Football and War Network Events

Our inaugural seminar 'Invaluable for Morale & Training: Football, the British Army, and the First World War' took place on 1 June 2017 with speakers Professor Gary Sheffield, Daniel Routt, National Football Museum on 'For Club and Country' and Clive Harris, Battle Honours Ltd on 'Charlton Athletic's War and its Legacy'.

Sport, and especially football, was seen by the British army leadership of the First World War not just as an important role in the upkeep of morale but also as an important training aid. In this lecture, Professor Gary Sheffield examines these two aspects of the history of football, showing how this working man's sport was co-opted by the military in wartime.

In November 2017 we ran our second seminar: 'Footballers of the Great War: A Cigarette Card Series - the start of something...' with speaker Tim Godden. Tim said: "There were a number of factors that led to me beginning the Footballers of the Great War series, but one of the main reasons was the desire to tell a whole range of stories related to football and the war. The medium of cigarette card design provides such a wonderful platform to tell these stories and the designer in me could not wait to begin the process. A particularly important part of the series for me is the idea of it being a piece of public history."

Read .

On 21 March 2018 speaker Taff Gillingham delivered a seminar entitled 'How football fouled the truce'.The 1914 Truce was just a quirky moment in a lengthy war, and the stories of those who downed tools and took a few hours off to meet their enemies adds little to the bigger picture of the conflict.

However, the skewing of the events of Christmas 1914, both by veterans, the media, tourism agencies and football monoliths is an important lesson in how fragile history can be and how easily it can be diverted for personal, financial or political gain.

The talk looked at how ‘duff history’ has replaced the genuine and how ignorance, bad journalism and deliberate distortion has now obscured the real events of the 1914 Truce.

Taff Gillingham is a military historian, specialising in the British Soldier, 1899-1960, and a military historical advisor for film, television and theatre productions. He is co-director of Khaki Devil and is a director of the Great War Huts heritage project. He has studied the 1914 Truce since 1999.

On 6 June 2018 our speaker Steve Hunnisett gave a brief history of Dulwich Hamlet, its foundation, ethos and how the club fared between the wars. The talk will then concentrate on the club during 1939-45, notably, the players that died. Steve will also talk about Dulwich Hamlet players who served during the war and survived, explaining how this experience affected them subsequently. Steve will finish off his presentation by giving an update as to the current situation faced by the club in relation to the campaign to save the club and its future.

Steve is now a full time Battlefield Guide, blogger and researcher, specialising in the Home Front and London at war in particular and took the plunge into self-employment some two years ago. He has been a Dulwich Hamlet fan since 1990, originally fitting in games between watching his league side, Charlton Athletic but in recent years a season ticket holder at Champion Hill. He has recently written ‘For Freedom’ which tells the story of the club’s four Second World War casualties.

Read Steve's blog post on Dulwich Hamlet.

On 12 December 2018 ‌visiting speaker Phil Annets discussed the 'seven ages of the FA Cup'. Phil is a lifelong Leeds United fan with an exuberant passion for football statistics, in particular for the FA Cup, a passion that has led to converting his hobby of collating FA Cup facts and statistic into an avid Tweeter and Blogger of all things FA Cup via the moniker @FACupFactfile and the blog facupfactfile.wordpress.com.

Phil is the author of the seminal blog article They Shall Grow Not Old, which commemorates all the football clubs that competed in the 1914-15 FA Cup competition and never appeared in it again.

On Wednesday 27 March 2019 we held a Dulwich Hamlet Seminar at Dulwich Hamlet Football Club, Edgar Kail Way, East Dulwich, SE22 8DB.

All fans with an interest in football history were invited to join an evening of talks at Dulwich Hamlet Football Club in London.

Speakers and their topics were: Jack McInroy - Hussein Hegazi; Roger Deason - Dulwich Hamlet 1914 - 1919; Steve Hunnisett - Dulwich Hamlet 1939 - 1945; Tim Godden - Footballers of the Great War - The Stories Behind The Drawings; Professor Gary Sheffield - Football, The British Army and the First World War.

On 6 August 2019 we held a seminar hosted by Charlton Athletic Museum and Football and War Network: ‘The Boys from the Village’ The History of Charlton Athletic at War

All fans with an interest in football history were invited to join us at The Valley and after at the White Swan in Charlton Village. Check out the Football and War blog for some posts about the history of football in the area.

