The Great War 1914-15

Brave British soldier. Not afraid to die.

Everton Football Club

A Great War chronicle

Introduction

On the morning of Tuesday, 25 August 1914, eight days prior to the start of what would be Everton’s second title‑winning season, Private William Thorpe, a thirty‑six‑year‑old Liverpudlian serving with the King’s Own Lancaster Regiment, experienced his Great War baptism of fire in a fierce clash with German units just north of Haucourt, France. At the end of that day his regiment had lost fourteen officers and 431 other ranks killed, wounded or missing out of a total strength of twenty-six officers and 974 men. One of the missing was William Thorpe, fit and well, but now hopelessly stranded behind enemy lines in unfamiliar territory east of the River Somme. In due course, he would, with six other fugitive British soldiers, find sanctuary, hidden in the bosom of French families in the village of Villeret, Picardy. However, their presence there would eventually be betrayed to the Germans, and at dawn on 16 May 1916 Private William Thorpe and two of his comrades were captured hiding in a barn. On 20 May 1916 they were tried as spies in nearby Le Câtelet, the administration headquarters of the local German occupation forces, and sentenced to death by firing squad. Six days later, on 26 May 1916, the superior German military authorities at Saint-Quentin confirmed the sentences, and the three British soldiers were duly executed at 03.00 p.m. the next day, 27 May 1916. In his farewell letter to his wife and three small children Private William Thorpe, completely overwhelmed by emotion and grief, managed to pen just three agonized phrases: ‘Darling wife and children. Brave British soldier. Not afraid to die.’ Over and over and over again.

In his book A Foreign Field, Ben Macintyre depicts the execution of Private William Thorpe and his two comrades, Private Thomas Donohoe, an Irishman from County Cavan, and Private David Martin, an Ulsterman from Belfast, both serving in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, as follows: “Before they were bound to the posts, the three men shook hands. David Martin was lashed to the middle post, with Thorpe at his left shoulder and Donohoe to his right. None wore blindfolds. […] Then the firing squad of twelve men stepped forward. […] When the executioners opened fire, the two other men were killed instantly, but [William Thorpe] was only wounded. So, in silence, without any supplication, he lifted up three fingers of one hand, spread apart, to signify that he had three young children. The commander of the firing squad walked up to him and finished him off with a revolver bullet in the ear.”

It is to the memory of Private William Thorpe and his two comrades, all three of whom are buried in Le Câtelet cemetery, that this Great War chronicle of Everton’s 1914/15 Championship campaign is dedicated.

On the football front, a 1:0 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, 25 April 1914 had brought the curtain down on Everton’s disappointing 1913/14 campaign, which saw the Toffees finish fifteenth, four places lower than the previous season, which had been even more disappointing still given Everton’s promising second‑place finish in season 1911/12. Veteran right‑back Billy Stevenson and long‑serving right-half and full Irish international Val Harris had moved on to pastures new by the start of the 1914/15 campaign, but otherwise it was very much a case of as you were, with only Scottish international centre‑half James Galt arriving from Rangers to bolster the Goodison Park playing staff, which, nevertheless, still featured four 1911/12 stalwarts, Tommy Fleetwood, England international Frank Jefferis, John Maconnachie, a Scot hailing from Aberdeen, and Harry Makepeace, an England international at both football and cricket, and two 1911/12 fringe players, Alan Grenyer and Louis Weller. Following the rank mediocrity of the club’s two previous campaigns and given the lack of activity on the part of the Everton custodians in the summer transfer market, not in their wildest dreams could Blues fans have imagined what this, the final season prior to the suspension of league football for the duration of the Great War, would hold in store. Ably assisted by co‑strikers Joe Clennell, Frank Jefferis and Liverpool‑born Billy Kirsopp, in only his second season at the club Scottish centre‑forward Bobby Parker would set the pace in blazing the Everton Championship trail, equalling the First Division goal‑scoring record set by Everton centre‑forward Bertie Freeman in season 1908/9 by netting no less than thirty‑six times in thirty‑five league outings, two fewer than his free‑scoring Everton predecessor, including one four‑goal strike, five hat‑tricks and five braces, this at a time when it was necessary for three players to be positioned between the striker and the goal when the ball was played forward. A remarkable feat indeed.

Sources

Publications Geoffrey Bennett, Naval Battles of the First World War, 1974
Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton, The Christmas Truce, 2001
Alan Clark, The Donkeys, 1994
Liddell Hart, History of the First World War, 1972
Lyn Macdonald, 1914, 1987
Ben Macintyre, A Foreign Field, 2001
Steve Pearce, Shoot. The ultimate stats and facts guide to English league football, 1997
Janusz Piekalkiewicz, Der Erste Weltkrieg, 1995
Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes, Shot At Dawn, 1989
Ken Rogers, Goodison Glory, 1998
John K. Rowlands, Everton Football Club 1878-1946, 2001
Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night, 2001

Databases Tony Brown and Andy Ellis, Everton F.C. 1887-1999. A Year-by-Year History, 1999
Jeff Hurley, Everton AFC Database (1887-1996), 1996

Principal Web sitesCommonwealth War Graves Commission (http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx)
Everton Football Club (http://www.evertonfc.com/news/?page_id=6)
FirstWorldWar (http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm)
The Long, Long Trail (http://www.1914-1918.net/index.htm)
Toffeeweb (http://www.toffeeweb.com/)
Victoria Cross Reference (http://www.chapter-one.com/vc/default.asp)

Everton Football Club 1914/15

From left to right, back row: Tommy Fleetwood, Alan Grenyer, Bobby Thompson, James Galt, Tommy Fern, John Maconnachie, Harry Makepeace.
From left to right, front row: Sam Chedgzoy, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker, Joe Clennell, James Roberts.

