RAAC (Rome Area Army Command) vs Joint Lazio-Roma XI

02/08/2021  -  12.00

Ian Bradshaw

My name is Ian Bradshaw. I am the youngest of four sons to John Bradshaw. He was born in Radcliffe near Manchester on the 7th July 1920. At the time of writing, June 2021, this would have been his centenary year.

So with this in mind, I have just finished producing a book about my dad who represented the RAAC (Rome Area Army Command) against a joint team from the two Rome teams, AS Roma and SS Lazio. My dad played at right back with his glasses on, the Italians called him “The Bespectacled Bradshaw”.

Dad in action blocking a cross at right back. Note the Italian player – Gualtieri, is playing with his left arm in a sling due to an injury sustained in the first half of the match. Source: Author’s collection.

The match was played out in the International Stadium in Rome on the 4th February 1945, and was a charity match to raise funds for the orphans of Rome. 20,000 supporters attended the match, 10,000 British soldiers in khaki, the remaining 10,000 from Rome. Nearly One Million Lire was collected from this event. The result of the match was 3-1 in favour of the Italians.

I produced the book which is about this particular day along with surrounding family information. It started from a small football scrapbook my dad had, which covered the match with some photos of the occasion with his hand written notes. There are others to do with him playing at different times. He never played professionally, I assume he played semi-professionally with Radcliffe Borough.

The Italian team on the day had many internationals and the British team was made up from the forces of the Rome area, again many professionals were available for selection, English Scottish, Irish, Welsh and South African, from clubs like Sheffield Wednesday, Everton, Manchester City to name but a few.

Left to Right – Rudd, Bradshaw, MacLean, Jarvis and Kurland being presented to Brigadier General Lowe accompanied by Major General Browning. Source: Author’s collection

Willie Thornton played in the trial matches prior to selection but was recalled to his unit before the match took place. He is now in the Glasgow Rangers hall of fame and played seven times for Scotland. This gives an idea of the calibre of the players competing to represent the RAAC. He was also awarded the Military Cross for bravery whilst in action in Sicily. This RAAC team is not to be confused with the English Touring team which was present in Italy at the same time.

My dad had mentioned and written in his scrapbook that one of the Italian players, called Andreoli, had captained a Rest of Europe team against England in 1938 to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of the FA. This was the name written in his scrapbook and he pointed him out in the photos. I eventually found out his name was not Andreoli but Andreolo, who actually also played for Italy in its team that won the World Cup in France beating Hungary 4 -2 in 1938 under Vittorio Pozzo. Pozzo also managed Italy to their World Cup win in 1934.

It also transpired that there was a player in the Italian team called Andreoli which for a while was a little confusing, but it is absolutely clear who he is identifying and the Rest of Europe match that dad mentioned ties in nicely, apart from the fact that Andreolo was not the captain on the day. The captain on that day was a Swiss player called Braine. England Match 220 identifies this and was played at Highbury.

My big breakthrough for more information about the match was given to me from LazioWiki which eventually allowed me to include the sports pages of the days surrounding this match in the book. The first information/image that I found was a long distance photo of the match taking place. When I searched for the date of the match itself, the only way I knew the date was from a note on the back of a photo sent to dad from Ted Packard who captained the RAAC side on the day. All other searches over the years had provided no leads, especially as I was looking for the wrong name. I have now translated the sports page columns relating to the match and this is a major part of the book. LazioWiki now have copies of the photos from dad’s scrapbook and they are published on their website for all to see, which I find amazing.

I have my dad's actual shirt badge from the game, which is shown on the cover of the book. This is now a treasured possession I hold for our family.

I have had 25 copies of the book produced, and have distributed most of them to family and friends only in Australia, America, Italy and the UK.

The introduction of the book is from my perspective as a youngster trying to reach the level of playing professional football, having been inspired by Alan Ball in 1966 and the England team winning the World Cup that year and asking dad to coach me to play. He was a qualified FA coach and was tutored by Walter Winterbottom. Unfortunately, he never coached at any clubs, he applied but was unsuccessful. He coached me and I progressed to a good level, but not to the level he played at. My appreciation now of what he gave to me is clear and how good a player he was, as well as all the others taking part that day. I now fully understand, so being able to put down on paper as a record is very important to me, I am so happy to share this history with you and hope you find it interesting.

Biography

Ian Bradshaw is the youngest son of John Bradshaw, and is now 65 years old. He grew up in Radcliffe near Manchester. Ian got married in 1974 to Janet and they went on to have two sons. Ian worked in Yorkshire as a technical instructor for many years. In 2002, Ian and Janet moved to the Isle of Skye and had a complete life change. They still live on the island today as do their two sons and their families, which extends to six grandchildren.