Historian tells of a match of the day with a difference

WHEN a First World War captain ordered his men to dribble footballs toward enemy trenches, a few eyebrows might have been raised.

But news of the extraordinary advance - described as the football charge - quickly spread and the 8th Battalion East Surrey Regiment was immortalised overnight.

And now Leamington war historian David Eason has discovered among the troops was Private Francis Arthur Banner, who lived in Warwickshire.

Born in 1892, Francis was the only son of Thomas and Elizabeth Banner who lived on Beaconsfield Road in Leamington. He was a pupil at Dale Street School and later worked at WHSmith in the town centre.

It was on July 1, 1916 - the first day of the Battle of the Somme - that, under the command of Captain Wilfred Nevill, Francis and the regiment's B company conducted its bizarre plan.

Designed to be reassuring symbols in the face of enemy fire, Captain Nevill booted the first of three balls and told his troops to dribble them over a mile and a quarter of no man's land to their first objective.

An on-looking private described the scene: "As the gunfire died away I saw an infantry man climb onto the parapet into no man's land, beckoning others to follow.

"As he did so he kicked-off a football, a good kick. The ball rose and travelled well towards the German line. That seemed to be the signal to advance."

Within half an hour the German line had been captured. Captain Nevill had fallen amid barbed wire but the remaining platoon commanders again kicked-off and the company continued under heavy gunfire to a second line two miles away.

The position was secured and held until first light, when the Battalion was relieved. Francis had survived but, in total, almost 20,000 British soldiers had lost their lives in a single day.

Two of the balls used were later recovered. One is displayed in the National Army Museum and the other is at the Queen’s Regiment Museum in Canterbury.

Sadly, Francis did not live to see Allied victory. On May 3, 1917 he was killed in action operating a Lewis machine gun. He is commemorated locally on the Leamington War Memorial and on the St Mary's Church Memorial.

PUT THE BELOW INFO IN A NICE TINTED BOX MAYBE..?!

In one of many newspaper tributes, the Daily Mail published this poem about the charge at the time:

"On through the hail of slaughter,

Where gallant comrades fall,

Where blood is poured like water,

They drive the trickling ball.

The fear of death before them,

Is but an empty name,

True to the land that bore them,

The Surreys play the game."

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