Wednesday, 2 September 1914 A crowd of 9000 witness visitors Everton start the season in fine style, winning 3:1 at Tottenham Hotspur. Scottish international James Galt, the new club captain signed from Rangers in May 1914, makes his Everton debut at centre‑half. The Everton line-up in this opening fixture of the season features Tommy Fern, Bobby Thompson, John Maconnachie, Tommy Fleetwood, James Galt, Alan Grenyer, Sam Chedgzoy, Frank Jefferis, Bobby Parker, Joe Clennell and George Harrison, the majority of whom would remain the backbone of the side throughout what would ultimately remain a relatively injury‑free campaign. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell (3).	Five days previously at just after 12:30 on the afternoon of Friday, 28 August 1914, the German light cruiser, SMS Cöln, flagship of Rear‑Admiral Maass, is sunk by two salvoes from HMS Lion, flagship of Admiral Sir David Beatty, during the Battle of Heligoland Bight. Rear‑Admiral Maass, his Flag Captain and all but one of his crew perish. The centrepiece of the memorial to the officers and men of SMS Cöln at the Eigelstein Gate, just a few minutes’ walk from Cologne main train station, is the shattered remnants of one of the ship’s lifeboats.
Saturday, 5 September 1914 An unchanged Everton complete a brace of victories on opposition territory, winning 1:0 at Newcastle United in front of 12,000 frustrated home fans. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	The Retreat from Mons comes to a halt south of the River Marne. It is the eve of the great French counterattack, the First Battle of the Marne, in which the British will play a minor, albeit important, role.
Monday, 7 September 1914 Unchanged for the third match in a row, Everton have a hat-trick of away victories in their sights, but falter, going down 1:0 at Burnley. Attendance: 20,000.	The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) advance eight miles towards the River Marne, re‑crossing it the next day. The ensuing British assault on a vulnerable section of the German front is instrumental in forcing the enemy to abandon the battlefield in confusion on 10 September. This reverse thwarts the German dream of achieving rapid victory over France in the West before concentrating their forces against Russia in the East, and ultimately dooms them to total defeat.
Saturday, 12 September 1914 Everton’s first home match of the season in front of 14,000 spectators falls flat, with party‑poopers Middlesbrough emerging victorious by the odd goal in five. Tommy Nuttall makes his first appearance of the season, deputizing for Frank Jefferis, and Billy Palmer replaces George Harrison on the left wing. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker (2).	The Battle of the Aisne, 12-28 September 1914, commences, with the British and French pursuing the retreating Germans over the River Aisne and beyond. The engagement ends in stalemate and the so‑called Race to the Sea begins.
Saturday, 19 September 1914 A 1:0 reverse at Sheffield United in front of 20,000 home supporters completes a dismal hat‑trick of defeats for the unchanged Blues.	Posthumous Victoria Cross [i] Captain Harry Ranken, aged 31, Royal Army Medical Corps. Citation On 19 and 20 September 1914 at Haute‑Avesnes, France, Captain Ranken was severely wounded in the leg whilst attending to his duties on the battlefield under shrapnel and rifle fire. He arrested the bleeding from this and bound it up, then continued to dress the wounds of his men, sacrificing his own chance of survival to their needs. When he finally permitted himself to be carried to the rear his case had become almost desperate and he died within a short period.
Saturday, 26 September 1914 An Everton crowd of 20,000 witness a 0:0 draw at home to the previous season’s First Division runners‑up, Aston Villa, as the Blues secure their first point in four matches. At left half, Alan Grenyer makes way for long‑serving stalwart Harry Makepeace in the starting eleven, with Frank Jefferis returning to the side in place of Tommy Nuttall.	Shot at dawn [ii] Private George Ward, aged 20, 1st Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment, is executed for cowardice. Four days earlier on the morning of 22 September 1914, U9, a German U‑boat under Lieutenant‑Commander Otto von Weddigen, the first feted submarine commander in the history of naval warfare, sinks the British cruisers HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue off the Belgian coast. Of the 2000 officers and men aboard these three ships 1400 men perish.
Saturday, 3 October 1914 It’s as you were on the Everton line-up front as the rampant Toffees thrash the living daylights out of Liverpool, triumphing 5:0 at Anfield. A crowd of 32,000 witness this, the heaviest defeat the Blues have ever had the pleasure of inflicting on the Anfielders on their own second‑hand patch. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2).	It is the eve of the ultimately futile Anglo‑Belgian defence of Antwerp, an action which costs the British Royal Naval Division 2600 killed, wounded and missing, of whom 1479 were interned in neutral Holland and 936 captured by the Germans.
Saturday, 10 October 1914 The Blues remain unchanged for the third match in succession and the good times, they are well and truly a‑rolling as Everton put four past First Division newcomers Bradford Park Avenue at Goodison before a home crowd of 20,000, conceding one in return. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Sam Chedgzoy, James Galt.	The last of the Antwerp forts surrenders to the Germans. The bulk of the BEF and the Belgian Army succeed in retreating on Ypres, universally known as “Wipers” in the parlance of the linguistically challenged Tommies. The immortal Ypres Salient is born. Against all the odds, it is, at a terrible cost in lives, held by the British Army to the bitter end. It is primarily here in the fields of Belgian Flanders and on the Somme pastures in Northern France that the flower of Australian, Canadian, English, German, Irish, New Zealand, Scottish, South African, Ulster and Welsh manhood would perish in the four years of merciless Anglo‑German battles of attrition which would ensue.
Saturday, 17 October 1914 With long-time bit-part Everton player Bobby Simpson deputizing for Bobby Thompson at right‑back, the Toffees snatch a point in a 1:1 draw at high‑flying Oldham Athletic in front of 13,400 spectators. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	Next day, the German East Asiatic commerce‑raiding squadron comprising five warships under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee sails from the Chilean port of Valparaiso, the town in which CD Everton of Chile were founded on 24 June 1909, intent on engaging and destroying Admiral Craddock’s West Indies squadron.
Saturday, 24 October 1914 Lowly Manchester United slump to a 4:2 reverse against an unchanged Everton side at Goodison in front of a crowd of 15,000. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Harry Makepeace and Billy Parker.	The Belgians retreat on Diksmuide. Next day they open the Yser Canal locks, flooding the surrounding countryside for miles around and forcing the Germans to concentrate all their offensive efforts on Ypres to the south. Three days later in the Neuve Chapelle sector to the south, the Germans fire 3000 shrapnel shells containing a nose and eye irritant as well as bullets. This is the first battlefield experiment with chemicals in the history of warfare.
