The House Article | The footballers who fought for this country deserve a lasting memorial

Walter Tull with fellow officers (Credit: History and Art Collection / Alamy)

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Standing at an imposing 20ft, cast in bronze, with his arms folded, wearing the same jersey he wore on that glorious July afternoon in 1966 when he lifted the Jules Rimet trophy, the statue of Bobby Moore casts an imposing shadow over all those who visit Wembley stadium.

On the plinth that supports the statue stands a likeness of the 10 other men who made up the team, frozen in time as the boys of ‘66. Cast alongside them is an England cap; on the peak are the words, “World Championship, Jules Rimet Cup, 1970”. The very last time England could claim to be the best football team in the world as it began its defence in Mexico.

Underneath is an inscription written by Moore’s great friend and Britain’s foremost sportswriter, Jeff Powell, that labels Moore as both a “national treasure and gentleman of all time”.

The same words could easily have been said of another captain – one who could claim, just like his West Ham United successor, to have led the best side in the world.

When England’s record goalscorer, Vivian Woodward, captained Great Britain to an Olympic gold medal in 1912 in Stockholm, to go with the one he won in London in 1908, he was probably the country’s most famous footballer – although those who knew him would’ve said he was much too modest to recognise that.

For Woodward, there would be no opportunity to secure a hat-trick of medals. By February 1916, with the world plunged into the Great War, now Lieutenant Woodward was recovering in a hospital bed.

Weeks earlier, he had to be dug out by fellow soldiers after being buried underneath a collapsed trench, his legs damaged from the carnage of a German grenade. He would never play football ever again. For the rest of his life, he would live with the pain from the wounds he sustained in northern France.

Such was Woodward’s fame, joining the British armed forces would be the equivalent of Harry Kane going to war today. He was just one of the 2,000 footballers who answered their country’s call to arms.

Among their number was the entire Clapton Orient team, who joined the 17th Middlesex Regiment – or Football Battalion – when it was formed in November 1914.

Books and plays would be written about William Jonas and Richard McFadden, lifelong friends who thrilled crowds as Clapton Orient’s star strikers. Under heavy fire, stuck in a trench, when certain death was near, Jonas would jump out telling McFadden to give his love to his wife. By the time the letter from McFadden arrived at the club telling them of Jonas’ death, McFadden had also lost his life.

Then there was Walter Tull, the first person of Afro-Caribbean descent to be commissioned as an officer in the British army. Having grown up in care homes and overcome racist abuse from football crowds when he played for Spurs and Northampton Town, he lost his life just months before the war’s end in 1918.

A teammate, Tom Billingham, tried in vain to retrieve his body from the field of battle. He loaded Tull on his back but was forced to give up in the face of shell fire and gas, leaving Tull in the French mud. Both William Jonas and Walter Tull have no known grave.

A memorial honouring the Clapton Orient team and supporters who enlisted in the Football Battalion can be found at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. However, there is still no lasting memorial at the home of football, Wembley, to those footballers and supporters who gave their lives for king and country.

Without their sacrifices, there may never have been the opportunity to celebrate the exploits of Bobby Moore and his boys in 1966. 

That is why the Football Association should honour them with a statue at Wembley – so the bravery of those footballers who went to war all those years ago is never forgotten.