44 Reading Football Club player fought in World War One, and tragically 9 of them never made it home.

Our heroes: the ultimate sacrifice
Private Ben Butler , 17th Middx Regiment
Private James Comrie, 1st/7th Northumberland Fusiliers
Sergeant Joe Dickenson, 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards
Private Allen Foster, 17th Middx Regiment
Sergeant Len Hawes, Berks Yeomanry
Private Jack Huggins, 1st/8th Durham Light Infantry
Edward 'Ginger' Mitchell, 164 Battery RFA
Corporal Heber 'HP' Slatter, 156 (Oxford) Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
2nd Lt Freddie Wheatcroft, 5th East Surrey Regiment

Our heroes
Sergeant Len Andrews, East Yorks Regiment
Corporal Joe Bailey, 17th Middx Regiment
Corporal F Bartholomew, 17th Middx Regiment
Sergeant Harvey Bennett, 4th Battalion Royal Berks Regiment
Sergeant Joe Blackett, Army Service Corps
Dr C Burnham, Medical Officer
Private JH Caldwell, Black Watch
Private E Coquet, Cyclist Corps
Private H Crawford, Transport Army Service Corps
Sergeant Major Fred, Royal Field Artillery
Private George Goodman, Army Medical Corps
Private Haydn Green, 17th Middlesex Regiment
Private DV Hadley, Transport Army Service Corps
Private Arthur Hallworth, Army Service Corps
Private George Hancock, Army Service Corps
Sergeant ET Hanney, 17th Middx Regiment
Major EH Harrowell, New Zealand Rifles
Sergeant GH Horler, Army Medical Corps
Corporal W Leach, 4th Battalion Royal Berks Regiment
Private A Lee, 4th Battalion Royal Berks Regiment
Private A Lindsay, Black Watch
Corporal J Lofthouse, Royal Berks Regiment
Sapper W Minter, Royal Engineers
Private B Penney, 2nd Battalion Royal Berks Regiment
Air Mechanic Reginald Pinfield, Royal Naval Air Service
Major JE Raine, 9th Battalion Durham Regiment
Private B Ralphs, Army Medical Corps
Private SR Rowlands, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Corporal Angus Seed, 17th Middx Regiment
Sergeant Jack Smith, Army Veterinary Corps
Corporal C Stevens, 1st Battalion Royal Berks Regiment
Private P Stevens, Oxon & Bucks Light Infantry
Private W Thompson, Royal Garrison Artillery
Private D Willis, Army Service Corps
Private W Wilson, 4th Battalion Royal Berks Regiment

Remembering them
In late 2010, Brian McDermott, Ady Williams, Trevor Senior and Mick Gooding visited northern France to pay tribute to these men, laying wreaths at headstones of Ben Butler, Allen Foster and Heber Slatter. Butler rests at Bruay cemetery; Foster at Corbie, near Amiens, and Slatter at Couin.

Joe Dickenson
The first Reading player to go to war was Joe Dickenson, who had already served in the forces before joining the Royals, and in fact he was first spotted by Reading scouts while playing for the Household Brigade. Having already served, he was automatically called up the day after war broke out, leaving his pregnant wife Winifred and young son Stephen back at home. Described in the press as 'a man who gave everything for Reading,' he was a stocky chap and a real favourite of the Elm Park faithful.

He had cost Reading a mere £5 when he joined us from Tamworth club Two Gates Wanderers in February 1913. Within three months he had moved from lower league football to become part of the Reading squad that toured Italy, beating AC Milan 5-0 and triumphing over the Italian national team with performances that led to The Biscuitmen being described as 'the best foreign team ever seen in Italy.' He had also scored on his Southern League debut at Watford in March 1913.

Upon arriving in France, he wrote home declaring he was 'hoping to bring home a German helmet!' Despite fighting in terrible battles and dealing with the horrors of war, he never lost touch with home and events at Elm Park were never far from his thoughts. He also wrote, 'what's the matter with the Football Club, I wish I could come to help you! Your last two results I consider very good. I should wish to come home now, I think I've done my bit here. I'm sure I could do my bit on the football pitch but I don't think it will be soon. I would love to have one game with you. I wanted to be home for this season but all hopes for that are gone. Wishing to be remembered to the boys. Shall I be home for next season."

Devastatingly, Joe was not to return home to his beloved Royals. On the 19th May 1915, having survived three days of horrendous battles alongside 50,000 men at Festubert, Joe was charged with the task of burying dead bodies on the battlefield, both English and German. Shelling rained down that was described as 'incredibly heavy' but still only one man perished - tragically that man was Joe. He left behind a daughter he never met, and his name remains on a memorial at the Le Touret cemetery. Nine months into the war Reading FC had its first casualty. Note: Joe's surname was noted at Elm Park as Dickenson but his military papers and therefore the memorial listed the spelling Dickinson.