Saturday, 31 October 1914 There are no changes in the Everton line‑up as the travelling Blues are held to a 0:0 draw by Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park in front of 10,000 spectators.	Crisis point during First Ypres: the Germans take Gheluvelt and break the British line. The Worcesters save the day by plugging the line and fighting the enemy to a standstill. Corporal Adolf Hitler, 1st Company, 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, 6th Bavarian Division, VI German Army, wins the Iron Cross 2nd Class for rescuing a badly wounded officer while under heavy fire at Wytschaete, near Ypres. Victoria Cross Sepoy Khudadad Kahn, aged 26, 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis, Indian Army, Hollebeke, near Ypres. The first native-born Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross. Citation On 31 October 1914 at Hollebeke, Belgium, Sepoy Khudadad Khan was in the machine‑gun section of his battalion and was working one of the two guns. The British officer in charge of the detachment was wounded and the other gun was put out of action by a shell. Sepoy Khudadad Khan, although himself wounded, continued working his gun after all the other five men of the detachment had been killed. He was left by the enemy for dead, but later managed to crawl away and rejoin his unit.
Saturday, 7 November 1914 A home crowd of 25,000 are left badly in need of liquid succour as an unchanged Everton side suffer a 3:1 home reverse at the hands of reigning League Champions Blackburn. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker.	Three days earlier, in the East African theatre of operations, Colonel Paul von Lettow‑Vorbeck’s heavily outnumbered German forces rout the British under General Aitken during the Battle of Tanga, German East Africa. British and German casualties total 847 and 148 respectively. Posthumous Victoria Cross Captain John Franks Vallentin, aged 32, 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, Zillebeke, near Ypres. Citation On 7 November 1914 at Zillebeke, Belgium, when leading an attack against the Germans under very heavy fire, Captain Vallentin was struck down and on rising to continue the attack, was immediately killed. The capture of the enemy's trenches which immediately followed was in a great measure due to the confidence which the men had in their captain, arising from his many previous acts of great bravery and ability.
Saturday, 14 November 1914 With Bobby Thompson ousting Bobby Simpson from the side at right‑back and George Harrison returning to the left wing, Everton feature in yet another 0:0 draw, this time in front of a crowd of 10,000 at the new kids on the First Division block, Notts County, the 1913/14 Second Division Champions.	Three days earlier, under orders to drive back and crush the enemy, Prussian Guards lead the last determined German assault on the Anglo-French positions in the Ypres Salient. The assault is stymied and the crisis at First Ypres finally subsides. It has essentially been a soldier's battle, memorably epitomized in the words of General J. E. Edmonds, the official British Great War historian: "The line that stood between the British Empire and ruin was composed of tired, haggard and unshaven men, unwashed, plastered with mud, many in little more than rags." This feriocious clash of arms costs the BEF a total of 58,000 casualties, the French 50,000 and the Germans 130,000. The German failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough results in stalemate and trench warfare from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier.
Saturday, 21 November 1914 Unchanged Everton return to winning ways with a vengeance, thrashing Sunderland 7:1 at Goodison, a turkey‑shoot witnessed by a crowd of 15,000. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2), George Harrison and Frank Jefferis.	In the Meopotamian theatre, modern-day Iraq, then part and parcel of the Ottoman Empire, which had declared war on Britain, France and Russia on 5 November, in a campaign on which the British had embarked to protect their oil interests in the region, British forces, at a cost of 500 casualties to the 1000 suffered by the Turks, seize Basra, now Al‑Basrah, and its oilfield, a capture of immense strategic importance given that it was this oilfield which supplied most of the Royal Nay’s oil.
Saturday, 28 November 1914 Bobby Parker runs riot as Sheffield Wednesday are the next set of lambs for the Everton slaughter, slumping to a 4:1 home defeat at the hands of an unchanged Blues side. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker (4).	Victoria Cross Commander Henry Peel Ritchie, aged 38, Royal Navy. Citation Commander Ritchie of HMS Goliath was in command of the searching and demolition operations a Dar‑es‑Salaam, Tanzania. He had fitted out a steam pinnace for the execution of this task and, accompanied by two other small craft, entered the harbour. At first there was no reaction from the enemy, but suddenly they were met by a storm of shells and bullets from all directions. The commander was hit eight times in twenty minutes, but in spite of his wounds he carried on until at last he fainted from loss of blood.
Saturday, 5 December 1914 Fielding the same line‑up for the fourth encounter in succession, Everton secure a third successive victory, defeating West Bromwich Albion 2:1 at Goodison in front of a crowd of 22,000. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, Bobby Parker.	On the Mesopotamian front, Anglo‑Indian forces amass 2100 troops for a cross‑river assault next day on Turkish positions in Qurna, a town at the junction of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris and the legendary site of the Garden of Eden. Three days later, four German cruisers, including Admiral Spee’s flagship, SMS Scharnhorst, are sunk by Vice‑Admiral Sturdee’s British squadron during the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Only the German light cruiser SMS Dresden escapes destruction. 2200 German sailors are lost.
Saturday, 12 December 1914 Hat‑trick hero Bobby Parker stars as Everton extend their unbeaten run to five matches. This time it is Manchester City who are on the receiving end of another emphatic home display by the Blues, going down 4:1 before 20,000 Goodison fans. Deputizing for Tommy Fleetwood, Scottish right‑half Billy Brown debuts for Everton after having recently joined the club from Partick Thistle, and Billy Wareing makes his first appearance of the season, replacing Harry Makepeace at left-half. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell.	British GHQ issues the order for the British Third Division to assist the French in their assault on Wytschaete (“White Sheet” to the Tommies) and beyond on 14 December. There are no artillery preparations and the assault degenerates into a complete fiasco. The two attacking battalions of the British Third Division, 1st Gordon Highlanders and 2nd Royal Scots, suffer a total of 358 casualties for no material gain whatsoever.
