Cod Almighty | Article
by George Myerson
21 December 2009
In memory of Corporal Sid Wheelhouse, Grimsby Town Football Club
In part 2 we followed Sid's battalion to victory in the Army Cup in 1916. The story resumes as the footballers return to the frontline.
Part 3: The end of Sid's war
It is, of course, the first Christmas of the war that is famous for football at the frontline. There were no more games against the Germans after that. The authorities made sure of that by staging a little barrage on Christmas Eve of 1915. But the game had carried on, and naturally the Footballers' Battalion were in the thick of it.
The Hull Sports Mail for mid-July 1916 reported what happened next: "The Rolls of Honour of the local football clubs are easily beaten by that of Grimsby Town. Of the wounded men, the best known is Frank Martin, who had an adventurous career with Hull City and Grimsby Town, before being a soldier. Together with Sid Wheelhouse, Percy Summers and Alfred Gregson he was a member of the Footballers' Battalion. All four are wounded." It had been a long journey from that railway carriage as the train steamed out of Grimsby Town station, that early spring day in 1915.
But the journey was not quite over for Corporal Wheelhouse. He survived this injury, and some of the fiercest fighting of the Somme in Delville Wood. Normally, we think of the Somme in terms of the wave of soldiers going over the top on the first morning, which cost 60,000 lives. But it went on well into the autumn. On 18 September – a Monday, the same day of the week he had enlisted – Sid's war came to an end.
It had been raining, as on that first cup game in January. The problem was that the parapet protecting the trenches kept sliding down. A volunteer working party went over the other side to try and do repairs. They had been working all night. Around teatime, a wave of trench mortars began to fall. There was a party of eleven working. They took cover, "in the rear entrance to Gray sap. At this psychological moment the enemy blew up a mine in the sap." The trouble was the gas. They did not have time to get their masks on and all eleven of them were overcome. Within a day or so, the whole team was dead.
Corporal Wheelhouse apparently walked unaided to the field station. He was always a strong man and not used to making a fuss about injuries. "Yet less than 24 hours later he passed away." The Football Post recorded on 30 September 1916: "Sydney Wheelhouse, who for several seasons was captain of Grimsby Football Club, has died in a military hospital at the front from the effects of poison gas. He has a wife and three children." They said his death was due to "the effects of shellshock and poison gas."
He was a model professional, when that meant he was the centre of the community as well as a club
The Athletic News added that "of the team of player soldiers who won the Army championship in France, there is now only one at the front – Lonsdale, the Grimsby Town goalkeeper." In fact, Percy Barnfather of Croydon was also still going. But the list was getting shorter, mainly injuries but some more than that.
The death of Wheelhouse was a powerful symbol at that time. He was, as the Athletic News said, "a model professional", when that meant he was the centre of the community as well as a club. He was one of those names that everybody knew, there being only two divisions in the Football League, after all. It was just short of a decade since that Saturday, 21 September 1907, when Grimsby so much surprised their own fans and the supporters of Fulham by the river.
Saturday 30 August 1919 was the day when the Football League kicked off again. David Kenny was back in the Grimsby side at centre-half. He was the only one of the group who set off in that railway carriage with Sid Wheelhouse. They were off again against Stockport County, whom they had beaten so convincingly just before they enlisted. Stockport won 3-0 this time. But the game was back. Soon Frank Martin returned in midfield alongside Kenny. Results began to pick up.
At the other end of the country, that August day, Luton Town were at home to Swansea. Before the game began, there was "a sharp shower". The grass, longer than it would be today, was slippery. The whistle went, Swansea were on the attack and the left winger sent in a flashing shot. The Luton goalkeeper flung himself towards it, got a touch but couldn't keep it out of the net.
Percy Summers, who was in the carriage with Sid Wheelhouse that day and who had survived the whole march through the Somme with the Footballers' Battalion, must have felt the damp of the English rain as he picked himself up. Swansea were stronger that day but the local reporter was very impressed by Luton's new goalie: "Summers was very clever in preventing further scoring." At the finish, Luton even made it a draw with a penalty.
It is unimaginable how the players came back after all those years. I would guess that men like the Summers and Kenny, that English afternoon of sun and showers, were not the only ones who remembered Sid Wheelhouse as the football kicked off again.
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The author of this article, George Myerson, adds: "This story grows out of some research I did for a book called Fighting for Football which tells the story of the life of an Arsenal favourite of that period, Tim Coleman, and his friends in the Footballers' Battalion. There is also a more military history by Riddoch and Kemp called When the Whistle Blows. This little story seems to me to belong closer to home. I hope you enjoyed it. Give Sid my best wishes next time his beloved Grimsby score."
Cod Almighty would like to thank George for this article, and also the former Cleethorpes MP and Town fan Shona McIsaac for the use of her photo (above) of Sid's headstone, taken on her visit to Couin cemetery in northern France.