the title 12 months later.

However, despite their status as the country’s top club, all was not well at Anfield. The 1889 annual general meeting had seen something of a coup with the election of WE Barclay as secretary in place of Alexander Nisbet and dissent with the way the club was run seems to have begun to grow within the membership, although it should be noted that this was still a close-knit organisation which continued its tradition of organising an annual picnic to some local beauty spot until at least 1891. The dispute boiled over after the championship was won and became a very public affair with Houlding and his allies on the one side and several prominent committee members on the other. Essentially Houlding wished to raise the rent on the section owned by him to £250, keeping the agreement on a yearly lease. The dissenters made an offer of £340 for the whole of the land (£180 to Houlding, £100 for the portion owned by Orrell and £60 in taxes), and also wanted a ten-year lease and written agreement regarding the fixtures and fittings on the ground, most of which had been paid for by Houlding. In the end there was not even an acknowledgement of the offer. In January 1892 a meeting of the membership voted not to proceed with plans to buy the land from Houlding and Orrell, instead agreeing to secure new premises on Goodison Road and to turn the club into a limited company. Despite the bitterness of the argument the membership were almost of one view, with only four of those present voting against the move. This was not however the end of the tale, for it was then discovered that Houlding had already formed his own limited company using the title ‘Everton Football Club and Athletic Grounds Company Limited’ and this had been registered at Somerset House. The wrangle continued, Houlding obtaining an injunction in the Chancery Court to prevent the committee removing fixtures and fittings from the ground. The matter was eventually concluded following intervention by the FA, who concluded that Houlding must choose another name for his club (Liverpool AFC) and pay £250 in compensation for retaining the stands at Anfield. The move proved a great success for both parties - Houlding’s new club went on to win the Second Division title at the first time of asking in 1893-94, while Goodison was quickly developed into the best club ground in England.

The final home match played by Everton at Anfield took place on 30 April 1892 when a crowd of 5,000 witnessed a 3-3 draw in a friendly match against Burton Swifts. The line-up was rather

page 28 Soccer History Issue 4 different to that which had taken the field for the very first game against Earlestown: Jardine; McLean, Kent; Kelso, Jones, Robertson; Latta, Geary, Maxwell, Whittaker, Chadwick.

I shall finish with a brief consideration of Houlding’s role in the affair. Traditionally he has been seen as a typical greedy capitalist whose main interest was to make money out of football, perhaps partly because of his associations with the Conservative Party (he was Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1897). It is true that he saw Everton Football Club as a commercial enterprise, however he had effectively bankrolled the club during their rise to fame, paying for the development of the ground himself for the most part. The committee were not exactly innocents in their commercial aspirations, exemplified by their eagerness to withdraw from the FA Cup in 1887-88 so that they might play a stronger team against Rangers (and so attract a larger gate) and by their policy of doubling entrance prices, sometimes with no prior notice, for big matches. Although he was not a popular man in Everton circles the club would not have developed into one of the top outfits in the country without his financial assistance, and he certainly had his supporters in Liverpool, as The Athletic & Dramatic News noted, “Personally we should much like to see the new combination [Liverpool AFC] boom, if only to prove to Mr Houlding that, although he has been, all things considered, badly treated by his colleagues, the football loving public of Liverpool have not forgotten his great services in the cause of their pastime.” (5 April 1892)

Main sources: Liverpool Courier; Liverpool Mercury; Liverpool Daily Post; Liverpool Echo; Liverpool Football Echo; T Keates, History of the Everton Football Club 1878-1928 (Liverpool, 1929, facsimile edn., Westcliff-on-Sea, 1998); T Onslow, Everton FC, The Men from the Hill Country (Birkenhead, 2002).

THE FOOTBALL PROGRAMME DIRECTORY Organisers of the Annual International Football Memorabilia and Programme Fair The monthly magazine for programme collectors and others interested in our national game $ $ PR$O GRAMME NEWS D$E TAILS OF PROGRAMME FAIRS $ ADVERTS SECTION $ MANY OTHER FEATURES MEMBERS’ LETTERS COLLECTORS’ MEETINGS

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Soccer History Issue 11 JOHN PEDEN: AN EARLY IRISH SOCCER HERO

Recruitment of Irish players by Football League clubs peaked in the period 1946-1955, but from the late nineteenth century onwards there had been a steady flow of talent across the Irish Sea. In fact the movement of players from Ireland dates from at least the early 1890s, shortly after the formation of the Irish League in 1890-91. One of the first players to play professionally for an English club was Jack Reynolds, an Englishman who had settled in Northern Ireland after being stationed there with his Army Regiment. Reynolds played for Distillery and Ulster before joining West Bromwich Albion in March 1891. Two other former Distillery players who plied their trade in England were Bob Crone and Jack Taggart, and after a spell with Middlesbrough, the two linked up with Reynolds when they signed for the Baggies during the 1892-93 season.

Another of these early pioneers, and the first Irishman to turn out for Newton Heath, who as Manchester United went on to establish a strong reputation for employing Irish players, was John Peden, perhaps the most outstanding talent amongst all of these men. This is an attempt to tell the story of John Peden and put his career into some sort of perspective.

John Peden was born at the Maze, Lisburn on 12 July 1863, his father being employed at the nearby Maze Racecourse. John began playing football as a teenager and turned out for a number of junior clubs including Clarence, Prospect, Distillery Seconds and Innisfoil. He played at least once for the Distillery first team during the 1885-86 season, but subsequently became a founder member of Linfield Athletic when this club was formed and appeared at outside left, scoring in their inaugural fixture against Distillery in September 1886. Peden’s association with Linfield would suggest he was working at the Linfield Spinning Mill, whose employees had established the club in March of 1886.

John’s form at club level was such that he was selected to play for Ireland against Scotland in February 1887, thus making him the very first Linfield player to win international honours. Thereafter, he was a regular in the national team, mostly featuring in the outside-left position. With much of the season given over to friendlies, Linfield decided to enter the FA Cup in 1888- 89 and succeeded in reaching the first round proper, where they travelled over to achieve a commendable 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest, John attracting attention by virtue of his tremendous pace and the fact that he scored his side’s two goals. Linfield withdrew before the replay, playing Forest in a friendly, which they won 3-1.

However, when the Irish League was established in 1890-91, Linfield went on to win the competition in the first three seasons, remarkably winning the ‘double’ of the league and the Irish Cup on each occasion. John Peden was a key member of that team and in the spring of 1893 he began to attract some firm attention from English clubs anxious to recruit him, notably Newton Heath. He had played for Linfield in a friendly match against the Heathens in February 1893, when the Belfast club registered a 2-0 victory and later that month he John Peden in his playing days (John Peden)

page 28 Soccer History Issue 11 played for Ireland against England at Villa Park. After this match he was approached by officials of the Manchester club and signed amateur forms and a Football League registration form, before returning home. It seems he had no immediate intention of moving to England, possibly being concerned by the fact that once he had signed professional forms he would have to give up his place in the international team, and so he resolved to play out the 1892-93 season with Linfield, helping his colleagues to a 5-1 victory over Cliftonville in the Irish Cup final.

John made the transition to professionalism that summer and started the 1893-94 season playing for Newton Heath in their new home at Bank Street, Clayton. Although he was now 31 years old, John made an immediate impact on his Football League debut against Burnley on 2 September 1893, setting up the opening goal in a 3-2 victory and being prominent throughout the game. The Athletic News (4 September 1893) commented, “Peden was a success, and was carried off after the match, he and Fitzsimons [sic] making a grand wing.” Peden quickly established himself in the side, producing some fine contributions in the early part of the season, although his form tailed off as the campaign wore on and the team slipped towards the foot of the table. Match reports often noted his clever play from the wing, but when occasionally switched to the role of centre forward he was generally a disappointment. At the end of that season Newton Heath were forced to play against Liverpool in a Test Match (or play-off match in modern parlance) in order to retain their place in the First Division. The Merseyside club won 2-0 and Newton Heath were relegated, but John did not stay in Manchester, opting to move on to Sheffield United in the summer of 1894. United were of course a member of the top-flight at that time and there was the additional attraction that their centre forward Bob Hill had played alongside John in his Linfield days.