Saturday, 19 December 1914 With both Harry Makepeace and Tommy Fleetwood returning to the first‑team fold the travelling Toffees are back to full strength. Nevertheless, the Everton juggernaut shudders to a halt as the Blues suffer a surprising 2:0 defeat in front of a crowd of 18,000 at down‑among‑the‑dead‑men Chelsea.	The second day of the Battle of Givenchy, a British-held village in Pas-de-Calais, witnesses units of the Indian Corps assault and capture two lines of German trenches. However, their success is short‑lived and they are ousted by swift and determined enemy counterattacks. The action lasts from 18-22 December and costs 4000 British and Indian casualties. Not a single square yard of ground is gained. Posthumous Victoria Cross Lieutenant William Arthur McCrae Bruce, aged 24, 59th Scinde Rifles, Indian Army. Citation On 19 December 1914 near Givenchy, France, during a night attack, Lieutenant Bruce was in command of a small party which captured one of the enemy trenches. In spite of being wounded in the neck he walked up and down the trench encouraging his men to hold out against several counterattacks until he was killed. The fire from rifles and bombs was very heavy all day and it was due to his example and encouragement that the men were able to hold out until dusk when the trench was finally captured by the enemy. Posthumous Victoria Cross Private James Mackenzie, aged 25, 2nd Battalion, The Scots Guards. Citation On 19 December 1914 at Rouges Bancs, France, Private Mackenzie rescued a severely wounded man from the front of the German trenches under a very heavy fire and after a stretcher party had been compelled to abandon the attempt. Private Mackenzie was killed later on that day while trying to carry out a similar act. Victoria Cross Lieutenant Phillip Neame, aged 26, 15th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Later Sir Phillip, he was a member of Great Britain’s 1924 Olympic Running Deer Team at Paris and is the only VC recipient who has won an Olympic Gold Medal. Citation On 19 December 1914 at Neuve Chapelle, France, Lieutenant Neame, in the face of very heavy fire, engaged the Germans in a single‑handed bombing attack, killing and wounding a number of them. He was able to check the enemy advance for three-quarters of an hour and to rescue all the wounded whom it was possible to move. Shot at dawn Private Archibald Browne, aged 26, 2nd Battalion, The Essex Regiment, is executed for desertion.
Christmas Day, 1914 Fielding an unchanged side, Everton miss the opportunity to play Santa Claus for 20,000 supporters, dropping a point in a 1:1 home draw with Bradford City. Everton scorer: Frank Jefferis.	The 1914 Christmas Truce Merry Christmas/Fröhliche Weihnachten Widespread fraternization between British and German front‑line soldiers is the order of the day, with several impromptu football matches being staged between the opposing forces in no‑man’s land. One contemporary eye‑witness report states that “a battalion of the 10th Brigade on our left arranged a football match against a German team, one of their number having contacted in the opposing unit a fellow member of his local football club in Liverpool.” Rifleman Andrew (centre) and Rifleman Grigg (right), London Rifle Brigade, photographed in no‑man’s land with Saxons from the German 104th and 106th Regiments, Christmas Day 1914.
Boxing Day, 1914 In the traditional next-day return fixture, the Toffees arrive bearing cold turkey for their hosts, Bradford City, and a home crowd numbering 30,000, with the same Everton eleven stealing both points in a narrow 1:0 victory. Everton scorer: Sam Chedgzoy.	Along most of the Anglo-German front, Yuletide fraternization continues virtually unabated.
New Year’s Day 1915 The Blues forfeit yet another home point, this time in a disappointing 1:1 draw against struggling Tottenham Hotspur. 17,000 Blues fans depart Goodison in need of a New Year’s Day hair of the dog. Replacing Frank Jefferis in attack alongside Bobby Parker, twenty‑two‑year‑old local lad Billy Kirsopp makes a scoring debut for the Toffees after having joined the club from the ranks of junior football in April 1914. Everton scorer: debut boy Billy Kirsopp.	HMS Formidable, a pre-dreadnought warship, is torpedoed in the English Channel with the loss of 547 officers and men. Vice‑Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly is subsequently convicted of negligence in having led his squadron down Channel on a steady course at no more than ten knots, and ordered to strike his flag.
Saturday, 2 January 1915 The Blues make amends for the previous day’s failure, thrashing Newcastle United 3:0 at Goodison in front of 20,000 happy Everton campers. Billy Brown once again deputizes for Tommy Fleetwood, while in his first Everton appearance of the season and his last for the club, fringe player John Houston, a full Irish international, enters the fray for Sam Chedgzoy. Everton scorers: George Harrison, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker.	Lord Kitchener, the British Minister of War, receives an appeal from Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia for a diversion which would relieve the Turkish pressure on the Russians in the Caucasus. Unable to supply troops, Kitchener proposes a naval demonstration against the Dardanelles Straits. This is the origin of the abortive Gallipoli campaign which will cost the Allies 35,700 dead and 107,600 wounded.
Saturday, 9 January 1915 It’s FA Cup first round time and, with Tommy Fleetwood and Sam Chedgzoy returning to the side, the Blues make no mistake, dismissing second division Barnsley 3:0 at Goodison. Everton scorers: James Galt (2), Bobby Parker.	In a memorandum penned two days previously Admiral Hugo von Pohl presses the case for unrestricted submarine warfare.
Saturday, 16 January 1915 A home crowd of 7500 gather to witness Everton, despite fielding an unchanged full‑strength side, come badly unstuck at mid‑table Middlesbrough, slumping to a shock 5:1 defeat, their heaviest reverse of the campaign. Everton scorer: Bobby Parker.	Three days later, with the permission of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Germans launch the first of many Zeppelin raids against the British mainland. Two civilians are killed and sixteen injured.
Saturday, 23 January 1915 Shorn of the talents of free-scoring Bobby Parker and his able side-kick Billy Kirsopp in attack, Everton scrape a 0:0 home draw versus Sheffield United, a disappointing result witnessed by 18,000 spectators. Parker is replaced by Billy Wright, a recent acquisition from St. Mirren making his first appearance in the royal blue jersey. Tommy Nuttall and Billy Palmer step into the breach for Billy Kirsopp and George Harrison respectively, while Bobby Simpson replaces John Maconnachie at left‑back.	In the North Sea, Admiral Franz von Hipper’s battle‑cruiser squadron sets sail to repeat the 16 December bombardment of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool, during the course of which 122 civilians had been killed and 443 injured. However, early next morning his forces are intercepted at Dogger Bank by Admiral Sir David Beatty’s squadron, which halts and sinks the hybrid battle‑cruiser SMS Blücher and severely damages Admiral Hipper’s flagship, SMS Seydlitz. 984 German sailors are lost.
Saturday, 30 January 1915 Everton halt their slump in form, demolishing second division Bristol City 4:0 at Goodison in the FA Cup second round. Bobby Parker and Billy Kirsopp mark goal‑scoring returns to the attacking Everton fold, while utility man Billy Wareing deputizes for club captain James Galt at centre-half. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, Billy Kirsopp, Bobby Parker, Billy Wareing.	Private A. Pitts, age unknown, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, is court‑martialled for desertion after having fled the line under fire near Zillebeke in the Ypres Salient on 24 October 1914. He is convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad.
Saturday, 6 February 1915 Despite the fact that the return to the team of club captain James Galt and first‑choice left‑back John Maconnachie means that Everton are at full strength for the return clash with their neighbours from across Stanley Park, it’s Derby Day misery for the Toffees as the Anfielders triumph 3:1 at Goodison in front of 30,000 spectators. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell.	Shot at dawn Private Joseph Byers, aged 16, and Private Andrew Evans, age unknown, 1st Battalion, The Royal Scots Fusiliers, are executed for desertion. Private Byers, who had claimed to be nineteen upon his enlistment in November 1914, is the first Kitchener volunteer to be executed.
