In 2015, 40+ members of Clapton Orient Football Club joined up en-masse to serve their country during the First World War. It would cost some of them their lives. This is their story.
2. The O’s were the first English football club to join up en-masse
with a total of forty-one players, staff and supporters joining
up to serve King and Country.
Meanwhile, whilst the plans for military involvement were being
put in place, Clapton Orient, along with the rest of the football
family carried on until the end of the 1914/15 season with the
O’s last game being at home to Leicester Fosse on 24th April
1915. In front of a packed house of over 20,000 spectators, not
only did the Orient win the game 2-0, but straight after the
match the ten players who had joined up at the recruiting meeting
at Fulham Town Hall, got into uniform and (probably still
profusely sweating) marched around the pitch with other members
of the Footballers’ Battalion, in a farewell parade before going
off to their training camp in preparation for their time in
France.
3. George Scott.
He was described as a ‘man
mountain of a defender’.
He played his last game for
Clapton Orient on 24th April
1915.
4. Richard McFadden.
McFadden was a hero –it
was known that he had
saved a man from a burning
building and then whilst
on a training run along
the River Lea near to the
Orient’s ground in east
London, he saved a young
boy who was drowning by
jumping in to rescue him.
5. William Jonas.
William Jonas was a skilful
centre-forward who linked up
well with his best friend
Richard McFadden.
Jonas received a large number
of letters from the female
supporters at the O’s, up to
fifty a week and things got so
bad he had to put a letter in
the Clapton Orient programme to
say that whilst he was
flattered by the attention
shown towards him by the ladies
of Clapton could the letters
please stop as he was a happily
married man.
8. The 17th Middlesex
subsequently established itself
in northern France with the rest
of the British Army with plans
for a major offensive to break
through the German line that
stretched from the North Sea
right down to the Swiss border.
9. The Footballers’ Battalion were to be
heavily involved in the Battle of the
Somme which commenced at 7.30am
on 1st July 1916 – like so many
other units the was to suffer heavy
casualties during this battle.
The Clapton Orient contingent – like
their comrades from other clubs,
were really in the thick of it during
the battle. Although they were not
involved in the opening weeks or so
they saw heavy action during the
fighting in Delville Wood or ‘Devils
Wood’ as it was to be known.
10. I, Richard McFadden sadly report the death of my
friend and O’s colleague William Jonas on the morning
of 27th July, age 26. Both Willie and I were trapped in a
trench near the front in Somme, France. Willie turned
to me and said “Goodbye Mac”, Best of luck, special love
to my sweetheart Mary Jane and best regards to the
lads at Orient’. Before I could reply to him he was up
and over.
No sooner had he jumped up out of the trench, my best
friend of nearly twenty years was killed before my eyes.
Words cannot express my feelings at this time.
Yours,
Company Serjeant Major Richard McFadden.
11. The O’s were to lose three of their players
during the Battle of the Somme – Private
William Jonas, a fine centre-forward who
was killed in Delville Wood, Private
George Scott, a man mountain of a
defender who died of his wounds in a
German military hospital in Le Cateau, and
finally ace goal scorer Richard McFadden
(right) who was mortally wounded near
Serre.
12.
13. This new kit was
designed in 2015
to commemorate
the kit worn 100
years ago by
Leyton Orient
Football club.