JOHN PEDEN FACTFILE Born: The Maze, Lisburn, 12 July 1863. Died: Belfast, 15 September 1944. Senior Career: Linfield (Sep 1886 to cs. 1893): 130A, 108G Newton Heath (cs. 1893 to Jul 1894): 32A, 8G Sheffield United (Jul 1894 to Dec 1894): 10A, 0G Distillery (Jul 1895 to Mar 1899): 87A, 41G Linfield (cs. 1899 to Apr 1906): 74A, 32G (statistics relate to all competitive matches) Ireland: 24A, 7G; debut vs. Scotland, 19 February 1887 Irish League: 4A, 1G Honours: Irish League Winner: 1890-91, 1891-92, 1892-93 (Linfield); 1895-96, 1898-99 (Distillery) Irish Cup Winner: 1891, 1893 (Linfield); 1896 (Distillery); 1902 (Linfield). City Cup Winner: 1901 (Linfield) County Antrim Shield Winner: 1890 (Shield withheld) (Linfield); 1896, 1897 (Distillery) Belfast Charities Cup Winner: 1891, 1892, 1893, 1901 (Linfield)

John never really settled at Bramall Lane, despite impressing with his skills and towards the end of 1894 he returned for a lengthy stay in Ireland, coinciding with the birth of twin daughters. The domestic game in Ireland now accepted professionalism and John opted for a return home the following summer, investing the money he had earned in England in a confectionary and tobacconists’ shop (‘The Forward’) on Sandy Row, close to the centre of Belfast. There was some surprise that he signed for Distillery and not Linfield, but Distillery offered a substantial wage of £1 a week, said to be the highest in Irish football

page 29 Soccer History Issue 11 at the time. In addition, although he had strong links with both clubs Linfield’s future was not firmly secure at this point for they had recently been forced to quit their ground at Ulsterville Avenue and were seeking a new home.

John spent the next four years with Distillery, and in his first season the club won the Irish League title for the first time, plus the Irish Cup and the County Antrim Shield for good measure. He also continued to represent both the Irish League and Ireland at international level during this period, one of his many achievements being to score the goal that secured his country their first-ever victory in an away game, in the fixture against Wales in February 1898. He was presented with the match ball and for many years this was displayed in the window of his shop to which was attached a verse: “This is the ball that did the trick and I’m the man who gave it the kick.” Distillery won the title for a second time in 1898-99 but at the end of that season, John was released. Now 37 years old, he rejoined Linfield and continued to represent them over the next few seasons, reverting to amateur status in June 1900. His principal role with the club was as the team’s coach, but he occasionally chose to select himself and his final appearance as a player came on 21 April 1906, when aged 42 years he lined up against Distillery in the Charities Cup semi-final tie.

Thereafter John ran his shop until his death in Belfast on 15 September 1944. His son Jack also proved a fine footballer, winning amateur international honours for Ireland and appearing for a string of Irish League clubs including Cliftonville, Queen’s Island, Bangor, Glentoran, Ards and Linfield in the 1920s.

John was undoubtedly one of the finest talents in Irish football of his era, and his style of play was in many ways reminiscent of another Irishman who was to play for Newton Heath’s successors Manchester United some 70 years later, a certain George Best. John possessed tremendous pace and dribbling skills and a powerful shot. Added to this he was occasionally temperamental, and on at least one occasion was sent off, playing for Distillery against Glentoran in the 1896-97 season. Although most of his football was played from the outside-left position, he was a prolific goal-scorer in domestic Irish football: 140 goals in 204 appearances for Linfield and 41 goals in 87 competitive appearances for Distillery. He was unable to match this in the more competitive field of the Football League, but scored regularly at international level. Comments on his play suggests he was perhaps more of an individual than a team player, and that he was often guilty of ‘playing to the gallery’. However, his style was popular with the fans who referred to him as “The People’s John”. As late as 1898, by which time he was very much at the veteran stage of his career, John was described as, “One of Ireland’s best forwards ... A player who exercises a lot of judgement in all his play. Has never failed to come up to expectations in an important match.” ( Ireland’s Saturday Night , 5 March 1898) His obituary in the same newspaper (16 September 1944) notes, “He was an artist on the field. His sprinting abilities, which won him many trophies at athletic meetings, made him one of the fastest wingers of his day. His ball control was a treat to watch, and he was adept at drawing the defence, cutting in and shooting with terrific power.”

John Peden’s importance in the history of Irish soccer is that he was not only a great talent, but a player who was immensely popular with the fans. One of the first Irish imports to make his mark in the Football League, he also holds the distinction of being Manchester United’s first Irish-born player.

Sources: Athletic News; Ulster Cycling & Football News; Ireland’s Saturday Night; Thanks to Gerald Leggett (great grandson), John Peden (grandson), Denis Clarebrough, Dawson Simpson, George Glass and Nicola Struthers of the Manchester United Museum for their assistance.

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Soccer History Issue 6 SOCCER’S KINDERGARTEN: KENT’S NURSERY CLUBS OF THE 1930s

The concept of the nursery club, whereby a senior club reaches a formal agreement with a more junior club that will allow youngsters to develop their skills away from the parent club, has begun to make a comeback in recent years. In modern parlance these are now termed ‘feeder’ or ‘satellite’ clubs but the relationship between, say, Manchester United and Royal Antwerp or Arsenal and KSK Beveren is essentially that of a traditional parent and nursery club. The fact that English clubs now make their arrangements with clubs abroad is a reflection both of the globalisation of the game and a desire to circumvent the more strict regulations on work permits applied here. Nurseries, of course, were commonplace in the 1930s, indeed the Weekly Illustrated newspaper of 29 August 1936 noted that, “Most first class clubs have nurseries for training and developing those men who have talent.” In this article I shall focus on the nurseries in Kent generally and compare the situation at the two best known of these nurseries: Northfleet United (Tottenham Hotspur) and Margate (Arsenal). At least two other full Detail from a programme cover for Margate from the 1936-37 nursery relationships existed within the season, proudly noting the club’s association with Arsenal county: Clapton Orient and Ashford (1934-35) (Jeff Trice) and Bexleyheath & Welling and Charlton Athletic (from 1935-36), plus numerous ‘informal arrangements’ between the county’s clubs and Football League sides, and these will occasionally be referred to. I shall consider in turn how and why the nursery arrangements were established, how they actually operated, how successful they were in developing talent and the advantages and disadvantages for the clubs involved.

The transition from star schoolboy footballer to professional player was not quite so smooth in the inter- war period as it is today. Boys usually left full-time education at 14 in those days and were forbidden from signing terms until their 17th birthday. There were no apprenticeship schemes, although occasionally a talented boy might be taken on the groundstaff of one of the bigger clubs, but even then few were ready to take their place in the competitive world of reserve-team football. In fact most of those who eventually enjoyed a career in professional football began their working life as an apprentice or trainee, often in the industrial sectors that dominated working-class employment. After two or three years of operating in age group or junior football they would be spotted by talent scouts and, if good enough, signed up by a Football League club. However, there was a long way to go until the youngster was ready for action in the Central League or Football Combination, and to bridge this gap Tottenham, and other senior clubs, began to develop the practice of ‘farming out’ youngsters to junior clubs in the local area during the 1920s. Spurs used a number of clubs in north London including Barnet and Cheshunt of the Athenian League and Haywards Sports (Spartan League) and also established a formal nursery based in Ebbw Vale in south Wales. Even when senior clubs began to run third or ‘A’ teams the desire to accommodate new talent was such that ‘farming out’ continued, but by the early 1930s these arrangements started to take on a more formal standing.

Tottenham’s relationship with Northfleet appears to have been initiated by the junior club in March 1922 when they attempted to recruit reserve full back Jimmy Ross from White Hart Lane as their manager. Northfleet offered terms of £8 per week, suggesting that £1 of this might be paid by Spurs in return for their having first call on any players over a three-year period. The offer was rejected, but in May of that year a formal agreement was made between the two clubs, unfortunately the Tottenham board minutes provide no further information on the nature of this deal. However, the Northfleet club were experiencing

page 3 Soccer History Issue 6 financial problems and in February of 1923 the situation reached crisis point. “Northfleet are passing through one of the worst seasons from a financial standpoint, that has fallen to them so far in their history,” noted the Gravesend & Dartford Reporter . (3 February 1924) This was something of an understatement, however, for the club was in grave danger of folding with expenses well adrift of the income from gate receipts. The reasons given were familiar: high local unemployment and a run of poor results were keeping the fans away and drastic surgery was needed. Manager Bert Lipsham was sacked, star player ‘Jerry’ Barnett was sold to Spurs with W Pilcher moving from White Hart Lane to Northfleet. The club now adopted a policy of playing a team of promising youngsters rather than experienced professionals, thus reducing their expenses considerably, and this appears to represent the start of a more formal relationship with Spurs. From the summer of 1923 up to half-a-dozen youngsters were placed at Northfleet, the first intake including Harry Skitt and Bill Lane. The former Falkirk player Billy Houston also arrived at the same time, apparently to take on the role of senior professional. Northfleet held an annual pre-season trial match behind closed doors at White Hart Lane under the watching eye of the Spurs’ management, but otherwise there was rarely any public recognition of the relationship between the two clubs. Spurs were still farming out players elsewhere and the evidence suggests that the transition to full nursery status did not take place until the summer of 1931. It is from this point that Spurs installed Jimmy Anderson as trainer, from when the two clubs effectively shared staff, and also when the Spurs’ handbook officially acknowledges the existence of the relationship.