Wednesday, 10 February 1915 In his one and only appearance for the Toffeemen the only Welshman to grace Everton’s colours during this Championship‑winning season, James Roberts, signed from Crewe Alexandra in 1914, deputizes for Billy Palmer on the left wing as Aston Villa feel the backlash from Everton’s Derby Day blues, suffering a resounding 5:1 home defeat in front of a crowd numbering just 4,500. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), James Galt, Billy Kirsopp.	Three days later, Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander‑in‑Chief of the BEF, approves General Douglas Haig’s plan for an all‑British “battering-ram” attack against the enemy positions at Neuve Chapelle involving 40,000 men, a numerical superiority over the sparse German defenders in the line of thirty‑five to one, and the strongest concentration of artillery guns per yard ever assembled in the history of warfare.
Saturday, 20 February 1915 A crowd of 33,000 assemble at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground to witness Everton defeat QPR 2:1 in an FA Cup third round tie. George Harrison returns to the left-wing slot for the Blues. Everton scorers: Joe Clennell, own goal.	Four days previously, in defiance of International Law, Germany declares that the waters surrounding the British Isles constitute a war zone in which "every merchant vessel will be destroyed without it being possible to avoid damage to the crews and passengers", it being "impossible to avoid attacks being made on neutral ships in mistake for those of the enemy." Unrestricted submarine warfare begins, though, in this first instance, it will be short‑lived.
Saturday, 27 February 1915 There are no changes in the Everton line‑up as the Toffeemen complete a league double over the ailing Red Devils, triumphing 2:1 at Old Trafford in front of 10,000 spectators. Everton scorers: George Harrison, Bobby Parker.	Two days earlier, an Anglo-French naval attack in the Dardanelles Straits from close range fails to silence the twenty‑four mobile Turkish batteries protecting the minefield defence of the Straits from the heights above.
Saturday, 6 March 1915 An unchanged Everton side make it four straight wins out of four in the FA Cup, with a crowd of 26,000 witnessing Bradford City’s 2:0 defeat at Valley Parade. Everton scorers: Sam Chedgzoy, Joe Clennell.	Shot at dawn Private James Briggs, age unknown, 2nd Battalion, The Border Regiment, and Private Ernest Kirk, aged 24, 1st Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment, are executed for desertion.
Saturday, 13 March 1915 Billy Wareing replaces James Galt at centre‑half for the Toffeemen as a crowd of 20,000 see Everton suffer a 2:1 reverse at Blackburn Rovers, their first defeat since the Goodison Derby debacle. Everton scorer: Billy Kirsopp.	The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, which began on 10 March, comes to an end. The four British attacking divisions involved in this, the first planned British offensive of the war, suffer a total of 11,652 casualties for precious little material gain. Next day, HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent open fire on the German light cruiser SMS Dresden anchored at Mas a Fuera, one of the Juan Fernandez islands off the Chilean coast. She is subsequently scuttled by Captain Lüdecke, who escapes to neutral territory with his crew.
Wednesday, 17 March 1915 With Billy Wareing still deputizing for club captain James Galt and Alan Grenyer, Billy Palmer and Billy Wright, the latter in his second and final appearance for the club, replacing Harry Makepeace, Sam Chedgzoy and Joe Clennell respectively, a crowd of just 8000 witness an under‑strength Everton forfeit two vital home points, faring second best in a seven‑goal thriller at home to title rivals Oldham. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Billy Kirsopp.	Next day, the British and French launch their final naval effort to clear the minefields, force the Dardanelles Straits and pave the way for an assault on Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The outcome is a debacle involving the loss of HMS Inflexible, HMS Irresistible and HMS Ocean on the British side and the French service ships Bouvet and Gaulois.
Saturday, 20 March 1915 Goalkeeper Tommy Fern, left‑back John Maconnachie and right‑half Tommy Fleetwood are replaced by stopgap men, Scotsman Frank Mitchell, Louis Weller and Billy Brown, another representative from Everton’s Scottish contingent, but Harry Makepeace and Joe Clennell make a welcome return to the side as the Toffees duly trounce Notts County 4:0 at Goodison in front of a crowd of 10,000, securing a much‑needed brace of league points in the process. Everton scorers: Billy Kirsopp (2), Joe Clennell, Bobby Parker.	Some German prisoners are taken in the southern sector of the Ypres Salient. Ominously, under interrogation they reveal extensive details of the enemy’s intention to launch a chlorine gas attack a month hence. The onset of chemical warfare is nigh. The German positions from which the gas is eventually released at 05.00 p.m. on 22 April 1915, the opening scene of the Second Battle of Ypres, are now marked by a commemorative roadside cross. Lasting until the end of May 1915, Second Ypres costs the British 59,000 casualties.
Monday, 22 March 1915 Bolton are next to come under the Goodison cosh, suffering an emphatic 5:3 reverse in front of a poor attendance numbering just 5000. Tommy Fleetwood returns to the side and Bobby Simpson, Alan Grenyer and Liverpool‑born Everton debut boy Horace Howarth replace Louis Weller, Harry Makepeace and Billy Kirsopp respectively. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (3), Joe Clennell (2).	The previous night the Germans launch their first Zeppelin raid on Paris, killing one and injuring eight civilians.
Saturday, 27 March 1915 A crowd of 22,000 spectators watch the high‑flying Blues squander their chances of a league and cup double. James Galt, Harry Makepeace, Sam Chedgzoy and Billy Kirsopp all return to the Everton side but, reduced to ten men with the injury‑induced departure of Harry Makepeace in his final appearance for the club after just ten minutes, the Toffees suffer a 2:0 reverse at the hands of relegation‑threatened Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.	Two days previously, in response to the telegraphed threat to the Gallipoli Peninsula posed by the disembarkation of large numbers of British and Anzac troops in Egypt, Enver Pascha, Head of the Ottoman Empire, tasks the head of the German Military Mission in Turkey, Colonel Liman von Sanders, with the formation of a separate army for the defence of the Dardanelles.
Friday, 2 April 1915 Alan Grenyer replaces Harry Makepeace and Tommy Fern makes a welcome return between the sticks, but Everton’s woes continue, this time in a 2:0 home defeat versus Burnley.	More German prisoners taken in the Ypres Salient at the beginning end of March and the beginning of April confirm the planned launch of a chlorine gas attack in that sector, providing full details of the gas cylinders which had been placed in the German front‑line trenches and the gas discharge method. These reiterated warnings of the imminent onset of large‑scale chemical warfare fall on deaf ears.