Ben Butler
This centre half was born Albert Victor Butler, but always played under the name Ben. Standing 5'9", he came through the ranks at Arsenal and then moved to Berkshire as an amateur, learning his trade in our 1908/9 reserve team that won the Great Western League in some style - scoring 108 goals and only conceding 20 all season. His displays earned him a professional contract at Elm Park in April 1909, and he helped us to the Southern League Second Division championship two years later. His penultimate game for Reading came in a 2-0 win at Croydon Common, in which he was reported to have played 'the game of his life.'

Both he and his family called Reading home, and his brother was landlord of the Star Inn in Caversham. Ben supplemented his own income with a job as an engine cleaner for the South East Railway Company, providing for his wife and two sons - Albert and Arthur. Soon after war broke out, Ben volunteered to join the Footballers' Battalion and play his part in the conflict, standing shoulder to shoulder with his fellow professionals. Before going overseas, the Battalion had played a number of exhibition games on English shores to encourage others to join them in battle.

At the time Ben was 29, and he found himself on the narrow streets of Lens - a poor mining town with trenches running in and out of destroyed cottages, through back gardens. He faced horrendous urban warfare of the most brutal and unforgiving kind. Every single day he was up at dawn to fend off any German attacks, on watch throughout the day and then posted again at dusk to repel any more assaults amid constant shelling.

While undertaking these daily routines amidst the charred remains of houses, Ben was hit by a shell - and in the cruellest, most unthinkable act, this professional footballer had his leg blown off. He fought valiantly against what must have been unspeakable pain for an incredible ten days, but finally succumbed to rest in peace.

The hospital chaplain's account read, 'A great big chap lies in this bed, a guard bulges up the blankets over his leg. I asked him, "Well corporal, how are you now?" He replied to me, "Bad, this leg is done in. No more football for me." He fights for dear life for ten days and then goes out. He has played the game, I doubt not that he has won many matches, a fine fellow. May he rest in peace.'

Ted Hanney
Thankfully, Ted was one of the luckier ones. Born in the barracks on the Oxford Road, only a few hundred yards from Elm Park, Ted Hanney had Reading Football Club and the army in his blood. His father was the Quartermaster Sgt of the Royal Berks Regiment, and he was a tall, dashing defender at Elm Park - and it's not too strong to say he was one of Reading's greatest ever players.

He was tough, but also quick and skilful, and after a number of England amateur caps, he was selected for the 1912 Olympic squad and played in Great Britain's pivotal 7-0 win over Hungary. Sadly, he sustained an injury and was forced to watch from the sidelines as the team won gold and he never received a medal despite his participation to that point. On returning to Elm Park he signed professional forms and he was sold shortly afterwards to Manchester City for a huge £1,250 fee. Soon though, the war came calling for Hanney - and also all four of his brothers.

From the prestige of a big money move to Manchester City, Ted found himself worlds away on the battlefield in Delville Wood, rightly nicknamed Devil's Wood by fellow soldiers. A central point of the battle of the Somme, there were no fewer than 60,000 British casualties on the first day of fighting alone. Imagine three capacity crowds at Madejski Stadium, all wounded or worse - a battle that is simply beyond all comprehension today.

By the time of this battle seven Reading players had been sent to war but only four remained - Ben Butler had been fatally wounded, Joe Bailey had returned home with a septic hand and Angus Seed had returned with a Military Medal. Yet Hanney remained in one of the most dreadful places on the Western Front. As an example of the sheer brutality, in the space of just four days the South African brigade saw its numbers reduced in those killed, wounded or missing from 3,000 to 600.

With nine shells per second raining down and the stench of weeks-old bodies rotting in the French summer sun, Ted first survived a nearby grenade explosion which killed a fellow soldier but only left him dazed. He carried on regardless, but a shell then badly wounded him in the thigh, face and neck at 10.30pm on 28th July. Incredibly, he had to remain out in the trenches without proper medical attention until 8.30am the next morning to avoid gunfire.

Despite his injuries, Ted continued to give as good as he got and later said, "The Germans attacked three times that night, and as I felt quite alright I stopped and gave them a few extra rounds of ammunition. By gum, I saw some fights I shall never forget."

His injuries forced him home, and his bravery was never more obvious than when he pulled on a blue and white shirt and played for Reading at Elm Park just two months later! He went on to captain the Biscuitmen and some years later he coached, incredibly, in Germany with Stuttgart and Wacker Munich. But Reading was always Ted's home and he returned to the town, running coaching sessions at Elm Park during the Second World War and living here until his death in 1964 at the age of 75. His family still live in the town and his nephew was at Madejski Stadium when we played Norwich in November 2010 and held a minute's silence.

