WW2 & The World Cup

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2:41Al Murray: Welcome to this special edition of Family Stories. To coincide with the ongoing 2026 World Cup, we will be diving into some family stories that explore the intersection of football and the Second World War. And don't worry if you're not a football fan, there's some really fantastic hidden history here. From a US fighter ace who served with astronaut Neil Armstrong, an Australian family's quest to remember their lost grandfather, secrets left on a Second World War church programme, and the factory that made footballs for England's 1966 World Cup victory. But first of all, we have this story read by James from Will.

3:17And Will says, my story is really my neighbour's family story. During the COVID lockdown, I put on a small socially distanced military display at the end of my drive to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Various neighbours came out to have a look on the sunny day. One of them, Dave Samways, brought across a family heirloom. It was a programme for the Eighth Army Service of Thanksgiving. This religious ceremony to mark the end of the war was held on Sunday, May 13, 1945 in Italy. the colourful cover surrounded by all the badges of the component units of the 8th Army. Dave's father had his copy signed by various famous footballers which seemed odd.

4:00The signatures were Tommy Lawton, Frank Swift, Morris Edelston, Joe Mercer, Matt Busby which was the best as far as Dave, a Manchester United fan, was concerned. It took time to find the answer to how he could have collected all these signatures. Lawton played for Everton as did Mercer Swift for Manchester City. Edelston for Reading, while Busby was still a Liverpool player in 1945. Research in the contemporary newspapers shows that all have been members of a British services touring side that travelled from Britain to play against the sides in Italy, Malta and Greece. Matt Busby, though signed as a player to Liverpool, was also an Army Physical Training Instructor, or PTI, at Sandhurst at this stage of the war.

4:40In February 1945, he had signed the contract to become manager at Manchester United from 1st October that year. With the end of the war, the military decided to send a top-class side to entertain the troops. Busby was selected for his managerial skills, though he would also appear on the pitch during the tour. In goal was Frank Swift, who had appeared for England. His performances during the tour were described as superb. This despite also being the luggage man for the tour. There were no air-conditioned coaches and hotels. Manchester City and England's Bert Sproston, also an army PTI, was in charge of rations.

5:17That is standard army rations. Sproston had been part of the 1938 England side that played against Germany and Berlin at the height of the Munich crisis. The team were ordered by the British ambassador to give the Nazis salute before the game. Sproston was unimpressed and the Yorkshire-born left-back told Stanley Matthews, I know now about politics and to like all I know is football but the way I see it your Hitler fella is an evil little twat well that's putting it one way after the game a 17 year old German Jew Rolf Friedland approached him for help to escape Germany Sproston arranged for him to be invited as part of a representative side to England where he managed to extend his visa then get a job that allowed him to stay that boy joined the Pioneer Corps in June 1941 changing his name to Ralph Freeman in case of capture.

6:09In 1943 he saved a boy from drowning on a Welsh beach. He would later be wounded in northwest Europe fighting for his adopted country. Cliff Britton of Everton and England, another PTI, was responsible for team transport, mainly in army trucks. On the 16th of May during the tour he was appointed manager of 2nd Division Burnley. Army PTI and midfielder Archie McCauley of West Ham had appeared several times for Scotland in unofficial wartime internationals and became an unlikely interpreter for the team as they travelled. Other team members included Douglas Hunt of Sheffield Wednesday, Willie Watson of Huntersfield, Jackie Martin of Aston Villa and Danny Winter of Bolton Wanderers.

6:51Watson was unusual in that he would appear for England for both football and cricket. The team set out on May 6th, On the 12th of May, they played a combined Mediterranean forces side at Rome in front of a crowd of 30 ,000. Everton and England centre-forward scored five goals in the 10-2 victory for the tourists. At the Vermeer Stadium in Naples, another 30 ,000 gate saw a 2-2 draw against the United Services XI, the only game in the 10-game trip that Busby's team failed to win. Their fifth game was a 10-0 victory against Fifth Army. The tour finished in Greece with a 3-0 win against a Greek federation side in Athens on 30th May.

