Looking back at the Eccles and Patricroft Journal from March 1916 we were struck by the strange irony of this story.
100 years ago, munitions workers at Nasmyth Wilson and Company played against Gardners and Son in a charity football match at Eccles Borough ground in Bradburn Street, Patricroft.
While both companies were employed in making shells, weapons and ammunition for the war effort, the match was to raise funds for soldiers blinded in action who were recuperating at Henshaw’s Blind Asylum in Stretford.
The game was attended by a crowd of 1,500 which was a lot for such a tiny ground. Was this patriotism or sheer enjoyment of football?
The spectators were treated to “some capital football, with both teams evenly matched, with Gardners slightly more aggresive in front of goal”.
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Gardners scored twice in quick succesion to take a 2-0 lead, however a change in the Nasmyth Wilson attack proved to be the tonic they needed as they won the game 4-3.
The game raised £58 one shilling and half a pence to aid the scheme for training soldiers who had been blinded in combat.
His Worship the Mayor of Eccles, Councillor Ogden, thanked the Committeee of the Eccles Borough AFC for the kind use of the ground.
Thanks were also given to Arthur Robey, the landlord of the Town Hall Hotel, Church Street, Eccles, for his gifts of cigars and cigarettes for the winning and losing teams respectively.
Thanks were also given to a Miss M. Collins for her kind duties for officiating with the collecting tin, I assume this lady went around the spectators and urged them to donate more cash for this charity.
These fundraisers were a common occurence in the local areas at this time, no doubt they were a way of raising money to purchase comforts such as clothing, cigarettes, newspapers and food for the men serving at the front to let them know that they hadn’t been forgotten.
Football superstar Billy Meredith even hosted a charity football match in Irlam in February 1916 and helped raise £60 for the war effort.
I wonder if any wag piped up to point out the irony of two companies busy making munitions to kill and maim enemy combatants raising money for their own blinded soldiers.
Main image: Soldiers set up a match on Christmas Day 1916 with a handmade ball © Imperial War Museum