In contrast to the gradual development of the relationship between Northfleet and Spurs, that between Margate and Arsenal began in a hail of publicity as a full-blown nursery arrangement. Arsenal were the leading club in England at the time, having just completed the second of their hat-trick of Football League titles. Manager George Allison, who had succeeded the late Herbert Chapman in June 1934, was a regular visitor to the Margate area, where his daughter attended a local school, and had also attended the opening of the Corporation medical baths in 1932, it is through the contacts he made in the area that the deal was struck. The Margate board seem to have been quite open about their motives - not only was there the attraction of playing future stars in their team, but as the club chairman bluntly put it, “We are getting a £150 team for a £30 or £40 ‘gate’, which suits Margate.” ( Isle of Thanet Gazette , 28 July 1934) Needless to say, Margate were experiencing some financial difficulties, having made a net loss of around £300 the previous season. Arsenal’s reasons for entering into the agreement were explained by chairman Major Sir Samuel Hill-Wood at a celebratory luncheon:

In the past we have suffered very much because we have been unable to take likely boys of eighteen or nineteen found by our scouts. We could not play them. Perhaps unfortunately our second team is at the head of the London Combination year after year, and we dare not experiment with the team. It would only offend players hoping to get their Combination medal. What we wanted was some club willing and good enough to teach our young players for us. We can and do find lots of promising young boys, but they must have somewhere to play and be taught. (Isle of Thanet Gazette, 7 July 1934)

Arsenal installed their own manager, Jack Ramsey, and appointed Peter McWilliam as the talent scout responsible for recruiting suitable players and allocating them to Margate. This was a significant move, for McWilliam had been the Tottenham manager when the initial deal with Northfleet had been made. There was a third party to the agreement, Margate Town Council, who owned the club’s Hartsdown Park ground. The council appear to have viewed their involvement as an extension of their campaign to promote the town as a seaside resort and agreed to spend around £1,000 improving facilities at the stadium. Shortly before the start of the 1934-35 season a group of seven youngsters arrived in Margate to take their places in the team and soon Arsenal were providing the majority of the players in their line-up. The initial batch of seven comprised three young professionals (Carr, Whitehouse and Tuckett) and four juniors (Brooks, Brophy, Knott and McCarthy) the oldest of the group was just 21, many were teenagers. Part of the deal was that the parent club would pay 60 per cent of their wages, leaving Margate to fund the remaining 40 per cent.

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A Northfleet United team group from 1936-37: (Back row, left to right): S Levett (Hon sec), WJ Treadwell (Vice-chairman), A Smith, L Hiscoke, H Leonard, G Barron, R Burgess, J Roberts, C Revell, JB Lingham (President), WH Hardy (Chairman) (Front row, left to right): J Anderson (trainer), F Cox, G Skinner, J Coxford, C Trailor, D Coulston, A Day (Andy Porter)

How did the nurseries operate in practise? The former Spurs player Ron Burgess provides a detailed account of life at Northfleet in his autobiography:

Each Saturday those members of the ground-staff who were registered playing members of the Northfleet club, would meet at the Tottenham ground to board a coach for London Bridge. There we caught a train for Northfleet, or wherever we were playing in Kent, for we were members of the Kent Senior League. ... We were a young side at Northfleet, for the average age of the lads, with the exception of our skipper and centre-half, Jack Coxford, could not have been more than 19 years. Jack was the “old head” amongst that bunch of sprightly youth, and what he didn’t know about the game wasn’t worth knowing! He did his best to impart some of his knowledge and experience to us by his grand example and influence. ... The football played in the Kent Senior League was far better than anything I had encountered up to that time. It was hard and the opposition was robust, but it did us no harm, for it taught us the value of all-out effort for the whole of the ninety minutes of each game. (Ron Burgess, Football: My Life, London, 1952, pp 27-29)

The Spurs players trained at White Hart Lane during the week under Jimmy Anderson and only travelled to Kent on match days. This was in contrast to the situation at Margate, where the Arsenal youngsters lived and trained locally. Both, however operated on similar principles, with a manager employed by the parent club and an experienced professional or two to guide a team essentially comprising teenagers. Clapton Orient, who had a nursery arrangement with Ashford Town during the 1934-35 season, similarly appointed their own manager, Tommy Lucas, to run the team.

Tottenham seem to have done much better in the long term from their nursery arrangement than the Gunners. Certainly the arrangement was much more stable - Arsenal faced a number of administration problems in the early days of their relationship with Margate, firstly over their wish to play the strongest team in the Southern League (they were eventually forced to give precedence to Kent League fixtures for 1934-35) and secondly when they were eliminated from the FA Cup over player

page 6 Soccer History Issue 6 registration discrepancies. A total of 37 players appeared in the Football League for Spurs after developing at Northfleet, nine of whom went on to gain full international honours. Margate, which served as a nursery for only four years, was not so productive, many of the youngsters only managing just a handful of appearances for the Gunners, although often featuring for other clubs later in their careers. The Isle of Thanet Gazette of 4 September 1937 listed a total of 20 players who had previously been associated with the Margate nursery and had moved on. Only one of these, Reg Lewis, proved a significant figure at Highbury, and although most of the others played in the Football League only one, Mal Griffiths, went on to appear at international level. Reference to Jeff Harris’s Arsenal Who’s Who suggests that only 13 players in total progressed from Margate to make a senior appearance for the Gunners, two of whom, Griffiths and Horace Cumner won full international caps, while a third, George Marks, appeared for England during the war. It should be noted, however, that Arsenal were one of the country’s top clubs in the late 1930s, with a side packed full of stars, whereas Spurs were a Second Division club. Arsenal must have regarded the venture as a success for when the agreement with Margate fell through at the end of 1937-38 they set up an ‘A’ team which played in the Southern League during the following season operating from Enfield’s ground.

For the junior clubs involved in these arrangements the rewards seemed obvious: they were gaining a team full of talented players for an apparent pittance, large crowds, success on the field and a cupboard full of trophies would follow without a doubt. At a time when many of the semi-professional clubs in the Kent and Southern Leagues were experiencing money problems, a nursery arrangement seemed to provide an instant solution. This was only partly true, although both Northfleet and Margate enjoyed unprecedented success on the field during their nursery periods. Northfleet won the Kent League on five occasions between 1931 and 1939, the Kent League Cup four times and the Kent Senior Cup once. Margate seemed almost invincible at times during their four-year spell as Arsenal’s nursery: in 1935-36 they won the Southern League Central and Eastern Sections, the Kent Senior Cup, Kent Senior Shield and Kent League Cup, in 1936-37 they won the Southern League Midweek Section, Kent Senior Cup and Kent Senior Shield, and even in the final season of the arrangement they won the Kent League.

There were some obvious downsides: the senior clubs could recall players at any moment, thus producing a degree of instability within the nurseries, and the FA eventually banned nursery clubs from

Margate with the Kent Senior Cup, 1935-36: (Back row, left to right): W Arbuckle (trainer), John Millar, Jimmy Evans, Charlie Preedy, Charlie Walker, Harry Brophy, Paddy Doherty, Bill Green (match secretary) (Front row, left to right): Dave Robbie, Andy Farr, Jack Lambert, John Davie, Joe Clare (Jeff Trice)

page 7 Soccer History Issue 6 entering the FA Cup, thus removing the possibility of a lucrative run in the competition. The problem of what might happen if a nursery club was drawn against their parent club had already been faced when Ashford Town hosted Clapton Orient in the first round in the 1934-35 season, but no decision was made until 1937. However, these were relatively minor issues.