7:32Lawton and Mercer were not there, having flown back to England to play for their country against France at Wembley on 29th May. Dave's dad had managed to catch the great players long enough to get their signatures. Bon accord, wrote Busby. A lovely piece of ephemera and a little-known footballing tale despite the thousands of soldiers who saw them play. That story was from Will, And it's making me wonder whatever happened to Tom Finney. He was serving in Eighth Army in a tank in Italy at the time and was playing all sorts of football matches immediately after the war as well. But who knows? That's fantastic.

8:08Al Murray: Thanks very much, Will. Our next one comes from Alfie. Right. This is the story of one set of my maternal great-grandparents, Bob and Annie Aldroyd, whose lives were marked by the intersection of sport in the Second World War. Their jobs at the Sykes and Slazinger Sporting Goods Factory in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, directly impacted the later work they did during the war and indirectly connected them to some of the most famous sportsmen and competitions of the mid-20th century. Annie Blackburn was born in the Yorkshire town of Hawbury in 1920, an area of heavy industry that had drawn many people, including Annie's Irish grandfather, to work in local coal mines and mills.

8:45Al Murray: At the age of 14 in 1934, she began to work at the Slazinger factory in Hawbury, which produced sports equipment such as cricket bats, footballs and tennis rackets. Nearby to the Schlesinger Works was the William Sykes Leather and Sporting Goods Factory. Sykes specialised in zigzag footballs, and it was a Horbury-made Sykes ball that was used in the 1934 World Cup final held in fascist Italy, when Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1, as well as in the FA Cup final of 1939. Bob Aldroyd was born on the 1st of June 1914 in the Thornhill Lees area of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire He also began working at Slazinger as a teenager crossing paths with Annie and beginning a relationship that would last 60 years Perhaps seeing that global trouble was brewing on the 6th of May 1931 Bob joined the local territorial army unit as a reservist aged 16 His enlistment form noted his profession as hockey stick bender After enlistment, Bob was posted to the 4th Battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the KYLI.

9:49The KYLI was a common regiment for men from his part of Yorkshire, and his relatives had served in it during the First World War. Throughout the 1930s, Bob attended regular territorial army camps, and his photos show happy days spent with his friends. He became an army PT instructor documenting him and his mate's gymnastic feats on his camera.

10:10Al Murray: The lives of Annie and Bob were quickly affected by the rising tensions of the summer of 1939. On the 1st of July 1939, a month after his 25th birthday, Bob was transferred to the 2nd 4th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. This was formed after the Territorial Army split the 4th Battalion, KOLI, to form the 1st 4th and 2nd 4th Battalions. On the 2nd of September, he was called to colours and transferred to active service the day before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. On the 4th of September, Bob was promoted to sergeant. The spring of 1940 brought deployment to Europe. On the 26th of April 1940, Bob was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force.

10:51Al Murray: With Bob away in France, Annie continued to work at Slazinger as Horbury's local factory switched to war production. The Sykes factory began to manufacture the wooden butts for Lanchester submachine guns, leaning on its experience making cricket bats. Later, in 1942, Schlesinger would buy Sykes, creating Schlesinger Sykes. As part of the 46th Infantry Division, Bob's unit was sent to France to initially aid with labouring and pioneer duties. As such, it was very lightly equipped and unprepared for the German invasion of France and Belgium in May 1940. As panic ensued, the 2nd 4th Battalion, KOLI, was moved up to the canal network outside Lille to assist in its defence.

11:32Al Murray: It was badly prepared for the German forces it encountered and suffered heavy casualties. The withdrawal from France was chaotic and its battalion found itself separated from others in the 46th, the 2nd 4th Battalion being on the southern side of the German advance into France. Unable to retreat from Dunkirk, Bob and his comrades fought west across France, where the battalion was engaged in heavy fighting in defence of bridges across the Seine at Pont de Larche. On the 18th of June 1940, he was evacuated from France as part of Operation Aerial from either Cherbourg or Saint-Azair. We know little about his service following this, except that he spent time in Howick, Northumberland and St Andrews, Scotland, guarding against any possible German invasion of Britain's east coast.