Allen Foster
Many things have changed in football, but goalscorers have always and will always be heroes. In that regard, Allen Foster was undoubtedly the first true darling in Reading Football Club's history. A swashbuckling forward with fabulous talent, he was also a larger-than-life character who drew attention and adulation with every rumbustious performance in a Reading shirt. The type of man that men wanted to be, and women wanted to be near.

He came to Reading's attention after a couple of fine displays for Bristol City against our reserves and a £75 fee (paid in two instalments!) brought him to Elm Park in August 1911. From then on it was success all the way for the brilliant left-footed forward. Virtually ever-present over the next four years, Allen topped our goalscoring list in each of those seasons, netting 67 Southern League goals in 146 games and creating many more with his wide range of accurate passes. However, his most famous goal came in the FA Cup - a stunning volley that knocked First Division Aston Villa out of the competition in February 1912, a goal and a performance that prompted a huge £750 bid from Villa. Despite continuing financial problems, the directors turned down the bid and their decision was rewarded by a series of consistent displays that saw the popular player being tipped for an England cap just prior to the outbreak of war.

So with the footballing world at his feet, one can only imagine how this son of a Yorkshire miner must have felt when his country called and he was sent into battle. He remained in fine spirits and kept a cheeky tone when he wrote home of his experiences at Delville Wood: 'We made old Fritz hop about! They were running about like lost sheep but we were popping away at him like blazes. I don't think he expected us to be quite so near to him. We had to pay for being so near but as luck would have it, I managed to get back without a scratch. It's very trying to the nerves, lots of fellows get what they call shellshock. You won't last long out here, but there's no need to worry, I'm A1. I often wonder how long it will be before we are back to the old times again. Sometimes I think it will not last long. We can't tell, we can only hope and trust it will not be for long.'

At 4am on 8th August 1916 in a field in Guillemont, just a stone's throw from Delville Wood, Foster was in the trenches preparing to go over the top and, just like on the pitch at Elm Park, he was ready to tackle his opponent head on. Waiting 20 minutes for the whistle to blow, Foster and his fellow soldiers dutifully went into battle, but within a short space of time Allen had been shot in the thigh, abdomen and arm.

Four incredibly brave stretcher bearers ducked the fire and shelling to retrieve Foster from the battlefield, and after what would have been no more than a patch up, he was taken 16 miles by ambulance across dusty roads to a hospital in Corbie near Amiens.

Tragically, Allen didn't survive. He had the wherewithal to give the nurse his address - 14 Kent Road, merely yards from Elm Park - and when news made it home the Reading Observer newspaper wrote, 'The news of Allen Foster's death came like a thunderclap and the death roll of Reading Football Club players is slowly mounting up. It seems impossible to believe that the fair-haired centre forward with a caustic tongue but lovable disposition would entertain us no more. One's thoughts instantly flew to the quiet little woman and tiny babe.'

Harry Matthews, secretary and manager of Reading Football Club then, wrote in a letter to Foster's wife, 'Allen I cannot imagine ever had an enemy. He was liked by all and has done a great deal for the club. I'm quite sure we shall ever miss his company, and he will leave us all with an ever fragrant memory. Of all the players, I devoutly hoped he might be spared to come back and be with us all again. I'm hoping when the better days come to the club, they can do something in appreciation of his good deeds.' In those better days a benefit match followed, and despite appalling weather £100 was raised. Reading played against the Footballers' Battalion, and his old pal Ted Hanney was injured but so desperate to pay his respects that he picked up a flag and ran the line.

Joe Bailey
Born in Thame in 1890 and christened Walter George, he was always known as Joe or by his nickname 'Bubbles' and he played for Nottingham Forest before joining Reading, initially as an amateur, in 1910. He was capped twice for England's amateur team and scored twice in each game before signing professionally, and his bustling all-action style made him the perfect partner for Allen Foster, the pair scoring regularly throughout their Reading careers.

When war broke out, the football industry received criticism for not sending players into battle immediately, but the bravery of men like Joe Bailey soon ended any disquiet. After six months on active service, his hand turned septic after being cut on barbed wire. But by the time March 1918 came around, he was back out in France as an officer with the Suffolk regiment and missing the earlier fight only seemed to spur him on.

His bravery, talent and natural leadership qualities made him a wonderful soldier, and he was given the rare honour of promotion from rank and file all the way through to officer. With war coming toward its conclusion and American forces soon to join British troops, Germany was making one last push for victory. Joe Bailey was not to be dissuaded, and he and his troops were surrounded in one particular battle. He pushed valiantly forward, broke out under fire to retrieve ammunition and even dragged a wounded soldier back to safety. He was put forward for a Military Cross, cited for 'conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.'