On Friday 4 October 2019 we held our Grecians and War: Commemorating our Heritage  Seminar in partnership with Exeter City Supporters’ Trust History Group, Exeter City Football Club Museum Trust & ECFC Senior Reds. This event covered the following topics.

• Commemorating the Exeter City War Dead, with Martin Weiler
• Footballers of the Great War: The Stories Behind the Drawings, with Tim Godden
• Impact of the two World Wars on Exeter City Football Club, with Aidan Hamilton
• Exeter City Football Club Museum: The Journey from Cupboards to a Stadium-wide Museum, with Professor Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter)

On 12 November 2019 our seminar in partnership with Solihull Moors FC, Solihull Moors Supporters Association, and the Royal British Legion was entitled 'Who’s for the Game? Moor Green FC and the First World War'. It was held at the The Jerroms Vice Presidents Suite, SportNation.bet Stadium, Damson Parkway, Solihull. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome and Introduction: Darryl Eales and Gary Armstrong
• Playing the Game to the End: The Story of the Men of Moor Green FC who died in the First World War, Douglas Smith
• The History of the Royal British Legion, Ken Russell
• The Football of the Battle of Loos, Tony Robinson

On 30 November 2021, our seminar in partnership with Wealdstone FC was entitled – ‘Wealdstone Football Club and Two World Wars’. It was held at the football club which is situated at Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip, Middlesex. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome and Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

• Wealdstone FC and Two World Wars: Roger Slater

• Finding My Uncle: Mark Hyde

• The Football of Loos: Tony Robinson

On 23 March 2022, our seminar in partnership with the Tower of London was entitled – ‘Football and the First World War’. It was held at the Tower of London in The Keys. The programme was as follows:

• Blitz Walk: Clive Harris and Steve Hunnisett

• Welcome: Matt Pryme

• Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

• The Greater Game: Football and Its Relevance in the 1914-18 War: Clive Harris

• The London Irish Rifles and The Football of Loos: Tony Robinson

On 12 April 2022, our seminar in partnership with Wealdstone FC was entitled – ‘Football and War London Seminar’. It was held at the football club which is situated at Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip, Middlesex. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome and Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

• FA Cup 150: Wartime FA Cup Facts and Statistics: Phil Annets

• Harold (Spud) Taylor’s Cup Final: Roger Slater

• Lost Football Heroes of the First World War: Jeff Williamson

• Chelsea FC Graves Project: Nathan Whitehouse

On 5 July 2022, our seminar in partnership with Maidenhead United FC was entitled – ‘Maidenhead United and World War One’. It was held at the football club which is situated in York Road, Maidenhead. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome: Neil Maskell

• Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

• Maidenhead Football in the Great War: Steve Jinman

• Chelsea Graves Society: Nathan Whitehouse

• Women’s Football and Football Makes History: Chris Rowe

On 11 October 2022, our seminar in partnership with Maidenhead United FC was entitled – ‘Football in World War One’. It was held at the football club which is situated in York Road, Maidenhead. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome: Neil Maskell

• Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

• Football in World War One: Richard Marks

• Maidenhead Norfolkians FC and World War One: Matthew Shaw

• The London Irish Rifles and The Football of Loos: Tony Robinson

On 8 February 2023, our seminar in partnership with Exeter City FC was entitled – ‘A Tale of Two Balls’. It was held at the football club which is situated St James Park, Exeter. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome: Paul Farley

• The Football and War Network and The Army FA History Project: Alex Alexandrou

• A Tale of Two Balls – The Exeter City FC Tour to Argentina and Brazil in 1914: Martin Weiler

• The London Irish Rifles and The Football of Loos: Tony Robinson

On 12 April 2023, our seminar in partnership with Maidenhead United FC was entitled – ‘Women’s Football’. It was held at the football club which is situated in York Road, Maidenhead. The programme was as follows:

• Welcome: Neil Maskell

• The Army FA History Project an Army Women’s Football: Alex Alexandrou

• The History of Women’s Football: Steve Bolton

• Maidenhead United Women FC Question and Answer: Neil Maskell, Imogen Fisher and Amy Saunders