The attraction of becoming a nursery was such that towards the end of the decade it almost reached a point when any Kent club facing financial difficulties would actively seek a senior club to provide salvation. Shortly before Ramsgate folded in the summer of 1936 the Isle of Thanet Gazette (9 May 1936) noted that, “The most common opinion now is that only by setting up as a rival nursery to Margate can Ramsgate hope to attract sufficient support.” Chelsea and Fulham were both mentioned as possible partners but nothing materialised and the club folded. The truth was that the economic recession had a severe effect on Kent football for most of the 1930s, the semi-professional clubs in particular found that attendances (although in excess of today’s levels) were producing income well short of that needed to pay wages and other expenses. Clubs unable to find a full nursery partner opted for ‘informal’ links with Football League clubs, presumably enabling the senior outfit to farm out players on a regular basis for a fee. Canterbury Waverley had an agreement with Crystal Palace and Ramsgate with Fulham during the middle of the decade. However, the nursery arrangements needed careful financial management to enable the junior club to cope with their additional expenses. Northfleet seem to have managed this, although it may have been because they had the solid backing of president Joe Lingham.

However, although Margate’s arrangement with Arsenal produced success on the field of play, it was a disaster financially. Each season the Kent club seemed to produce a larger deficit and after the team had won almost everything they entered in 1936-37 they were forced to withdraw from the Southern League for the following season. The situation went from bad to worse, and the club was reported to be losing around £30 a week on the deal. Arsenal, who claimed the nursery arrangement cost them around £2,000 a year, refused to renegotiate the terms and by the start of 1938 it was clear the arrangement would end when the season closed. The Highbury club were clearly happy with the way their youngsters were developing in Southern League football, for they entered the competition under their own name in 1938-39, but refused to increase their financial commitment. “We cannot go on being a Santa Claus,” announced George Allison, and although the Margate directors grumbled on about the ‘tragedy’ that was about to take place, they had little choice but to close down in the summer of 1938. When the Isle of Thanet Gazette’s correspondent ‘Full-back’ wrote (23 April 1938), “The Margate club will never succeed until they stop building castles in the air,” he was probably correct. That early comment about getting a £150 team for a £30 gate was of course naïve in the extreme and ultimately the venture failed because the directors had been living a dream - the reality in football has always been that if clubs cannot match their income to their expenses they will find themselves in trouble eventually, however many trophies that find their way into the boardroom cabinet.

The outbreak of war in September 1939 effectively brought an end to the nursery club arrangements and with the development of a more formal national structure for youth football from the late 1940s, most senior clubs began to run additional teams: ‘A’ teams and even ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams became widespread. Most nurseries did not recommence, although one famous nursery that did exist in the 1950s was the Wath Wanderers club, which operated as the Yorkshire subsidiary of Wolverhampton Wanderers. The nurseries themselves had provided a successful developing ground for the Football League clubs, although the junior partners, as we have seen, rarely gained any long-term advantage.

Main sources: Gravesend & Dartford Reporter; Isle of Thanet Gazette; Kentish Express; A Porter, ‘The Northfleet Nursery’ in Spurs Magazine, Feb 1996; R Burgess, Football: My Life (London, 1952); J Jones, A History of Northfleet United to 1938 (unpublished work held at Gravesend Library); J Harris, Arsenal Who’s Who (London, 1995) Also thanks to Andy Porter for his considerable assistance, Jeff Trice, whose website www.margatefchistory.co.uk is well worth a visit, the staff at Gravesend Library for their help and Paul Harrison for his comments.

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Soccer History Issue 1 “THE CHARGE AT FOOTBALL IS GOOD, THAT WITH THE BAYONET FINER”: THE FORMATION OF THE FOOTBALLERS’ BATTALION, 1914

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.

(Athletic News, 19 October 1914)

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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 philanthopist, 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 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 fray, 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.

It should be noted here 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 large 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

page 4 Soccer History Issue 1 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. The Southern League provided one of their leading officials, treasurer JB Skeggs of Millwall. In the light of the Conservative Party connections of several of the politicians, it is perhaps significant to register here that the Southern League president, the Right Hon. Sydney Buxton, a prominent Liberal MP, was a notable absentee. The two Army men appear to have been from the London recruiting office. Also on the organising committee, but not apparently on the platform, was Sir Henry C Eggar. The political background of the key figures on the platform, and Norris’s reputation as an ambitious wheeler-dealer suggest that the venture was as much about increasing his own personal profile as about appeasing football’s critics. He went on to become MP for East Fulham in 1918 and when the professional game recommenced in 1919 he successfully negotiated Arsenal into the First Division despite Tottenham having a better case. His career in football ended in 1927 when he was banned from the game after financial irregularities were uncovered at the Highbury club.

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,” but the reality was somewhat different in relation to professional players. Recruitment at the time was principally aimed at unmarried men, of whom there were estimated to be around 600 amongst the ranks of professional footballers. A significant proportion of these were based in the north of England, although the battalion announced it would only recruit men from clubs south of the River Trent. Initial interest was high, with 4-500 present at the meeting, but of these only 35 enlisted on the day, and by the end of the year The Sportsman 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 inaugural meeting (Ratcliffe of Arsenal was an administrator and not on the playing staff). By March the number of recruits from amongst professional players had reached just 122. Even then the men had an assurance they would not see active service until the end of the 1914-15 season, and there was an agreement they would be released to play on Saturdays.

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The inescapable conclusion is that the Footballers’ Battalion was little more than a publicity exercise, designed on the part of the football authorities to try and halt the wave of criticism and used by the War Office for propaganda. Ultimately however, it was the first step on the path to closing the professional game down. With gate receipts reduced by around 50 per cent many clubs began to suffer financial problems and it was perhaps no surprise when wages were reduced in March 1915 (the maximum wage dropped from £208 per annum to £156). Professional football in England closed down at the end of that season, a result of financial considerations as much as public pressure.

Principal Sources: The Times; The Sportsman; The Athletic News; The History of the Football Association 1863- 1953, G Green (London, 1953); League Football and the Men Who Made It, S Inglis (London, 1988); Association Football and English Society 1863-1915, T Mason (Brighton, 1980); Not Just on Christmas Day, J Bailey (Upminster, 1999); Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament, M Stenton, S Lees (Brighton, 1978, 1979) .

From: The Sportsman, Wednesday 16 December 1914

F. A. WAR RALLY.

BIG MEETING AT FULHAM.

THE BATTALION STARTED.

FIRST BATCH OF ENLISTMENTS.

Yesterday’s meeting at the Fulham Town Hall, kindly lent for the purpose by the Mayor, Mr H. G. Norris, must be pronounced a success. It was arranged for the purpose of giving a send-off to the Footballers’ Battalion, officially known as the 17th Service Battalion Middlesex Regiment of Kitchener’s Army, and was attended by four or five hundred officials and players and others interested in the Association game. It had been intended to use the smaller hall, but the players trooped in as one party just before the time fixed (half-past 3) in such numbers that a move was made to the larger one, which was practically filled. Mr W. Joynson-Hicks, M.P., occupied the chair, having on his right Mr H. G. Norris (the Mayor of Fulham) and on his left the Right Hon W. Hayes-Fisher, P.C., M.P., whilst others on the platform were the Right Hon Lord Kinnaird, K.T. (President of the Football Association), who could not arrive until some time after the meeting had been in progress, Col Grantham, Capt Whiffen, Capt Wells-Holland (Clapton Orient), Messrs J. B. Skeggs (Millwall) and F. J. Wall, who is acting as hon sec of the project. In the body of the hall were directors and officials of most of the leading professional clubs in and around the metropolis, including Messrs C. D. Crisp, J. Hall, and G. Morrell (The Arsenal), A. J. Palmer (Chelsea), S. Bourne (Crystal Palace), T. A. Descock, M. F. Cadman, and P. McWilliam (Tottenham Hotspur), P. Kelso (Fulham), and others too numerous to mention. The Chairman opened proceedings with a splendid speech, in which he stated that most of those present were fully aware of the reason for which they had assembled, nor were they ignorant of the amount of correspondence and articles which had been appearing in the Press attacking footballers, football clubs, and even those who looked on. But the present was not a meeting called to answer those attacks. The country was at war with a great Power, Germany, and not until the stern struggle was over was it the time for recriminations. There was for the time being

