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Matchday Thread: Charlton Athletic v Port Vale

Fosse69

By Fosse69
in Port Vale present

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SE7toSG3 Newbie

SE7toSG3

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Hi all not sure how to attach files to your forum as its a different CMS as ours, just back tonight from Belgium where we took a London cab over and a convoy of cars to demonstrate in the owners home town and outside his business before visiting our war dead in Ypres on the way home, anyway I have written up the program notes to include Port Vales fallen in the Great War and hope to see a few of your from 1400 outside our West Stand for a quick service at our war memorial (unless I am banned from attending like quite a few ofbour have been!) Also if your in the Rose of Denmark before the game come up and say hello (its a home fan lock in afterwards as we go all Saarf London and unfriendly when we get gubbed each week) safe trip and enjoy your day. I will try and post the program notes tomorrow for you in advance

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Andy Proctor Experienced

Andy Proctor

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Hi all not sure how to attach files to your forum as its a different CMS as ours, just back tonight from Belgium where we took a London cab over and a convoy of cars to demonstrate in the owners home town and outside his business before visiting our war dead in Ypres on the way home, anyway I have written up the program notes to include Port Vales fallen in the Great War and hope to see a few of your from 1400 outside our West Stand for a quick service at our war memorial (unless I am banned from attending like quite a few ofbour have been!) Also if your in the Rose of Denmark before the game come up and say hello (its a home fan lock in afterwards as we go all Saarf London and unfriendly when we get gubbed each week) safe trip and enjoy your day. I will try and post the program notes tomorrow for you in advance

We wont bring anywhere near 1400 got shrewsbury away next week more will go that. We are embarassingly **** away so i wouldnt be surprised if it was an easy home win.

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SE7toSG3 Newbie

SE7toSG3

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Yep sorry for the confusion, long day yesterday and was using my phone to post, 2pm ish is the right time, here is the text of the article that includes Vales war dead for those of you that cant make it down, on the pitch we are poor, very poor but Slade had just started to bring some stability to the squad, as ever our mad owner sacks him and we will no doubt have a Belgian no mark in place by saturday for the next chapter in our demise. This could be a battle of who is the most sh*t!

 

 

Today we mark Armed Forces Day, a day that as a club we commemorate and celebrate our links with the military, a link that goes back over a century and sits at the very heart of our community and club.

 

Long before Millwall or Crystal Palace became our rivals it was the local derby with the Army Service Corps based at Woolwich that was the most hotly contested fixture on the early Addicks calendar, a game often marked by disorder both on and off the pitch!

 

It’s fair to suggest that both wars came at a time when Charlton were emerging into a local force (1914) and a national force (1939). In fact, in 1915 when the club wound itself up to fight the ‘Greater Game overseas’ it declared on reforming that,

‘We have a war record of which we are justly proud. Some thirty of our members served in HM Forces on the various battlefields of Europe. We regret that of this number, three have paid the supreme sacrifice, while six others have been wounded’.

 

The three men who today have their names on a special plaque underneath the war memorial in Addicks Place, for almost a century they remained almost statistics, today they are remembered and each played their part in the history of our famous old club.

 

The first, early club secretary Jim Mackenzie lost his life at sea in September 1917 when the SS Heron was sunk. Mackenzie, a scot who had settled in SE7 with his family from Dundee was a key member in the infancy of the club offering his own address as a contact to arrange friendly matches in the Kentish Independent of 1905. In November 1908, he enlisted in the merchant navy serving on the SS Heron whose regular cargo route was from the UK to Oporto, it was on this familiar route as part of a wartime convoy in 1917 whilst crossing the Bay of Biscay that she was sunk by the German Submarine U90 on the night of 30th September alongside her sister ship the SS Drake. The Heron, fully laden with a cargo of coal sunk almost instantly with a sole survivor, its Japanese crane operator Higo picked up by the U90 the following morning. Jim and his 22 crew members are today commemorated on the deeply moving Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill. Fellow Addick and Maritime Historian Steve Hunnisett has provided us with some outstanding research on Jim in recent years.

 

The second Frederick Chick, was the son of a Milkman Henry Chick who died whilst he was still a child. Fred was admitted to the Britten Street Old & New Workhouse in Chelsea, aged 6 along with 2 brothers and a sister. After transferring to the Christ College Working Boys Home in Camberwell in 1911 he was taught a trade as an Optical Lenses maker and it was around this time that he likely met Scott Kingsley in the same trade that led him to join the club as a trainer where appears in a named 1913/14 team photograph. By the time Fred married Florence Gordair at St Stephens Parish Church, Walworth in November 1915 the club had ceased playing football and he shortly after enlisted into the Queens Own Royal West Kent Hussars, service number 2311. Chick’s unit did not serve in France but formed part of a draft to the 13 Middlesex Regiment who were serving on the Somme. On the 31 August 1916 Fred was killed in what was likely his first spell of trench warfare. Not going over the top but in a gallant defence of his position in the face of a severe German counter attack to regain recently lost ground. One of 243 men to lose their life in the battalion in August 1916, Fred Chick today lies in Caterpillar Valley CWGC having been found when the battlefield was cleared after the war alongside one of his comrades.

 

Our final man is Herbert ‘Nobby’ Nightingale, for almost a century the forgotten man the clue to his identity was hidden in the rarely seen 1921 handbook,

 

‘At Christmas 1914 the club was forced to close, the majority of the “Boys” having left to take their part in the great game overseas. The club are proud of their history during the war. Two of the members answered the last call, J. Mackenzie, the first honorary secretary and A. Nightingale, a clever half back, in addition, five other members of our pre-war team are privileged to wear the gold stripe that donates wounds of honour’.

 

Along with Ben Hayes a fellow museum trustee we able to ascertain that this is an error and should read H Nightingale, this led us to Hebert Barlow Nightingale, known as ‘Nobby’ who played for both us and Woolwich Polytechnic Athletic Club in late 1914 early 1915 Herbert, like many Addicks enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery and served with the 35th Trench Mortar Battery attached to the 1st Canadian Division when he lost his life close to the Belgian village of Messines on the 13 January 1916, today buried in RE Farm Cemetery the inscription on his grave poignantly reading, “Let those that come after see, that this name is not forgotten”

 

Today as well as welcoming members of Herbert’s old regiment from Woolwich to our club we also welcome the players, officials and supporters of Port Vale. It is only right that as we fall silent to reflect those who lost their lives for their country that we remember Port Vale’s sacrifices in the Great War.

 

Joseph ‘Tommy’ Regan of the 7/North Staffordshire Regiment was killed on the 25 January 1917, in Mesopotamia and is today buried in the Amara War Cemetery, Iraq.

 

Jack George Yuill of the 19/Manchester Regiment died on the Somme in July 1916, he made 4 appearances and alongside his Welsh International and Port Vale team mate Leigh Roose is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

 

Making 224 appearances for the club, John Shelton of the 2/Lincolnshire Regiment fell breaking the Hindenburg Line in September 1918 and is buried in Epehy Wood Cemetery, France. In the same month Vales Robert Suart of the 14/Royal Warwickshire’s also lost his life, he is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial and made 175 appearances for Port Vale.

 

We shall remember them

 

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