A football kicked between British soldiers as they advanced across no man's land in the First World War has been saved after being found languishing in a box.
The London Irish Rifles dribbled and passed the old leather ball to one another while under heavy machine gun and mortar fire at the Battle of Loos in 1915.
They originally started off with six balls but on the eve of battle their commanding officer shot five of them when he heard of the planned stunt.
The sixth was stuffed up the tunic of team captain Sergeant Frank Edwards who removed it and blew it up with his mouth while his comrades gave him cover.
As the whistle for the 'big push' sounded, Sgt Edwards booted the ball out of the trenches. It was passed between a small band of men before it ended up being pierced on barbed wire on the German front line.
Some time after the devastating battle - which resulted in 50,000 British casualties - the muddy ball was recovered from the battlefield and taken back to Britain.
The footballing soldier's antics went down in folklore among the men of the London Irish Rifles and the ball was displayed at the regimental museum in London until 50 years ago.
It has now been restored by experts after being discovered in a decrepit and deflated state.
Nigel Wilkinson, vice-chairman of the London Irish Rifles Regimental Association, said: "We found it in a container in the sergeant's mess. It was in a very poor condition and was at risk of disintegrating into dust.
"We are delighted that the ball has been conserved and will be okay for another 100 years and will be the focus of the story of the Battle of Loos."
No comments:
Post a Comment