page 6 Soccer History Issue 1 no party in the House of Commons, and he wished them to take the same line. Everybody to-day was for the State, everybody against Germany: all were anxious to make the path of those in charge easy, and assure ultimate victory. They could only endure, and then if they thought it worth while after the war was over they could answer their critics. His own view was that that magnificent meeting was an answer, and the best that could be made was to ensure the successful formation of the Footballers’ Battalion , or a Footballers’ Brigade. (Hear, hear) He had slipped rather curiously into this matter. He had been engaged in an attempt of another kind which doubtless for good reason did not receive sanction, but he was told by the War Office that if willing he could join with the Football Association in raising a Footballers’ Battalion. He was delighted to do so, and had the previous day received the sanction for the formation of the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, “the Die Hards.” (Applause.) There were, however, several essentials required. First, the players must have the sympathy of their clubs. A meeting was held last week at which the London professional clubs unanimously decided to grant every possible facility to the players, and also for recruiting on their grounds. They also wanted a battalion for themselves; footballers who were used to playing together on the field wished to be together on the battlefield of Flanders, and to be side by side with those with whom they fought at football. The third point was that those men under contract should have the Saturday off to play in matches, and as the result of several interviews with the War Office he was able to state that Lord Kitchener had granted that request, and players under contract will be given time off to enable football to be played till the end of the season in accordance with their contracts. They had secured on the Committee Lord Kinnaird, Mr J. C. Clegg, Mr Hayes-Fisher, whom they in Fulham know so well, the Mayor of Fulham (Mr Norris) and last, but not least, Mr F. J. Wall had consented to act as hon. Secretary, and the Football Association had placed the offices at 42, Russell-square, at their disposal. As soon as it was known that the battalion was to be raised there were many applications received to become officers and non-commissioned officers. It was better to be led on the field of battle by men who had led them on the field of football, and there was a certainty of first-rate N.C.O.’s, and the whole strength of a battalion depended on its N.C.O.’s. There were numerous officers in the Guards, etc., who had played in football teams, and who would like to rejoin and take their places in the Footballers’ Battalion. He would be glad, after Mr Hayes-Fisher had spoken, if those thinking of joining would ask him any questions. He did not wish to enlist them under false pretences, for they were not asked to engage in any picnic. It was a war of business, bitterness, and danger. They were not merely fighting for Belgium, not for a mere “scrap of paper,” nor even for the honour of Great Britain; they would be fighting for their homes, their wives and their children. Terribly as Germany had treated Belgium - (A Voice: And Poland too) - this would be multiplied tenfold if Germany got across to our shores, and the question one had to ask was, “Can I live as an Englishman without doing something against the barbarians?” Don’t think the war will soon be over; don’t think they were to remain in comfort. The game they had been playing was great, the game in Flanders would be a greater; the charge at football was good, that with the bayonet finer; the cheers of the crowd were not to be compared with the sound of the bullet and the noise of the big guns. If asked years hence what they had done in the Great War, what would they be able to reply? He appealed to them to rally round and form a battalion that would redound to the honour of footballers, not only throughout the length of this country, but from the confines of Flanders to the centre of Berlin. (Loud applause.) The Right Hon. W. Hayes-Fisher, who also had a hearty reception, said that as president of the Fulham F.C., he was proud of being a profound believer in sport, in most branches of which he had indulged in his earlier days, and he was one of those very wicked individuals who did not object nowadays to looking on at football. (Applause and laughter.) He earnestly appealed to

page 7 Soccer History Issue 1 footballers and the friends of footballers to join, and they ought easily to raise the 1350 for the battalion. He could not altogether fall in with the chairman’s idea that they should not at the present time reply to their critics, who altogether misunderstood the facts, and treated them to the worst nonsense that had ever been written. There were about 2000 players actually earning their livelihood at football, and some seemed to think that the moment these enlisted they would have been fit to fight as soldiers, and if only they had crossed over those 2000 could have driven the Germans out of France and Belgium. (Laughter) A query was interposed as to whether there were not over 4000 registered professionals in England, but it was explained that many of these were at work all the week and earned a few shillings by playing on the Saturday. Mr Hayes-Fisher, continuing, said that critics argued as to the thousands whom, by playing, they were keeping from joining. In connection with the famous crowd at Chelsea he pointed out that nearly one-half were in khaki, fully a thousand under age. Football would not keep away one in a thousand who really wanted to join, and if there were such a man he would scarcely be a desirable. Recruiting had not failed; they had it on the authority of Mr Bonar Law on Monday, and Lord Kitchener and the Prime Minister had said the same thing. London had done well, Fulham better than any other district and of amateur footballers the metropolis had sent 8700. The attendances had fallen off 50 per cent. What had become of the absent crowd? Most of them were now playing the game elsewhere. He did not care how unpopular he became, but he felt bound to refute the unjust charges which had been made. The question of joining must be left to every man’s conscience. Let each one ask himself whether he ought not to be fighting against the tyranny of an evil monarch, an evil people. He pointed to the example of their leader (Lord Kinnaird, who had just entered the hall), who had given his nearest. He merely asked for fair play for football; there ought to be an equality of sacrifice. A point he wished to bring home was this: He and Lord Kinnaird were directors of a certain company. They had let 25 per cent of the staff join the colours and were able to pay them their salary and to promise reinstatement when the war was over. But take a football professional who returned with the loss of a leg or had one shattered. The clerk might still be employed, but the professional footballer would no longer be able to continue his profession or earn money. He suggested that something might be done to arrange some special system of insurance with the insurance companies to meet such cases. It would be idle to disguise the fact that they would be running such risks, but he knew that footballers were courageous and would not be deterred for that reason. There was under consideration some further scheme as to pensions, etc. They should pay no heed to the unfair criticisms, but show by conspicuous courage and patriotism how false the accusations were, and he was certain that they would secure some of the best men in the Kingdom to fight their country’s battles. It was stated that enrolment could be made either at the meeting or at 42, Russell-sq. They wanted each to become, as it were, a recruiting officer to his club; they wanted the amateurs, the people who played, and those who looked on. Several queries were asked, which elicited the fact that the pay of the single men would be 7s. per week with all found; for the married men the same with 12s. 6d. allowance for their wives (3s. 6d. extra if resident within the London postal area) and further allowances for children, according to their number. The pay of the players will be provided as usual, and the committee will furnish the travelling expenses of those returning from camp to take part in Saturday games. Until their quarters were ready 2s. 9d. would be allowed to each man. Lord Kinnaird, who was warmly cheered, said that the movement was a right one. Footballers had come to the front in times of stress in the past and were doing so now. He believed that large numbers would flock to the rally, especially as their wages, supplemented by the Government

page 8 Soccer History Issue 1 rates of pay, would be forthcoming to the end of the season. What London did that day the country would doubtless follow, and they were to have the privilege, as banks and insurance offices had done, of being together as “pals,” which Lord Derby had said made for success. Moreover, each club could act as a rallying party. He referred to Scots who had in a few weeks became famous and earned the V.C. He cordially endorsed the appeal to them to set the example by being the first to join the Footballers’ Battalion, and to follow the 100,000 connected with the grand game of football who were already serving their King and country. The first player to step on the platform was the Clapton Orient right-winger, F. W. Parker, who was born at Weymouth twenty-eight years ago. Buckley (of Bradford) and Needham (Brighton and Hove) were also in the first batch. Once or twice there was a lull, but a few inspiriting words from the platform - Mr H. Glibbery, father of the Essex goalkeeper, also addressed a few words as to the excellent way in which his sons found themselves treated at the front - provided a stimulus, and eventually thirty-five were secured. Clapton Orient and Croydon Common responding especially well. These were at once enlisted. Mr S. Bourne (Crystal Palace) enquired whether it might not be possible to secure the transfer to the Footballers’ Battalion of some of those who had recently joined but would prefer to be with their old football friends? The chairman replied that it was, of course, a matter for the War Office authorities, but the committee would see what could be dome in the matter. The Mayor of Fulham (Mr H. G. Norris) moved a very hearty vote of thanks to the chairman and the other gentlemen who had kindly attended and spoken, stating that several of the directors of clubs intended joining. Captain Wells-Holland seconded, stating that the players were not being forced into joining, though he hoped to see Clapton Orient with a platoon of its own. The battalion would be a splendid answer to the unjust strictures in the press. The vote was carried with enthusiasm, and in replying the chairman said he did not require any thanks. Turning to the players grouped behind him, he explained: “These are the thanks, the expression of loyalty footballers have given to the King.” He stated that Mr Hayes-Fisher had kindly consented to answer by return of post any queries as to pay, allowances, etc., on which matter he was an authority. The meeting concluded with the hearty singing of the National Anthem by the whole company.

