Players Associated with Brentford FC Who Gave Their Lives in WW1 & WW2.
Private Henry George Purver.
24th Battalion (2nd Sportsmen's) Royal Fusiliers.
Died 31/7/1916. Delville Wood, Somme, France.
No known grave. Recorded on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 8 C 9 A and 16 A)
Played for Brentford FC 1911-12 (2 apps)
Sergeant George Littler.
1st & 2nd Battalion Kings Royal Rifles.
Died (aged 27) on 11/5/1915. Battle of Aubers, Neuve Chapelle, France.
Bethune Town Cemetery, plot no. III grave no.C.27
Played for Brentford FC 1913-14 (Southern Alliance Reserve League)
Sergeant Patrick Hagan.
11th Battalion Royal Scots.
Died 14/7/1916. Beaumont Hamel, Somme, France.
No known grave. Recorded on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 6D & 7D)
Played for Brentford FC 1906-1908 (49 apps)
Private Horace Osborne Robotham.
23rd Battalion Duke of Cambridgeshire's Own (Middlesex Regiment)
Died 12/9/1916. Somme, France.
No known grave. Recorded on the Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 12D & 13B)
Played for Brentford FC 1905-06 (18 apps)
Sergeant Henry Cook.
12th Battalion Alexandra Princess of Wales' Own (Yorkshire Regiment)
Died 9.1.1917. Somme, France.
Buried Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte. Plot II. L.6.
Played as a 'Guest' for Brentford FC 1915-16 (10 apps)
Whilst stationed in London. Played for Middlesbrough FC originally.
Sergeant Percy Kitchener Saunders.
18th Divisional Workshops Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
Died (aged 25) Between 02/03/1942 and 03/03/1942. He was onboard the SS Rooseboom. Torpedoed by a Japanese submarine (I-59)
Died at Sea. Recorded on the Singapore Memorial, Kranji War Cemetery. Column 108.
Played for Brentford FC 1939-40 (2 apps)
Private Ralph Shields
No.2 Company Australian Army Service Corps
Died 21/11/1944. Borneo. As a PoW.
Buried Labuan War Cemetery Malaysia (Sabah) 1. Section N. Row AA. Plot 16.
Played for Brentford FC 1921-22 (9 apps)
Below is the poem by Laurence Binyon.
The 3rd and 4th stanzas are usually spoken in tributes to the fallen.
For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