Saturday, 3 April 1915 Billy Palmer for Sam Chedgzoy is the only change in the Everton line‑up as the Blues suffer their second home defeat in two days, going down 1:0 to Sheffield Wednesday and slumping to fifth in the table. With four straight away games looming, the Championship is now looking a distant prospect indeed for the Toffeemen.	Three days previously, a British auxiliary cruiser sailing under a Swedish flag attacks and sinks U29 commanded by the celebrated Lieutenant‑Commander Otto von Weddigen of U9 fame. All hands are lost.
Tuesday, 6 April 1915 The Toffees soothe their wounded pride at Sunderland, registering a resounding 3:0 away victory in front of 10,000 home fans, with Louis Weller and Billy Wareing deputizing for Bobby Simpson and James Galt in the Everton line-up. One down, three to go. Everton scorers: Bobby Parker (2), Billy Kirsopp.	On the colonial front, having succeeded in evading the British blockade, a German supply ship is heading for Tanga, German East Africa. It arrives four days later bearing large quantities of desperately needed arms, ammunition, equipment, provisions and, in the shape of the ship's crew, reinforcements for the beleaguered German garrison under the command of former Colonel and now General Paul von Lettow‑Vorbeck. Hopelessly outnumbered or no, on not one single occasion do his forces finish second best in an engagement with the British in four years of bitterly contested guerrilla warfare, remaining unvanquished until the very end. In recognition of his truly remarkable generalship and exploits in this far‑flung theatre of Great War operations, General von Lettow‑Vorbeck is feted as a national hero when he eventually returns to his native soil. General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
Saturday, 10 April 1915 Two down, two to go: in his final appearance for the club, Bobby Simpson replaces Bobby Thompson at right‑back and Billy Brown comes into the side for Tommy Fleetwood, who makes a rare appearance in attack deputizing for the absent goal‑getter Bobby Parker, as Everton register another league double, defeating West Bromwich Albion 2:1 at the Hawthorns in front of 8748 Baggies followers. It is also Billy Palmer’s final outing in a royal blue jersey. Everton scorers: Tommy Fleetwood, George Harrison.	The British 171st Tunnelling Company completes the tunnels underneath the German stronghold Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient. Explosive charges are packed into the twin chambers of tunnels M1 and M2 and the single chambers of tunnels  M3 and M3A, all of which terminate just in front of the German front line.
Wednesday, 14 April 1915 It’s musical chairs in the Everton line‑up as Bobby Thompson replaces Bobby Simpson, Tommy Fleetwood returns to his usual slot at right‑half, James Galt re-enters the side at centre‑half, Billy Wareing deputizes for Alan Grenyer, who plays at inside‑left in lieu of Joe Clennell, Sam Chedgzoy replaces Billy Palmer and Tommy Nuttall features at centre‑forward for the still‑absent Bobby Parker. Under these trying circumstances, Everton do well to defeat Bradford Park Avenue 2:1 on their own Park Avenue patch in front of 6000 spectators, registering yet another league double in the process. Three down, one to go. Everton are back. Everton scorers: Alan Grenyer, Billy Kirsopp.	On the Mesopotamian front, the British rout the Turks in the final clashes of the Battle of Shaiba. Five thousand men on each side are involved. The British suffer 1200 casualties, the Turks 2400.
Saturday, 17 April 1915 Everton again field a reshuffled side, with Alan Grenyer returning to right‑half, Tommy Nuttall, in his final appearance in Everton’s colours, moving to inside‑right for Sam Chedgzoy and both Bobby Parker and Joe Clennell making welcome returns to the attack, as, to the disappointment of the majority of the 30,000 spectators present, Manchester City are the next outfit to suffer their second league defeat of the season at the hands of the in-form Toffeemen, losing 1:0 at Hyde Road. This fourth away victory in succession means that Lazarus-like Everton are back on the Championship trail with a vengeance. Everton scorer: Joe Clennell.	At 7:05 p.m. three officers of the 1st Tunnelling Company detonate the mines in front of the German trenches on Hill 60. The position is subsequently stormed and taken by British infantry units. A German counterattack that same evening regains the hill, but it is retaken by the British in a fresh attack the next morning.
Saturday, 24 April 1915 Oldham, having lost their final match of the season at home to Liverpool two days previously, are level with Everton on forty‑four points, meaning that a draw in their last match of the season at home to Chelsea will see the Blues pip their Lancashire rivals at the title post. There is only one change in the Everton line‑up, Sam Chedgzoy for Tommy Nuttall, as the Toffees duly do just enough to secure the League Championship, squandering a 2:0 lead to draw 2:2 in front of 30,000 Goodison supporters, a result which also dooms Chelsea to relegation along with bottom‑placed Tottenham, sweet FA Cup semi‑final revenge indeed for the Toffees. However, it would be Chelsea who would have the last laugh due to the fact that upon the resumption of league football in 1919 the First Division was enlarged from twenty to twenty‑two clubs, and Chelsea, though not Tottenham, would be spared the drop. Indeed, Everton’s opening post‑bellum First Division fixture was at home to Chelsea on 30 August 1919, an encounter from which the Londoners emerged victorious by three goals to two. Having featured in all but six of Everton’s league games in his one and only campaign at Goodison, club captain James Galt makes his final appearance for the Toffees in this Championship‑clinching match. Everton scorers: Tommy Fleetwood, Bobby Parker.	Victoria Cross Lieutenant Edward Donald Bellew, aged 32, 7th Battalion, British Columbia Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Citation On 24 April 1915 near Kerselaere, Belgium, the advance of the enemy was temporarily stayed by Lieutenant Bellew, the battalion machine-gun officer, who had two guns in action on high ground when the enemy's attack broke in full force. Reinforcements which were sent forward having been destroyed, and with the enemy less than 100 yards away and no further assistance in sight, Lieutenant Bellew and a sergeant decided to fight it out. The sergeant was killed and Lieutenant Bellew wounded, nevertheless, he maintained his fire until his ammunition failed, when he seized a rifle, smashed his machine-gun and, fighting to the last, was taken prisoner. Posthumous Victoria Cross Company Sergeant‑Major Frederick William Hall, aged 30, 8th Manitoba Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Citation On 24 April 1915, near Ypres, Belgium when a wounded man, who was lying some fifteen yards from the trench, called for help, Company Sergeant-Major Hall endeavoured to reach him in the face of very heavy enfilade fire by the enemy. He then made a second most gallant attempt, and was in the act of lifting up the wounded man to bring him in when he fell mortally wounded in the head. Shot at dawn Early next morning, while the Everton players and supporters are still nursing their Championship hangovers, Driver John Bell, age unknown, 57th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, is executed for desertion. That same morning, following the failure of the Anglo-French naval efforts to force the Dardanelles Straits, large British, Anzac and French infantry forces land at Cape Helles, Ari Burnu (Anzac Cove) and Kum Kale respectively, signalling the onset of the ill‑fated Gallipoli campaign.