THE ENLISTMENT LIST

ARSENAL: ... Ratcliffe. BRADFORD: F. C. Buckley. BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION: A. Needham, R. Routledge, F. Spencer, and J. Woodhouse. CHELSEA: W. Krug, D. Girdwood, and E. Foord. CLAPTON ORIENT: F. W. Parker, J. Hugall, N. Evans, H. Gibson, R. Dalrymple, W. Jonas, E. King, A. W. Tilley, R. McFadden, and ... Pearson. CROYDON COMMON: E. C. Williamson, T. Newton, D. Upex, C. Smith, A. J. Tomkins, and P. Barnfather. CRYSTAL PALACE: J. Bowler and ... Middleton. LUTON TOWN: H. P. Roberts and F. Lindley. SOUTHEND UNITED: F. Robson. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: G. Bowler and J. Oliver. WATFORD: R. Williams, A. Stewart, and J. McLaughlan.

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Soccer History Issue 13 THE BARRHEAD SENSATION: ARTHURLIE 4, CELTIC 2

Whilst there has been a long and healthy record of giantkilling in the FA Cup, the near dominance of the Old Firm in Scotland had led to a situation where they have rarely been troubled by such inconveniences. In modern times the defeat of Rangers by Berwick back in 1967 and Celtic’s loss to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2000 are two extremely rare incidents of major cup shocks. Prior to that one has to delve into the depths of history to uncover an earlier upset of similar proportions: in fact back to 1897 when Celtic fell victim to Arthurlie, a team not even considered of sufficient strength to be accepted as members of the Scottish League. On that occasion, however, the slaying of the giants from Parkhead was not so much a result of some well-aimed strikes by their lower-level opponents, but, as we shall see, a self-inflicted blow by a group of players who saw themselves as more important than the club. The consequences were far reaching and the re-organisation that followed paved the way for greater success in the following years.

Although the club had been in existence for barely a decade, Celtic could already justifiably claim to be Scotland’s leading side by early 1897. Their record in the Scottish Cup (one win, losing finalists on three occasions) was less noteworthy than that in the Scottish League, a competition in which they had yet to finish outside of the top three, winning the title in 1892-93, 1893-94 and 1895-96. Irish and Catholic, although not exclusively so, in many ways they were the intruders in a Scottish, Protestant society and had already become a standard bearer for the community they represented. The top players were the super stars of their day and to some extent the problems that emerged in the 1896-97 season can be seen as a result of a group of these stars adopting an attitude that suggests they thought they were more important than the club and ‘untouchable’. What is clear is that the Arthurlie defeat was not a one-off incident, a blip that could be soon forgotten, but part of a sequence of events which effectively saw the team self-destruct and which pushed the club to reorganise itself with a more modern, businesslike structure to ensure this did not happen again.

At the start of the 1896-97 season Celtic were looking to retain the Scottish League title and make it four wins out of five in the competition. In those days the Scottish League occupied the first half of the season, then from early January the Scottish Cup took over, with spare Saturdays generally filled with supplementary league competitions, which in the case of Celtic meant fixtures in the Glasgow League. The club’s troubles first came to the surface in November 1896 following a series of reports in the Glasgow Evening News and its sister paper the Scottish Referee criticising the team for rough play. The players demanded that the offending reporters should be excluded from the press box for the home game against Hibernian on 28 November. The committee refused to accede to this demand and three men, Barney Battles, John Divers and Peter Meehan, effectively went on strike, refusing to take the field. Replacements were found at short notice, but the damage to team morale and relationships with the committee had already been done.

That some players, however valuable to the team, felt they had so much power that they could decide who was allowed in the press box suggests there was something seriously wrong with the set-up in place at Parkhead. The club was a democratic, membership- based organisation, one member, one vote, run by a committee that was elected annually. However, below this there were few structures: Willie Maley, who was (Scottish Sport, 12 January 1897) page 7 Soccer History Issue 13

on the playing staff, was match secretary but apart from a trainer there was no other intermediary between the players and the committee. Thus although the committee selected the team, the players would have relied on a degree of self organisation on the pitch, and probably on their own individual negotiating skills when making agreements as to contracts and wages. The committee, in their role as managers, reacted as most employers of the time would have done when faced with industrial action from their employees - they suspended the three rebels and carried on regardless.

The absence of three star men seemed to have little impact on the club’s campaign, and indeed at the turn of the year they must have been favourites to retain their title. Involved in a four-way tussle Willie Maley, appointed as Celtic’s first secretary-manager in the with Rangers, Hearts and Hibernian, Celtic were leaders, albeit on aftermath of the Arthurlie defeat goal average, with two games remaining and victory in both would have ensured the trophy.

P PTS Celtic 16 24 Hibernian 16 24 Hearts 16 24 Rangers 16 23

When the draw for the Scottish Cup first round was announced it seemed to offer an easy victory for the Parkhead club, indeed Arthurlie offered to switch the tie in return for £70, confirming that they considered their only gain from the tie would be financial. However, circumstances conspired to produce a very different outcome. Perhaps the most significant of these was that instead of just three players absent it seemed that the full first-team squad had made themselves unavailable for one reason or another. Some were legitimately absent through injury, but others appeared to have deliberately stayed away - suggesting that the ‘player power’ revolt of the previous November had extended to several other stars at the club. Although some modern sources suggest that Celtic failed to turn out a full team of eleven men, a trawl of a range of contemporary sources has failed to yield a single reference to the team being short of players and I can only conclude that this was not the case. The reports are quite comprehensive and if Celtic had begun with only seven men (as has been suggested) this would surely have been noted. It is undisputed, however, that Celtic were short of several regular first-team players for the match, and a comment in the Evening Citizen that, “Celtic were not fully represented, being without Doyle, Orr, Russell and Gilhooly,” may have been the source of this.

Celtic’s selection problems began with goalkeeper Dan McArthur, who had been carried off injured during the previous week’s Glasgow League fixture against Rangers and had not yet recovered sufficiently to return to his place between the posts. Centre forward Alexander McMahon had recently suffered the loss of his father, which might explain his absence, although some reports also suggest he was carrying an injury, while Charlie McEleney was also on the injured list. None of these problems could have been avoided, but the situation was further compounded by the fact that the three rebels from the previous November were still under internal suspension, while the absence of four more men meant that the eleven players who lined up represented little more than a scratch team (“The Shadow of a Team” as the Glasgow Observer described them, 16 January 1897). Dan Doyle chose the occasion to withdraw his labours in connection with a dispute with the committee over wages, James Orr was injured, and it seems that both Davie Russell (who apparently missed his train) and Pat Gilhooly chose not to appear. The press certainly put no blame at the hands of the injured men, but others were publicly criticised: the Scottish Referee (11 January 1897) hinted that there might have been other reasons, “The disaster could have been prevented had certain players exercised a certain degree of moderation in their pursuit of pleasures.” Although of inferior status, Arthurlie were still a competent outfit and had progressed to the first round via Qualifying Cup victories over Thornliebank,

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Kilmarnock Athletic and Blantyre Victoria. Significantly the circumstances surrounding the tie were similar to those surrounding many a famous cup giant-killing act over the years. Firstly the smaller team adopted a robust approach and their players were clearly fired up and ready for the challenge. Secondly the pitch and playing conditions were very much against Celtic - the ground was small and compact, the pitch was uneven and with a distinctive slope, while there was a stiff breeze blowing from end to end; these factors combined to render much of the bigger club’s close-passing style of play ineffective. However, as almost every correspondent noted, the key factor in the upset was the strength of the team fielded by Celtic. The Glasgow Observer even went as far as to say, “It is safe to say that if the same elevens were pitched against each other on the same field Arthurlie would triumph four times out of five.”

The teams lined up for the occasion as follows:Arthurlie: Airston; Smith, Hirst; Miller Tennant, Bodys; Hannigan, Tait, Ovens, Speirs, McGregor Celtic: Cullen; John King, Crossan; Farrell, Kelly, Alex King; Morrison, Blessington, McIlveney, Henderson, Ferguson

Celtic had the advantage of the slope in the first half and with the strong wind behind them they made a promising start, peppering the Arthurlie goal with shots in the early stages of the game. The defence held firm and it was the home side who took the lead on seven minutes with a break away effort from Hannigan. McIlveney equalised five minutes later, but shortly before half time Hannigan added a second, again from a break away, to put Arthurlie in front once more. After failing to take advantage of the conditions in the first period, Celtic struggled during the final 45 minutes and rarely threatened, one report notes that Morrison and Blessington (two of the more senior players) were “particularly useless.” They were a well-beaten team by the end of 90 minutes, Hannigan completing his hat-trick and McGregor adding a fourth before Ferguson netted a consolation for the visitors in the final minutes.

