Friday 8 November 2019

WE MUST REMEMBER

Remembrance Sunday is due this weekend and today is the 11th November.
I don't need to remind you of the basics; the horrors and successes of the First World War, so here are two links which will give you a number of interesting moments to contemplate on this important day.
https://www.footballandthefirstworldwar.org/footballers-killed-first-world-war/
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/9-facts-about-football-in-the-first-world-war

The Football League was suspended in season 1914-15 as was the FA Cup with regional tournaments arranged to keep morale high.
Harrogate Town FC was due to play its last game before the war started but it was cancelled on September 5th 1914.
Football proved a useful recruiting tool encouraging young men to join groups of soldiers from their own areas, usually including men, often regarded as PALS, who played for the local teams.
In Scotland, the league was continued to maintain morale but the Cup was suspended.
In Switzerland, football fields were ploughed up and sown with potatoes.
Of course on December 25th 1914, a localised truce was called and teams from each army played each other. Soldiers assumed the war would not last much longer. Of curse it went on as the links above shows the number of footballers taken by the war.
https://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/bene-n-hot-carabao-and-benedictine.html

On 21st October 2010 the Football Battalions' memorial was unveiled at Longueval France.
Image result for Ist World War football

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