1914/15 facts and figures

The First Division had been increased from eighteen to twenty clubs for the start of the 1905/6 campaign. In the ten seasons in which it existed in that form, Everton’s 1914/15 Championship haul of forty-five points was the lowest ever recorded, four fewer than the next lowest of forty‑nine achieved by Blackburn Rovers in season 1911/12 and nine fewer than the record haul of fifty-four points achieved by Sunderland in season 1912/13. During the course of the 1914/15 league season in which, according to Tony Brown and Andy Ellis in their database Everton F.C. 1887-1999. A Year-by-Year History, Everton’s average home gate totalled 16,263, the Blues, fielding a total of twenty‑four players, all but seven of them English (and of these seven four, Billy Brown, John Houston, Frank Mitchell and James Palmer, were but bit‑part players mustering a grand total of eight league appearances between them), notched doubles over Bradford Park Avenue, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, registering nine home wins and eleven away wins, six home defeats, five away defeats and a total of eight draws, five at home and three away, in the process, and twice suffered defeats at the hands of Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Middlesbrough. All in all, the Toffeemen netted forty‑seven goals at Goodison and thirty‑two on opposition territory, conceding twenty‑nine at home and eighteen on their travels in return. In the FA Cup, notching and conceding a total of eleven and three goals respectively, the Blues recorded two home and two away successes before succumbing 2:0 to Chelsea in the semi‑final at Villa Park.

