[Lord Snooty]

November 21:

On this date in 1914, Town played Arsenal at home and beat them 3-0 in front of a crowd of 10,246. It was a Second Division match and they had just dropped Woolwich from their name to be just known as the Arsenal, following their move to Highbury. Two of the goals were scored by Ralph Shields, though some reports have him down for a hat trick. Ernie Islip is officially credited with the other.

Spin on thirty years to the day and Ralph died on this date in 1944, a prisoner of war.

He was born in Easington, County Durham in 1892 and was working as a miner when Newcastle signed him as a 21 year old in 1913. He never made their first team and so in 1914, Town paid a hundred quid to bring him down to Leeds Road. He was top scorer in his first full season with us, scoring 16 in the season before the FL was suspended for the duration of the First World War.

He played in the first four games of the 15/16 Wartime League, but then signed up to serve as a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery. After the war had finished, he played his part in our promotion season, but missed out on the FA Cup Final of 1920.

He scored 21 goals altogether for the Town, the last of which came in a First Division match at home to West Brom, scoring twice in a 5-1 victory. He was then transferred to Exeter, in part exchange for William Wright coming to us. They were in the Thrid Division South and he soon left there to join fellow Div3S team Brentford.

He left the Football League after that, playing for Sittingbourne and then back up to the north-east with Blyth Spartans. But then in October 1927, he and his family emigrated to Australia to start a new life in New South Wales.

Thirteen years later, with the Second World War now underway, Ralph signed up again. He was 48 by now and too old to fight, but he only went and lied about his age, reckoning he was only 39, with the age limit being set at 40. Two years later with the Australian Army Service Corps, he was in Malaya. He was captured by the Japanese Army and became a POW in Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp in North Borneo.

This was not like the POW camps in Germany, where varoius escape plots made some great films later on and of course was the inspiration for our own Great Escape skit in 97/98. No, these were death camps. The prisoners were ill treated and were used as slave labour. This camp had it's inmates building a military airstrip.

The prisoners were defenceless against the mosquitoes, their constant attacks on the victims weakened body making sleeping at night almost impossible. Ralph died of malnutrition and beriberi on this date in 1944 and his body, among many others was recovered after the war and buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia.

This is his photo from his Australian Army days.

On this date in 1931, Dave Mangnall became the first Huddersfield Town player to score five goals in a match, a record that still stands today, only being matched by Alf Lythgoe and Jordan Rhodes.

Dave scored his five in a 6-0 home win against Derby County in front of an 11,638 crowd. Derby's captain Tommy Cooper was watching magic Mangnall going "ball, net, ball net" during a first half in which his first two goals gave us a 2-0 half time lead. Cooper had just been picked for England to replace Town's Roy Goodall.

Dave completed his hat trick in the first minute of the second half and made it four on the hour, nodding home a Wilf Bott cross. Dennis Jennings then supplied George McLean to make it 5-0 and Dave finished off his fantastic five in the 80th minute.

Later in the season, as I wrote about earlier in the year, Mrs Mangnall's lad went on to score in eleven consecutive matches. Another club record that still stands today.