On 30 May 2023, our seminar in partnership with Dulwich Hamlet FC was entitled – ‘The History of Football and Politics’. It was held at the football club which is situated at Champion Hill Stadium, Edgar Kail Way, London.
. The programme was as follows:

•    Welcome and Introduction: Alex Alexandrou

•    They Also Served - Dulwich Hamlet and the Civil Defence Services, 1939-1945: Steve Hunnisett

•    Football and Politics – A Century of Progressive Football: Chris Lee

Seminar One - Football and War: Women in Football

As part of its History Heritage Project, the Army FA in partnership with the Football and War Network, National Army Museum and Western Front Association has organised a series of public events that will cover various aspects of football during the First World War and contextualizing them from a contemporary perspective. On the 22nd May, 2024, the first of these events took place at the National Army Museum entitled – Football and War: Women in Football. 

The panel of experts assembled for the event were:

Steve Bolton, a leading women’s football historian whose expertise and passion centres on women’s football during and after the First World War and is credited as a producer for the short film Granny, about his international footballing grandmother, Lizzy Ashcroft. 

Acclaimed playwright, Amanda Whittington, whose numerous plays for stage and radio include two plays that have women’s football during the First World War as key themes, the first of which is Atalanta Forever and more recently, The Invincibles, which set against England’s progress in the 2023 Women’s World Cup against the rise and fall of the extraordinary women’s First World War football team - Sterling Ladies. 

Captain Krissy Wright of the Adjutant General's Corps, who has been involved in Army Football at all levels for over 25 years, making her debut for the Army Representative Women's team in 1999 and is currently player manager of the AGC team. 

The panel was hosted by Daniel Cowling, a historian at the National Army Museum with a particular interest is in modern British and European history. His first book, Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans, was published in 2023.

Seminar Two - Football and War: The First World War

As part of its History Heritage Project, the Army FA in partnership with the Football and War Network, National Army Museum and Western Front Association has organised a series of public events that will cover various aspects of football during the First World War and contextualizing them from a contemporary perspective. 

On the 11th July, 2024, the second of these events took place at the National Army Museum entitled – Football and War: The First World War.

The panel of experts assembled for the event were:

Alex Jackson, a curator at the National Football Museum in Manchester. He is the author of Football’s Great War: Association Football on the English Home Front, 1914-1918, which was awarded the 2023 Lord Aberdare Literary Prize by the British Society for Sports History.

Clive Harris, is an accomplished military and football historian, battlefield tour guide and co-author of The Greater Game, Sporting Icons Who Fell in the Great War. He was the 2020 Douglas Haig Fellow and is a member of the British Commission for Military History. Clive is currently researching a PhD on the impact of football in the British Army during the First World War.

Carrie Dunn is an acclaimed journalist and writer. Her books include Unsuitable for Females: The Rise of the Lionesses and Women’s Football in England, which was nominated for the 2023 Football Book of the Year Award and The Reign of the Lionesses: How European Glory Changed Women's Football in England. Carrie’s most recent book is Woman Up: Pitches, Pay and Periods - The Progress and Potential of Women's Football. She has covered multiple Women's World Cups for The Times and Eurosport, and is a regular contributor on BBC Radio.

The panel was hosted by Glyn Prysor, who is an Assistant Director for Research and Programmes at the National Army Museum and is the author of Citizen Sailors: The Royal Navy in the Second World War.

Seminar Three - Football and War: The Army FA Archive

As part of its History Heritage Project, the Army FA in partnership with the Football and War Network National Army Museum and Western Front Association has organised a series of public events that have covered various aspects of Army football, contextualizing them from a contemporary perspective. 

On the 16th October, 2024, the third of these events took place at the National Army Museum entitled – Football and War: The Army FA Archive. This event was the culmination of National Army Museum’s Football and War series.

The panel of experts assembled for the event were:

Hannah Tame, the Museum Archivist at the National Army Museum who has been cataloguing the Army FA collection since it was donated at the end of 2023. Hannah has worked with archive collections at organisations such as the British Library, the Church of England and the National Maritime Museum. She has a special interest in oral history collections and highlighting women’s stories from the archive.  

Alex Alexandrou, the co-founder and chair of the Football and War Network. He is currently the project manager for the Army FA History Heritage Project.