Not paying any heed to such recognition, Bailey went on to earn another two bars to his Military Cross, the equivalent of winning the medal twice again, as well as a Distinguished Service Order for leadership, making him the most decorated officer in the Suffolk regiment. His next citation noted, 'his utter disregard of danger was magnificent. When a company lost all its officers, he went and organised it without hesitation, took command and ensured success for the mission.'

After the war ended, Joe was held in such high regard, he held a very important flag for the forces in Germany - the highest honour that could have been bestowed upon him. A picture of him holding the flag was so precious to Joe, that he handed it back to the army in his will.

He was soon back in a Reading shirt, and he scored the club's first ever Football League goal and Football League hat-trick. In total he made 186 Southern League and League appearances, scoring an impressive 75 goals and was our top scorer in his last two seasons. His performances and loyalty were rewarded with a benefit game in March 1921, a game for which he even sold a ticket to the future King Edward VII after the then Prince of Wales travelled on the same train as the Reading team!

Heber Slatter
Heber, or HP as he was often known at Elm Park, had played for Berkshire at all levels before joining Reading as an amateur in 1909. He was stocky, only 5'5" tall and just 9st 11lbs, but still with a reputation for being tough in the tackle. He was born in Wokingham in July 1886 and lived at 77 Norfolk Road - right next to Elm Park and the Spreadeagle pub, making him probably the most local player ever to represent the club. In addition his parents lived on the Queens Road, he married his wife Kate at St John's Church and went to Newtown School...so he was Reading through and through, like his son Leslie and daughter Muriel.

Almost exactly 100 years ago before a wreath was laid at his headstone, he earned his place in the first team at the left half position and played in the majority of the second half of the 1910/11 season that saw us win the Southern League Second Division championship. Heber was at Elm Park for four seasons, also working as a rate collector for the council, but during that time no-one was able to explain how he earned his unusual nickname of 'Little Eva'! More flatteringly he has also been described as 'one of the best half backs Reading ever produced.'

This promising player joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in November 1915, and was posted to France in 1916. He later wrote home, 'We have been so busy moving up and down that I scarcely find time to write. Up to the present I have been keeping quite fit but we have had some very big bombardments. Everything looks very bright from all sides and I shall be pleased to see the finish. I have had a letter from my father, he is getting on well. I am writing this sitting on the ground with the paper across my knees.'
In the spring of 1918, Germany was making one last effort to win the war. All the land that had been won on the Somme, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, had been lost once more.

With the aid of Slatter's war diary, it is clear to recall that rounds poured in around him, and his 156 Heavy Battery would have been drenched in German gas. Despite that, with hundreds of rounds being fired in their direction, there was practically no damage and only one man wounded. That one man was Corporal Heber Slatter, and he tragically died from those wounds four days later on 7th May 1918. There would have been nothing glamorous about the end for him, no fanfare or procession like you may see now at Wotton Bassett.

Other players who lost their lives had been recognised back home, but with censorship increasing and the death toll ever rising, Slatter's passing only merited two column inches in the Reading Observer under the meek headline 'Footballer Killed.' And his wife's personal battle continued as she fought for ten months to retrieve his personal effects from the army, including photographs, English, French and German coins and a pack of playing cards. To help Mrs Slatter and her family, a benefit game was played at Elm Park, raising £196 9s 4d.

Len Hawes
A promising forward, was killed at Gallipoli with the Berkshire Yeomanry in August 1915.

James 'Jimmy' Comrie
Born in Denny in March 1881, joined us from Third Lanark, having featured in two Scottish FA Cup finals. He was virtually ever-present in his one season, making 35 Southern League appearances for us before moving on to Glossop. Jimmy went on to play for Bradford City and Lincoln and his cousin John Comrie also played for Reading between 1912 and 1915. He was a Private in the Northumberland Fusiliers, and is commemrated on the Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium

Edward 'Ginger' Mitchell
Played in the region of 15 games for the then-Biscuitmen and also lined up for Swansea before tragically losing his life while part of the 164 Battery Royal Field Artillery.

Freddie Wheatcroft
A second Lt, Wheatcroft was our top scorer in 1908/9 with 14 goals, and also a legend at Swindon Town, whom he played for twice - helping them to two Southern League titles and two FA Cup semi-finals. He had started his career with hometown club Alfreton Town before three spells with Derby and one at Fulham. He was part of the 5th East Surrey Regiment and was killed in the Battle of Cambraj on 26th November 1917 and is buried at Anneux.

Jack Huggins
Teacher Jack played 31 times for the club in 1908/9. He was born in Whitehaven, playing for Bede College and Leadgate before a prestigious move to Sunderland. He then came to Reading, but despite a good goalscoring record of 6 goals in 31 matches he could not settle in the south and returned to Roker Park.