1914/15 Everton appearances (with goals in brackets)

                                    League           FA Cup

Billy Brown                   4

Sam Chedgzoy           30(2)                5(1)

Joe Clennell                 36(14)              5(3)

Tommy Fern                36                     4

Tommy Fleetwood      35(2)                 5

James Galt                   32(2)                4(2)

Alan Grenyer                14(1)

George Harrison         26(4)                 4

John Houston              1

Horace Howarth          1

Frank Jefferis              18(4)

Billy Kirsopp                16(9)                5(1)

John Maconnachie     28                     3

Harry Makepeace       23(1)                5

Frank Mitchell              2                       1

Tommy Nuttall              5

Billy Palmer                 17(1)

Bobby Parker              35(36)              5(2)

James Roberts           1

Bobby Simpson          9                      2

Bobby Thompson       33                    5

Billy Wareing               8                      1(1)

Louis Weller                6

Billy Wright                  2.

Of the players who took the field in Everton’s colours during the club’s 1914/15 Championship season, Billy Brown, Sam Chedgzoy, Joe Clennell, Tommy Fern, Tommy Fleetwood, Alan Grenyer, George Harrison, Horace Howarth, Frank Jefferis, Billy Kirsopp, John Maconnachie, Frank Mitchell, Bobby Parker, James Roberts, Bobby Thompson, Billy Wareing and Louis Weller were all still on the club’s books when league football recommenced at the end of August 1919, though James Roberts failed to make the first‑team grade and was transferred to Tranmere Rovers in 1920.
With regard to the others, in his book Everton Football Club 1878-1946 John Rowlands states that Championship‑winning captain James Galt returned from the Great War suffering from severe shell shock and never kicked a ball in anger again, though my Everton records indicate that he was in fact transferred to Third Lanark in October 1920.
Belfast‑born John Houston, the only player hailing from the Emerald Isle to feature in an Everton eleven during the 1914/15 title‑winning campaign, was transferred to Linfield in 1915. In view of  the fact that I have no record of his movements subsequent to this transfer, or his date of death, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he was a Great War casualty. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists forty‑four J. Houstons who fell in the First World War from 1915 onwards, only two of whom served with Irish units. If he was indeed killed in the Great War, it is likely that he was one or other of these two fallen Irish soldiers: 6173 Rifleman John Houston, age unknown, 8th Battalion, The Royal Irish Rifles, killed in action on 2 July 1916, the second day of the 1916 Somme offensive, and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, pier and face 15A and 15B, or 30471 Private J. Houston, age unknown, 1st Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who died of wounds on 22 November 1918 and is buried in Tourcoing (Pont‑Neuville) Communal Cemetery, District of Lille, France.
Following his injury‑induced departure from the field of play very early in the FA Cup semi‑final versus Chelsea at Villa Park on 27 March 1915, Harry Makepeace retired from football altogether and died in December 1957, aged seventy‑one.
Tommy Nuttall was transferred to St. Mirren in 1919.
Billy Palmer was transferred to Bristol Rovers in July 1919.
Redcar‑born Bobby Simpson made his last Everton appearance at West Bromwich Albion on 10 April 1915. I have no record of his subsequent movements or his date of death, meaning that he, too, might have been killed in the Great War. However, given the fact that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists 105 R. Simpsons killed in action during the First World War from 1915 onwards, it is not possible to verify this speculation without further information.
Billy Wright was transferred to Tranmere Rovers in 1915. As in the case of John Houston and Bobby Simpson, I have no record of his subsequent movements or his date of death, meaning that he, too, might have fallen on the field of battle, but in view of the circumstance that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site lists 407 W. Wrights killed in action during the Great War from 1915 onwards, as with his two 1914/15 team‑mates, this is only speculation which defies verification without additional information.

Postscript

I know of just one confirmed ex-Everton Great War casualty, namely Lance‑Corporal Leigh Richmond Roose MM, 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, 19th (Western) Division, who was killed on the Somme on 7 October 1916. While my Everton records do indicate that another former Everton player was killed in action in 1915, namely, left‑back David Murray, born in Glasgow in 1882, who made two appearances for the Blues in a 1:0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 7 November 1903 and a 1:0 home defeat to Sunderland seven days later before crossing Stanley Park in May 1904, I have been unable to verify this assertion. David Murray joined Everton from Rangers some time in 1903, and while a former Rangers player by the name of Private David B. Murray, 8th Battalion, The Seaforth Highlanders, is recorded as having been killed in action on 6 October 1915 (see http://www.geocities.com/gherriott/Rangers.html), the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Web site records the age of this fallen soldier, who lies in Lapugnoy Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France, as twenty‑one, meaning that he cannot be the same David Murray who played two games for Everton in November 1903.

Anthony Williams

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[i] During the 1914/15 Football League season, i.e. from Wednesday, 2 September 1914 to Saturday, 24 April 1915, a total of forty-seven Victoria Crosses were awarded, of which fourteen posthumously.

[ii] A total of twenty-nine British soldiers were executed during the 1914/15 Football League season, twenty‑five for desertion, two for murder, one for cowardice and one for quitting his post in the face of the enemy.