Every Cloud by Gary Edwards

Author:Gary Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

World War One

IN Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was attending a military review with his wife when they were both assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. Nationalist Princip wanted the Austro-Hungarian Empire out of Bosnia. This was the first ripple that cascaded into World War One, or The Great War as it became known back then. Around this time there were a number of different defensive alliances across Europe: Germany was in alliance with Austria-Hungary, Russia with Serbia and France with Russia, whilst Great Britain was in alliance with both France and Russia as well as Belgium. Ferdinand’s death was the immediate catalyst for the declaration of war that followed. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian Government for the attack on the Archduke and gave a quite unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia. But Serbia refused to accept the demands made to them and Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic relations and immediately declared war on their neighbours. In the event, Austria-Hungary bombarded Belgrade with heavy artillery fire prompting Russia to mobilise. On 31 July, Germany warned Russia to stand down, a threat that was ignored by the Russians and the following day Germany declared war on Russia. In response, France mobilised its forces prompting Germany to attack France via Belgium. Although Britain was less committed to its alliance with France and Russia than the other powers, it had, in 1839, signed a treaty with Belgium which said that it would attack anyone who attacked Belgium. Britain’s involvement in the conflict ensued on 14 August 1914 when it declared war on Germany. World War One, despite early indications that it would be over by Christmas, would last for four years, three months and one week. Britain had entered the war without compulsory military service – the only country to do so – but there was absolutely no shortage of volunteers. But as the 1914/15 season approached there was widespread talk of suspending league football for the duration of the conflict; a feeling held vigorously by a very large section of the public and the vast majority of the media.

The suspending of football would allow players and officials alike to volunteer for the war. But amid howls of protest up and down the country, the football authorities made the hugely unpopular decision to proceed as planned with the league schedule despite the angry and patriotic feeling of the public as a whole. The media, also opposed to the plans, declared that they would not report on matches in any form. Letters flooded into the letters’ pages of newspapers nationwide. An incensed Mr Croft wrote to the Hull Evening Telegraph comparing the Football Association to the Germans, while Mr H. Norris told readers of the Yorkshire Evening Post, ‘The King should resign as the president of the Football Association.’ Mr Potts, in a strong letter to the Leeds Mercury, said that ‘this should not happen, and I for one shall do everything in my power to see that it doesn’t’. Initially, the Football Association stood

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