12:18Al Murray: The summer of 1940 brought happier days, and in August 1940, Bob and Annie were married in Hawbury, Their wedding photo showing them both beaming with joy after such a harrowing time apart. On the 8th of November 1940, Bob was released from his army service, having been made Class WT, which alluded to him having a skilled trade due to his factory work. Army forms show that he was moved to civilian industries to work as an aircraft fitter. Annie also contributed on the home front and began her work in a munitions factory, which would last until the end of the war. the couple lived in Reading, where the industries they both worked were based.

12:55Al Murray: They never took to the south as Annie travelled back to Yorkshire for the birth of their daughter Marilyn in December 1943, traversing Blitz London to take the train from King's Cross so that her daughter would be born in the north of England. Following the war, the couple immediately came back to West Yorkshire. Annie briefly worked at a woolen mill before returning to work in the leather goods department of Slezzinger Sykes. In the 1950s, she tried to become a trade union shop steward at the factory, hearing about the better conditions for women workers in nearby plants. When management found out, she was told that she would be swiftly sacked if she attempted to organise any further.

13:32Al Murray: Early newspaper cuttings that we have show her arguing with a local conservative national government candidate at the 1935 British general election. Bob also returned to Schlesinger, continuing his work creating sporting equipment, where family law has it that he made tennis rackets for Fred Perry. Due to his skills, in the early 1950s, he was sent by the company to work in South Africa, training workers in a new Schlesinger factory where he didn't see Annie or Marilyn for four years. After his return to England, Bob continued to work at Schlesinger until retirement in the late 1970s. Annie and her co-workers had, in their own small way, played a secret part in England's notorious 1966 World Cup victory.

14:12Their department at the Schlesinger Sykes factory were responsible for making the tournament's footballs. She would continue to work at the factory until the leather goods department was suddenly closed and work outsourced in the 1980s. The war was never really spoken about at home, though many photographs of Bob's army service were passed on in our family, alongside photographs of Annie's work at Schlesinger. The intense fighting of the spring of 1940 made a clear mark on Bob, and it was not a topic that was ever brought up. Sadly, Annie passed away in 1990 and Bob in 1996. Although never getting to meet them, my childhood was filled with stories of their kindness, cooking and love for sport.

14:54Through these memories, they've become part of my own life and those of my siblings and cousins. They were ordinary people who did their best in dark times, never losing sight of the lighter side of life. We will never forget them. That story was from Alfie. We're going to take a break now. We'll be back in a second.

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16:43And this story is from Tim. And Tim writes,

17:16On 6th May 1945, Chet enlisted in the naval reserves with the ambition of a pilot. At St Mary's Catholic High School, he had been a star athlete, playing centre for the American football team, while also competing in basketball, track and tennis. It was at St Mary's that he met Dorothy Vescovi, the daughter of Italian immigrants. Chet was enthralled by Dorothy, and they were united by their shared Catholic faith. As the Second World War raged to a close in August 1945, Chet joined the V12 program at North Texas Agricultural College. The V12 program was created during World War II to fast-track candidates through college to then join the military as officers.

17:56In October, he was transferred to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and reclassified into the V5 Aviation Candidate Program. With the Second World War drawing to a close in September, the V12 program came to an end and V5 was now his best chance to become an aviator. In July of 1946, he was reassigned to the University of New Mexico for an ROTC summer session. One can imagine Chet's pleasure in seeing his family and in getting to spend some time with the always lovely Dorothy. That pleasure would not last long, however. In September, he was transferred yet again to Naval Air Station, NAS, Los Alamitos in Southern California to begin training as an aviation cadet.

18:41Civilian life was ending for Chet, and life as a member of the United States Navy was about to begin. He was 19 years old. On January 1st, 1947, Chet was sent from Los Alamitos to NAS Atomwa in Iowa to continue his flight training. Atomwa was a holdover from World War II and closed at the end of September that year. The fledgling aviators were transferred to NAS Pensacola in Florida, which is still active today and is the home base of the Blue Angels. Chet was later shipped to NAS Jacksonville in Florida to compete Naval Air Advanced Training in the F4U Corsair, the legendary World War II naval fighter plane that would continue its service into the Korean War.

