[Lord Snooty]

July 1:

Fred Bullock was born on this date in 1886 in Whitton, London. He made his Town debut at left back in our first Football League season in 1910 and would go on to be club captain. But on this date in 1916, Fred spent his 30th birthday knee deep in muck and bullets at the Battle of the Somme.

That battle started on this date and lasted to the 18th of November. There were many soldiers involved that had played for Huddersfield Town before and after the war, but they were but a tiny fraction of the three million from both sides, with over a million of them being wounded or killed. Some of the following players may or may not have been there on this date, I don't have access to military papers, but they were all brave men who answered the call.

Our Fred had joined the Football Battalion, which as you may know, was made up of all kinds of footballers from differing backgrounds and was part of the Middlesex Regiment. Fred was a Lance Corporal. His Town team mate Jack Cock, was a Lance Sergeant. Chelsea's Vivian Woodward, who I mentioned yesterday scoring in the Olympic Games, was a Captain in the battalion. Walter Tull of Northampton Town was a Second Lieutenant and Bradford City's Frank Buckley was the Major. Alan Haig-Brown of Clapton Orient was the Lieutenant Colonel.

Norman Holmes of York City was a Lance Corporal. He had played three games for Huddersfield Town in 13/14 as a right back. He had moved on to York by the time the war started and the wounds he got in the war ended his playing career, but he did live til 1965. George Crowther was a Private in the Football Battalion. He had played a couple of matches at centre forward for the Town in 12/13. He survived the conflict, living to the age of 65.

John Wood was also, according to his Wikipedia page, in the Football Battalion. He had played in Town's first ever FL match in 1910, before transferring to Aberdeen. Now he is the one who I asked about with Lee Morris, the author of the Where Are They Now book. The book says that John was killed at the Battle of the Somme, but his name doesn't appear on the HTSA Heritage Project's Roll of Honour. Hopefully that will be sorted out soon. There aren't many details about him, so Lee says they're going to "do some digging".

Fred Bullock survived the war, he was injured at the Battle of Delville Wood, a couple of weeks after the start of the Somme offensive. He returned to action later on but then suffered a knee injury in 1918. That didn't halt his football career though as he and Jack Cock both won the London War Cup with Brentford in 1918/19 before they both came back to Leeds Road when the FL resumed in 1919.

Jack went on to play for England and have a career that would make a good film/documentary, which I've written about before and probably will again. Fred sadly, died in 1922 of heart failure due to ammonia poisoning, which was a suspected suicide. There wasn't much known back then about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Of the other Town players we do know of, who were at the Somme, Henry Crozier was in the Sheffield Pals. He hadn't yet made the first team at Town and never did as he was one of the many men killed on this date, the first day of the offensive.

Charles Randall was in the Coldstream Guards and had played for Town on loan from Newcastle in the two seasons prior to our Football League life started. He was killed in September and is buried at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery in Mametz.

Leigh Richmond Roose, the famous doctor/playboy/goalkeeper, who played five games for Town at the end of the 10/11 season, was killed in October. More about him later in the year.

Sam Wadsworth, Bertram Gilboy and Bob Reid were all in the Royal Garrison Artillery, who were at the Somme, but also at other conflicts, so there's no confirmation that these players were there on this date in 1916. But they could well have been.

Sam of course, went on to win the Football League three times with Town in the 20s, but at this time, he was a Blackburn Rovers player. He lived until 1961. Gilboy was another one to survive. He served as a gunner in the RGA and played three games for Town in 12/13 as a forward. Born in Islington, he lived right up to the age of 79, dying in Southampton in 1974. Scotsman Reid won the Bronze Medal of Military Valor. He had played for Town in the season prior to the FL being suspended in 1915, making 26 appearances at right back. After the war, he played for Southend.

Similarly, Joe Walter of the Gloucestershire Regiment. They were fighting at the Battle of the Somme, but I can't see if he was there at this time. He could well have been though. He did survive the war, being the guest of honour at the final game at Leeds Road in 1994, before he passed away a year later aged 99.

One hundred years after the Great War ended, the 2018 World Cup was taking place in Russia. On this date, Mathias Jorgensen aka Zanka, became the first Huddersfield Town player to score a goal at a World Cup. That was in the first minute of the Denmark v Croatia game when he fired home after a goalmouth scramble at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. The Croatians equalised in the 4th minute and that was the scoring done. The game went to penalties.

Our goalkeeper Jonas Lossl was sat on the bench, watching Kasper Schmeichel attempt to save the Danes from going out. He'd already saved a penalty in extra time from Luca Modric and despite him saving another two in the shoot out, it was Croatia who went through, winning 3-2.

They went on to reach the final, knocking out England on the way.

Two years later, another battle was being fought. The battle against the Coronavirus. We were in lockdown but football was back on again, just like during the war to keep up the morales of the country. Town, under the leadership of Danny Cowley, had not started the restart well, losing to Wigan and the Forest Gimps.

That bad run came to an abrupt end though on this date in 2020 as we watched on i-player as our brave boys smashed Birmingham City 3-0 at the Trillion Trophy Stadium. The referee in this game, Robert Jones hadn't read the terms and conditions of refereeing Town matches. He gave us not one, but two penalties!!

The first one was scored by leading scorer Karlan Grant, after he himself had been brought down in the area, just as he was about to shoot in the 10th minute. The second came in the 50th minute, but Grant's shot was saved by Lee Camp. Not to worry, we got a free kick a minute later which Harry Toffolo floated into the danger zone for Fraizer Campbell to poke home.

Another free kick taken by Toffolo from the same area in the 72nd minute was headed back across the box by Steve Mounie and headed in by Elias Kachunga. Thankfully, the win moved us back out of the bottom three to 19th.

Next up, Pressed on Both Ends at the John Smith's.