The newspapers were full of praise for Arthurlie, and the sensational nature of the result was immediately recognised. Scottish Sport, for example, noted that the result “... was a real blue-blooded sensation, which will in all likelihood be included hereinafter in the select list of historic sensations associated with the game.” The Glasgow Observer referred to the occasion as, “A crushing disaster - the worst possibly in the history of the Celtic club.” However, the blame for the defeat was almost exclusively placed on the players and sympathy was widely expressed for the plight of the club committee. The Glasgow Evening News was typical of most when it stated, “... the Celtic club is deserving of sympathy. It was through no fault of the Committee that the tie was lost.” (11 January 1897) The events of the previous November had not been forgotten and were identified as having contributed to the defeat: “How far the Celtic’s latest and greatest misfortune is attributable to the now historic ‘revolt’ of November last, it may not be possible to estimate precisely, but that it has had more than an outside and indirect influence we cannot doubt.” (Scottish Sport, 12 January 1897)

Arthurlie met with defeat at the hands of Morton in the next round, but ironically were drawn to play Celtic in the first round the following season, again at Barrhead. This time there was no miracle and they were defeated 7-0. The two were to meet again in the first round in 1928-29, when Celtic won 5-1 at Parkhead. This was to be Arthurlie’s last-ever Scottish Cup tie as the club then switched to Junior status.

The Celtic committee responded to the ignominious defeat immediately and over the next few months fundamental changes were put into place as they sought to prevent the downward spiral destroying the club. Within a week two of the players, John King and Harry McIlveney, were “given their walking tickets” and the following month Ching Morrison and Willie Ferguson were moved on to Burnley. Several players had their wages docked as a result of what happened at Barrhead and in fact almost all those who had lined up that day, plus the three November rebels, had departed before the end of the season. The players, perhaps sensing that the good times were over responded with some lacklustre performances, and the League title was effectively lost when Dundee secured victory at Parkhead with a last-minute goal. The situation became so bad that the Glasgow Observer, a strong supporter of the club, noted, “We are heartily sorry for the Celtic management at the state of affairs, because it is perfectly plain that the players are doing what they please, knowing that the bosses have no others to fall back on.” (20 March 1897)

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The week after the Arthurlie defeat Celtic officials had been involved in the establishment of a new athletics and cycling club, the Celtic Harriers, a venture which was also promoted by the Hibernian Swimming Club and which was to be exclusively Catholic. This club was to be allowed to use the facilities at Parkhead for training on Wednesday evenings, however, the need to improve those facilities to allow for championship racing would require the raising of funds. What better way to achieve this than by changing the status of the club to that of a limited liability company? This was the path chosen, and although there was dissatisfaction amongst the fans at the replacement of a democratic structure with one based on the power of money, the moves went through. One of the first duties of the new board was to appoint Willie Maley as secretary- manager and thus install a powerful management figure capable of controlling the players more directly. The investment produced by the share issue meant that money was more readily available to recruit players and as a result the team that lined up for the Glasgow Charity Cup final in May contained a host of new faces from England. The squad had been replaced almost in its entirety by the start of the 1897-98 season, with the dissatisfied players either having departed or having been brought to order, and the club was effectively able to start afresh once more.

In conclusion it can be seen that the defeat by Arthurlie was part of a sequence of events that resulted from an outbreak of ‘player power’ at Parkhead in the 1896-97 season, beginning with the November strike and ending with the disappointing failure to retain the Scottish League title. The committee having chosen to stand their ground with the November rebels had little choice but to sit out the problem and accept the loss with dignity. Fundamental to the problem was a widening gulf between the committee and the star players. This was resolved by restructuring the club as a limited company and appointing a secretary-manager to act as an intermediary between the board of directors and the players. In the short term this was successful, for the club were League champions once more in 1897-98 and this paved the way for the run of six consecutive League titles between 1904 and 1910.

Main Sources: Scottish Sport; Scottish Referee; Glasgow Observer & Catholic Herald; Glasgow Evening Times; Glasgow Evening News; Bob Crampsey, ‘An Ignominious Discharge’ in Tom Campbell (ed.), Ten Days That Shook Celtic (2005).

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Soccer History Issue 16 THE OPENING OF THE FIRST WEMBLEY STADIUM

With the new Wembley Stadium finally a reality after so many delays, it seems an appropriate time to look back at the first version of Wembley. In this article I shall examine the background to the building of the original stadium before going on to consider the reaction of the popular press (Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Herald, Daily Mirror) to the 1923 FA Cup Final, when the stadium was used for the very first time. The occasion, as is well known, was somewhat chaotic with the capacity hugely exceeded although the match between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United was successfully played to a conclusion.

Although Wembley Park had been linked to the tube network from 1901, when the Metropolitan Railway Company extended its line out to Harrow-on-the-Hill, the area remained a semi-rural environment through until after 1919. For some time a structure known as ‘Watkins’ Folly’ had stood where the stadium was eventually built. An attempt to copy the Eiffel Tower, only the first tier of this structure was ever erected and this was eventually dismantled in 1908. The land had subsequently provided a home for Wembley Park Golf Club from 1910 until April 1922, when the development of the new stadium began in earnest.

In the aftermath of the Great War a proposal was mooted for an Imperial Exhibition to be held on the land at Wembley Park and the Football Association was approached with a view to supporting the venture. The FA had been staging the FA Cup Final at Stamford Bridge as a temporary measure as Crystal Palace had been requisitioned as a War Service Depot and was unavailable for the 1919 final. The feeling was that refurbishment of the Crystal Palace venue would not be as cost effective as supporting a brand new stadium and in May 1921 the FA Ground Committee visited the Wembley site, soon afterwards signing a 21-year contract with the exhibition company to stage the Cup Final at the yet-to-be-built venue.

The crowd on the pitch before the match.

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The first piece of turf was ceremonially cut by the Duke of York in January 1922 and with a phenomenal speed, certainly not matched by modern contractors, the stadium was fully completed on 24 April 1923, just days before the Cup Final was due to take place. In the intervening 16 months some 250,000 tons of earth had been excavated, in its place went 25,000 tons of concrete, 600 tons of reinforcing steel, 1,400 tons of structural steel and half-a-million rivets. The stadium was ready for its first taste of action, although it should be noted that there had been no trial run and this was the first- ever football match to be staged by the exhibition company, factors which undoubtedly contributed to the events that followed. The Empire Exhibition itself, costing some £12 million, covering some 219 acres and displaying the merits of all corners of Britain’s vast empire, did not open until April 1924, shortly after the second Wembley Cup Final.

There was little hint of the chaos to come in the newspaper previews of the match. The Mirror’s coverage was typical of all four popular papers: printing a helpful map and instructions on how fans might travel to the stadium on public transport. The stadium was believed to hold 125,000 fans, some 5,000 greater than the previous highest attendance at a Cup Final, and there was no suggestion that this might be exceeded, a sentiment confirmed by the authorities in their decision not to make the match all ticket. The Daily Mirror predicted large numbers of visitors from Lancashire, but these figures were minimal compared to the overall capacity: 5,000 from Bolton, 1,500 from Oldham, with substantial numbers also expected from towns such as Blackpool, Bury and Preston.

However, the coverage on Monday 28 April reflected the chaos that reporters had witnessed. “Chaos and Disorder at Cup Final,” noted the Herald rather soberly, while the Express was somewhat more hard hitting: “Stadium Scandal: Who is to Blame?” In contrast the Mirror and the Mail both focussed on the need for a public enquiry: “Inquiry demanded into Cup Final stampede” (Mirror) and “Cup Crush Inquiry at Once.” (Mail)

When considering the press coverage it is useful to divide this into four areas – the chaotic scenes within the stadium, the match itself, attempts to allocate blame and suggestions for remedies. The chaos surrounding the match attracted more coverage than the actually play in all four papers, varying from three times as much in the Mail to a marginal difference in the Herald. The crowd, by all accounts was good humoured and relatively passive – as shown by the picture on the cover of this issue – and this factor was crucial in ensuring the events did not take a more serious route. All are agreed on a number of factors. The numbers actually entering the stadium were in the region of 200,000, well in excess of the previous highest attendance at a British match, when some 127,000 had watched the Scotland- England match at Hampden in 1912. The sequence of events, probably taken from the official statement issued by the stadium authorities, was as follows: the stadium doors were opened at 11.30, by which time there were already many thousands waiting outside. Around 1.45 the stadium was full and an order given for the gates to be closed. However, public transport was still depositing fans at a rate of 1,000 per minute and within a short period of time there were 30,000 outside. These fans eventually broke through the flimsy surrounding gates and into the stadium adding to the chaos. Many of those arriving close to kick-off time never caught sight of the pitch, while numerous ticket holders (tickets were sold in advance for the seating areas) failed to gain entry.