19:24On July 24, 1948, he proudly received his naval aviator wings. By January 1949, he was commissioned as an ensign into the Navy and ordered a duty with the elite Navy Jet Fighter Squadron VF-3 in San Diego, California. VF-3 trained naval aviators in the newest jet aircraft, and Chet would be trailblazing with them. He almost certainly spent 1949 and most of 1950 training in the operational tactics of close air support from NAS San Diego and drilling in aerial combat at Camp Pendleton about 50 miles north of his home base. The F-9F Panther was a carrier-based fighter bomber armed with four 20mm cannons and an array of underwing rockets and bombs.

20:10Panther was the first fighter to see air-to-air combat between jets for the United States Navy. Some illustrious pilots would fly the F-9F, including the famous astronaut Neil Armstrong. Chet would continue to fly in the Panther when deployed, and his fate would be entwined with this pioneering aircraft. In June 1950, Lieutenant Commander Ernest Beecham was put in charge of Fighter Squadron 51, VF-51, which was deployed on a Far East cruise as part of Commander Marshal Beeb's Carrier Air Group 5, CVG-5, aboard the USS Valley Forge. Christened the VF-51 Screaming Eagles in 1948, it was the Navy's first jet squadron, the first to operate from aircraft carriers and the first to fly Navy jets in combat.

20:54Decades later, the squadron would fly the F-14 Tomcats used in the film Top Gun. The Screaming Eagles were the pinnacle of naval aviation in 1950 and would be flying the F-9F-2. Beecham was tasked with assembling a new group of pilots to join the squadron when it returned in November of that year. With fewer than a handful of returning pilots eligible for the squadron's next tour, Beecham would be able to handpick new pilots to replace them. After selecting nine experienced aviators, including World War II veteran William Wan Mackey, he tasked them with helping him choose nuggets to join the squadron.

21:30Mackey and the others flew with potential pilots to help guide their decision. Amongst the final 15 considered were midshipman Neil Armstrong, and then now promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade, Leonard Chet Cheshire. Chet was 24 years old and would be headed to war. On June 25, 1951, the Essex and VF-51 received their orders. On the 28th of that month, the 872-foot-long carrier raised its anchor and set course for Hawaii, with Captain Austin Wheelock as skipper for the cruise. They arrived at NAS Barber's Point in Oahu on July 3. There, the Panthers were equipped with heavy bomb racks in preparation to be a ground attack squadron, which was a big letdown, according to Kramer, as they had expected that they'd be fighting MiGs.

22:19They spent the month of July training in Hawaii while the final decision was made on whether all the pilots would deploy overseas. On August 8th, the Essex left Pearl Harbour and headed towards the Sea of Japan, with Chet and his division having been selected as an official part of the squadron. After a brief truce in July, hostilities between North Korea, its Chinese allies and the United Nations forces had reignited to a new level of ferocity. Following a brief stop at the US naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, the Essex joined Task Force 77 on station, 70 miles out of Wonson Harbour on the northeast coast of Korea.

22:56It was August 2nd, 1951. Their first combat tour was beginning. Some of the pilots of VF-51 would not be making the trip home. There are many stories I could share with you about Chet's service in Korea, but I will leave you with his final mission. A frigid dawn broke over the deck of the Essex on Saturday, January 26, 1952. Mackey, Armstrong, Cheshire and Kramer catapulted from the deck of a carrier and set course across Wonson Bay on another sortie into North Korea, this time over the Kowan district, which lay closely inland from the bay. As the division was prone to head home, they spotted a camouflaged locomotive and initiated an attack run.

23:38The train survived, so Chet banked into another dive with Casey on his wing to launch a second strike. As Chet completed his dive, Kramer rolled into his own attack. At that moment, Chet's voice crackled over the radio, calling out to his division leader, Wham! I'm hit! I'm hit bad! His panther had been struck by anti-aircraft fire. Mackie radioed Kramer to get up there fast as he was closest to the stricken plane. To his horror, Kramer saw Chet's plane in flames. The Panthers' fuel tank sat behind the cockpit and the fire was emanating from that location. Cheshire pulled his plane higher and blew his canopy off to prepare for ejection.

