About Us | Contact Us | Links

Babs Murphy

Hospitality Sponsorship Current Supporters Friends Membership Sponsor a Year

Football was suspended at the end of the 1914-15 season because of the outbreak of war, although exhibition matches continued, often as part of recruitment drives for the Front.

Many professional footballers joined the Middlesex Regiment 'Football Battalion'.

In January 1916, the Football Battalion reached the front-line. Over the coming months they took many casualties, including the death of England international, Evelyn Lintott. Manchester born Major Frank Buckley, player and manager with many clubs, was hit in the chest by shrapnel, but survived, as did Newcastle United star, George Pyke.

In July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, troops from the East Surrey regiment famously went into battle dribbling a football. The incident, known as the 'Football Attack', captured the imagination of the nation.

Games and toys inspired by football but linked to the war and famous characters from the time proved very popular.

Babs Murphy, CEO of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce said: "We are delighted to be a supporter of the National Football Museum. Football has always been central to the identity of Lancashire and I feel it is very appropriate that the national museum of the national sport is based here. 1916 was the year that the Chamber was founded."