The arrival of the King was a turning point. The crowds parted to allow his car through and cheered heartily when he entered the stadium. Almost at the same time Police reinforcements arrived by taxicab, motorcycle and other means, and these included a small mounted contingent. “Led by a lion-hearted inspector on a snow-white, prancing horse” (Express) they slowly cleared the field of play. This event was noted by the other sources, for example the Mirror in one of its headlines stated, “Cup Riot Prevented by Police Resource, Officer on a White Charger Hero of the Day,” and this is of course one of the most famous stories linked to the event. The pitch was not cleared until around 3.45, with the teams kicking off at 4.00, an hour late.

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Bolton’s early goal perhaps calmed things down a little, but when West Ham came close to scoring after ten minutes the crowd encroached again. However, this time the police were ready and there was a delay of a further ten minutes before play could continue. The game resumed, “with a seated policeman or too-prominent spectator having occasionally to be shifted for a corner kick.” (Mirror) Conditions were such that at half time the teams remained on the pitch, but once Bolton’s second goal went in many began to leave the stadium, reducing the crush considerably.

The chaotic scenes outside the stadium were described in detail by a Mail reporter who found himself caught up in the throng and forced through a narrow tunnel into the pitch area along with 30,000 others. Inside, some reporters appear to have been more concerned about the invasion of the press box by outsiders than by the threat to life and limb outside. The police seem to have given up the struggle to control the masses early on, “Policemen ran up and down trying to stem the human tide, and vainly blowing their whistles for assistance, till they gave the job up in disgust. “ (Herald) Bodies, possibly of those who had fainted, were rolled over the top of the crowd to the front. Others, both men and women, climbed into the rafters of the roof area in a bid to secure a decent vantage point. At least one man fell from such a position only to have his fall broken by a girder before he was helped to safety by the masses below. There were many casualties, up to 1,000, of which at least 22 spent the night in hospital. Casualty lists printed in the papers give a total of 12 names: three from Lancashire (although only one from Bolton itself), one from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire and the remainder from London (mostly from east London). The Herald reports “hundreds” of fainting cases, which is perhaps unsurprising given the general crush. Most of the more serious cases had fractured arms or were suffering from abdominal injuries, although one had an eye injury after being hit by a stone. Those unable to gain entry were frustrated although threats of violence were few and far between. However, the caretaker of the exhibition company was left to deal with complaints at the company offices alone and rather dryly noted, “Most of them realised that I could do nothing, but one or two wanted to fight me.” (Express)

As for the match itself, there was no doubt that Bolton deserved to win. West Ham, the underdogs, as their Second Division status warranted, seemed overawed by the occasion and failed to match their performances in earlier rounds. They were nevertheless gracious in accepting defeat. Club captain George Kay was reported in the Mirror as saying, “I shall make no excuses, for I think the better team won, but I must say that West Ham did not touch their real form.” Despite the difficult conditions, the Hammers seem to have harboured no thoughts of making any formal protest, or of demanding the match be replayed. In contrast ‘Syrian’ in the Herald wrote, “My one regret of the game is that in view of the circumstances, the result was allowed to stand. It was not a fair test, and the match should have been played over again.”

The Express is perhaps the most explicit of the four sources in dealing with the question of allocating blame for the events. Within an editorial titled ‘Human Niagara’ five possible factors were considered. Two of these, the players and police, were immediately discounted. Consideration is given to three further factors: the Football Association, the stadium authorities and the crowd, with blame being firmly attached to the latter (“The direct responsibility must rest with them”). The Mirror’s reporter produced a less wordy analysis but with a rather different conclusion. The two factors considered most blameworthy were firstly the lack of police presence combined with the fact that stewards and stadium officials possessed inadequate experience; secondly, and arising from this, the arrangements within the stadium which resulted in the lower tiers of terracing being filled first rather than the upper tiers. “There was plenty of room on the upper tiers to have accommodated the whole of those who flocked into the playing pitch.” The Mirror also noted that, “To the man in the street the F.A. will always be held to blame.” The Herald noted the statements issued by both the FA and the stadium authorities absolving themselves from blame but elsewhere summed up the problems concisely: “The arrangements for getting to the ground were admirable but arrangements for dealing with the crowd were execrable.” The Herald is also the only source to criticise the police, albeit rather mildly: “Scotland Yard may have mishandled the situation and withheld its reinforcements too long, but the conduct of the policemen and

page 5 Soccer History Issue 16 officials on the spot was beyond praise.” The Mail carried a lengthy statement by the deputy chairman of the exhibition authorities, Sir Travers Clarke, announcing an inquiry into the events, although apart from a comment in the match report that, “Stewards and officials seemed to know nothing. They were useless,” there was no attempt to attribute blame on a wider scale.

Despite all the descriptions of chaos and the rather lesser attempts to consider who was to blame, there were few suggestions of how to improve the situation, and indeed little comparison with crowd control in other situations of a similar nature. The Mirror was the exception here. Their reporter was perhaps more experienced than those of the other sources (“It was my thirty-fifth final tie”), and could remember back to 1901 when the crowd at Crystal Palace had stormed the gates, but on that occasion an adequate police presence had ensured the pitch remained clear. He also makes comparisons with the way large crowds were dealt with at Hampden and elsewhere in England. “I remember a semi-final at Leeds [presumably the Barnsley-Everton tie in 1909-10] when mounted police had to clear the pitch, and I would say they had a hundred, and did their work quickly. On Saturday with a much bigger crowd under a couple of dozen mounted men were available, and they did not arrive until after the mischief was done.” At Hampden policing and ticket arrangements were more than adequate for a crowd of 125,000, as had already been demonstrated.

In conclusion, it is evident that the fact that all four popular papers raised the question of “Who was to blame?” albeit in different ways suggests that this was the crucial question being asked by both fans and reporters in the immediate aftermath of the match. It is significant here that only the Mirror reporter draws to any extent on precedent when analysing the events. He attributed most blame to the arrangements for policing and stewarding, thus implicating both the FA and the stadium authorities (who had both been quick to issue a denial). The Herald certainly attributes some blame to the police for their slowness in responding, but also to the imbalance between the arrangements for transporting fans to the venue and those for dealing with the fans once they arrived. The Mail, clearly unwilling to criticise those in authority, blames the stewards themselves rather than the stewarding arrangements, while the Express, with a similar agenda, directs its ire at the fans. In the aftermath a number of decisions were made to ensure there was to be no repeat of the chaos, with future Cup Finals to become all-ticket affairs and the capacity of the ground reduced to 125,000. Modern health and safety measures may seem a bit pedantic at times, the new Wembley having to be introduced gradually to its full capacity, but a glance back to the events of 1923 provides logical reasons why this should be the case.

Main Sources: Daily Express 23-30 April 1923; Daily Herald 23-30 April 1923; Daily Mail 23-30 April 1923; Daily Mirror 23-30 April 1923; G Green, The History of the Football Association 1863-1953 (London, 1953); Neil Wilson et al, Wembley 1923-1973, the official Wembley story of fifty years (London, 1973).

Back Issues: Copies of all previous issues are still available, prices: Issues 1-14 £4 (UK), £5 (Europe), £6.50 (Rest of World); SOCCER Issue 15 £4.50 (UK), £5 (Europe), £6.50 (Rest of World). HISTORY Please send cheques (in £ sterling) payable to ‘Soccer History Ltd’ HISTORY at 26 Saxon Street, Lincoln, LN1 3HN.

Issue 15 Contents: British Services’ football in India, 1944-46; Celtic’s tour of America, 1931; What happened to the first Accrington Football Club; Football in Edinburgh from 1800; Bernard Vann, VC: Footballer, Priest, Soldier; The first FA Amateur Cup competition of 1893-94; A short guide to resources available on the internet. SPRING 2007 ISSUE 15

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