Doeberitz football team 1916

-


I picked this photo up on eBay last week. It's difficult to read, but the names of the men appear on the notice that is balanced on the captain's feet. Two of the players are Belgian, but the rest are British, with at least four RMLI men, and others from different regiments. I've not identified all of them yet, but I'm pretty pleased with what I have found, particularly as I have a particular interest in men who became prisoners in 1914 - and all of the British men here fall into that category.  Here's who they are:

Back row:

8627 Sergeant Arthur White, 1st West Yorkshire Regiment

Gustave [Belgian]

Lootiens [Belgian]

9659 Michael Collins, 1st West Yorkshire Regiment

Giles, Royal Marine Light Infantry

 

Front row:

8357 Corporal M Tether, Royal Marine Light Infantry; captured Antwerp, 9 Oct 1914

9779 Private W Ryder, 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers; captured Guise, 27 Aug 1914

Howard, Suffolk Regiment

1138 Corporal Mark Joy, Royal Marine Light Infantry; captured Antwerp, 9 Oct 1914

14088 Corporal Oscar Uriah Spearing, Royal Marine Light Infantry; captured Antwerp, 9 Oct 1914    


Giles may be incorrect (back row), and there are more than one Suffolk Regiment men called Howard who were captured in 1914. But it's a start.


Popular posts from this blog

54571 Gnr Edward William Brown OR Milward, IV Bde, RFA

-
Image
Arrived Overseas: 14 October 1914. Connection: Victory Medal. Years ago I swore I'd never buy a single medal that had been disunited from its group. But I was young[er] and foolish then, and have since bought hundreds of single medals, and even re-united a couple. For those starting out on their medal collecting hobby, and even for grizzled old hoarders like me, the Victory Medal from the 1914-1918 War can offer hours of researching pleasure for a very modest investment and, besides which, like all British designed medals - and perhaps some from other countries too - it's an object of aesthetic beauty. This particular Victory Medal, which cost me £28 in March 2022, was once owned and earned by 54571 Gunner Edward Brown of the Royal Field Artillery. He'd joined the regiment on the 20th January 1909 under his real name of Milward, deserted in 1910, and then almost immediately re-joined under the alias of Brown. He served overseas with IV Bde RFA in the 7th (Meerut) Division f...
Read more

4966 L/Cpl Richard Edward Worrall MM, 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards

-
Image
Arrived overseas: 31 Oct 1914. Connection: Interview in January 1982. Richard Edward Worrall, better known to his friends as 'Alf' or 'Bumble' ended the First World War as a sergeant, but he was a lance-corporal when he set foot ashore in France on the 31st October 1914. He was a Chelsea Pensioner when I interviewed him, and I note that on that cold January day there was a seventy-year age gap between interviewer and interviewee. He said "On August 4th 1914 until 24th August 1914, an army of 75,000 men, with all their equipment: guns etc, were shipped from England over to Belgium and they actually started fighting on the 22nd August 1914.  That was when the first shot was fired and that shot was fired by the big drummer of my regiment. Up at Mons, Jerry had got there with [160,000] men and he had got everything right up in the front; big guns and everything. "As British soldiers there was one God that we had and that was the Sam Browne belt which was worn ...
Read more

11355 Pte John Jarvis Brunt, Coldstream Guards

-
Image
  Arrived Overseas: 22 December 1914. Connection: Memorial scroll, photo, grave photo. John Jarvis Brunt enlisted with the Coldstream Guards on the 2nd September 1914 and by the 22nd December that year he was disembarking in France. He served with the regiment until commissioned on the 31st July 1917 when he joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He served with the 12th Battalion but was attached to the 10th Battalion when he was reported missing in action on the 24th March 1918. Later confirmed as killed in action on that date, he was buried in Villers Bretonneux Military Cemetery (XVI B 1). John Brunt was the son of Mr and Mrs James Brunt of 47 Rockley Road, Hillsborough, Sheffield and was 29 years old at the time of his death. His memorial scroll, portrait photo taken in Sheffield, and grave photo have been framed together and hung in the Historic Records office.
Read more