Gary Sheffield, one of Britain’s leading military historians. He is president of the Western Front Association and has published widely on British military history with a focus on the First and Second World Wars.

The panel was hosted by Glyn Prysor, who is an Assistant Director for Research and Programmes at the National Army Museum and is the author of Citizen Sailors: The Royal Navy in the Second World War.

The first of a series of seminars for the 2024-25 season in partnership with the Army FA, Western Front Association and a number of football clubs took place on the 12th September, 2024, at Exeter City hosted by the Senior Reds, a supporters group set up in 2012. 

As can be ascertained from the title, the seminar topic had an interesting twist to it to say the least. Roger Slater, the Wealdstone FC historian who has decamped to Devon was the keynote speaker. Roger gave a fascinating talk on what has turned out to being an ongoing research project, which by his own admission has grown at an exponential rate and leads him down many research rabbit holes! 

The talk was accompanied with an exhibition featuring the History of the Army FA and Army Football.

The second of a series of seminars for the 2024-25 season in partnership with the Army FA, Western Front Association and a number of football clubs took place on the 5th November, 2024, at Southampton FC. It was hosted by Greg Baker and Nicky Asiki on behalf of the club and Saints historians led by David Bull and Barry Webb in the superb Markus Liebherr Lounge.

The event coincided with the launch of the book entitled – Saints in the Great War by David Bull and Gary Chalk.

Following a welcome from Greg Baker, the first half of the event kicked-off with David Bull giving a wide-ranging presentation entitled – Saints in the Great War.

The second half of the event kicked-off with David being joined by his fellow club historian and author Duncan Holley with the pair presenting on the subject of – The Saints in the Second World War. 

The talk was accompanied with an exhibition featuring the History of the Army FA and Army Football.

To support the current exhibition entitled – The Sterling Ladies FC to The Lionesses: The Legacy of the Dagenham Invincibles of World War One, hosted by the Valence House Museum that runs from the 15th February to the 29th March, an event was organised at the Museum to celebrate International Women’s Day, that included an additional mini-exhibition curated by Steve Bolton within the room the event was being held in. The event was sponsored and supported by the Army FA, British Society of Sports History, Essex County FA and the Western Front Association. 

It began with a viewing of the film – Granny based on the life of one of the greatest female footballers of the early the first half of the 20th Century – Lizzy Ashcroft that was followed by a talk by her grandson and Women’s Football Historian, Steve Bolton, who described how and why the film came to be made.

This was followed by a panel event hosted by Alex Alexandrou on behalf of the Football and War Network and comprising of Steve Bolton, Milly Morgan from the Essex County FA, who is a Football Development Officer with specific responsibility for Equality, Inclusion and the Disability Pathway, who is helping to make a major contribution to the development of Girls and Women’s competitive and recreational football within the county; and Captain Krissy Wright, an Army Women’s footballing legend, who has made a significant contribution both on and off the field in relation to the development of Women’s Football within the Army for the past 25 years.

On 17th March 2025, Chris Lee's new book, Shades of Green: A Journey into Irish Football, was launched at an event at Dulwich Hamlet in South London. The event was co-hosted by the club and the Football and War Network with the support of independent bookseller Stanchion Books. 

Steve Hunnisett, one of the club's historians, announced that the Dulwich Hamlet Historians Group was now officially part of the club and the club has set up a Hall of Fame.

On the 6th April 2025, Steve Jenkins led an enthusiastic group of Leyton Orient fans and football history buffs on The Orient Line Heritage Trail.

The Heritage Trail is a walk of about eight miles tracing the origins and history of Leyton Orient Football Club.

The Trail has significant Football and War elements to it in relation to the First World War and Second World War, that takes in war memorials, commemorative plaques, former homes of players and pays particular homage to the role Clapton Orient players played in enlisting with the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War and the ultimate sacrifice made by three club players - Richard McFadden, William Jonas and George Scott.

The Heritage Trail was supported by the Football and War Network, The Army FA and the Western Front Association.

Steve Jenkins, has supported Leyton Orient since 1969. He is currently Deputy Chairman of Leyton Orient Supporters Club, Chairman of the O’s Somme Memorial Fund and is the author of - They Took The Lead - The Story of Clapton Orient's Major Contribution to the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War.