24:15Once the harbour was not far off and he could get over the water, he could eject and be picked up by a rescue helicopter or a destroyer. Kramer radioed for Chet to eject, but he didn't receive an answer from the burning jet. It appeared to his division that instead of ejecting, Chet was easing down to make a water landing. Armstrong believed it was clear he was going to ditch, but for some unknown reason, just before ditching at very low altitude, he ejected, too low for his parachute to open. Kramer sadly had a better view of the situation. He was flying right off Cheshire's starboard, side with a clear view of his cockpit and he never moved.

24:52Chet's faithful wingman believed that his section leader was already dead in the air. At about 150 feet above the water at speeds of 300 miles an hour, Chet hurtled from his plane and struck the water. It is believed that the fire adjacent to the cockpit caused the ejection seat to misfire and not work off the canopy was blown. The spreading of the inferno then caused the seat to ignite and eject as the plane skimmed above the water. No one saw a parachute open and the pamphlet sank quickly. Armstrong thought Chet was on the surface, but by the time the rescue helicopter arrived, however, he was nowhere to be seen.

25:28All that would be recovered at the sight were his ejection seat, his helmet and his gloves. Lieutenant J.G. Leonard Ray Cheshire's body disappeared into the Sea of Japan and would never be found. The death was a demoralizing blow to VF-51. Jet had been one of their finest pilots and most popular compatriots. Essex Chaplain J.J. Buzek addressed the ship's company over the radio that night. Oh God, we humbly beseech thee for the soul of the pilot, our shipmate Leonard Cheshire who died this day deliver him not into the hands of the enemy but command that he may be received by the holy angels and conducted into paradise God bless you all men the Essex January action report would simply state conducted air operations F9FBUNO 127166 crashed in Wandsland Harbour probable cause AA fire pilot listed as killed in action Paul Harlan, who had come to Chet for advice on religion and life, would write to Dorothy, there are many people who grieve at your loss, and I want to say that I, personally, am one of them.

26:37Chet was a great guy, and it is hard to understand why he was chosen. Six days later, the grieving pilots would leave Wonson Bay with the Essex and head back to Yokosuka, ending their penultimate and most challenging tour. It would take Armstrong months to return to the novel, The Kane Mutiny, and pick up reading where his good friend Leonard R. Cheshire had left off. Chet received the Purple Heart Korean War Medal and Air Medal with two gold stars presented to Dorothy and Keefe by Lieutenant Commander William Mooney in September 1952. His grave can still be visited in Section MA of the National Cemetery.

27:09He is also honoured on the Wall of Remembrance of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. and in the course of the missing in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. Well, thank you, Tim, for that very moving and fascinating story.

27:25Al Murray: Our next story comes from Scott. Lionel Sidney Dalton, naval officer, was born on the 26th of October 1902 in South Melbourne, second son of Edward Lyle Dalton, the clerk from Adelaide, and his Victorian-born wife, Annie Myra. Educated at Middle Park State School, in 1916, Sid entered the Royal Australian Naval College, the RANC, in Jervis Bay. He did reasonably well academically, won colours for cricket and rugby union football and gained a reputation as a good all-rounder who was prepared to have a go. In January 1920, he was promoted midshipman and sent to sea in HMAS Australia. Based in England for further training from 1921, Dalton served in several Royal Navy ships.

28:10Al Murray: He was promoted to lieutenant in December 1924, graduated from the RN Engineering College at Keyham Devonport in 1925 and returned to Australia that year. After postings to HMAS Anzac and Adelaide, he went back to England in 1927 to commission the new vessel, Australia. He married Margaret Mary Anderson at St Andrew's Parish Church, Plymouth. Home again, in 1931, he was posted to the seaplane carrier HMAS Albatross. While an instructor from 1932 to 1934 at the engineering school HMAS Cerberus, Western Port, Victoria, he was promoted to engineer lieutenant commander. In 1934, he found himself once more in England, standing by the six-inch gun cruiser HMAS Sydney 2, then under construction at Wallsend in Northumberland.

29:02Al Murray: He sailed on her to Australia and in 1937 transferred to HMS Adelaide. My father and his mother had joined Sid in the UK for Sydney 2's commissioning, and Dad had vivid memories of the home voyage with his mother, particularly buying an ice cream from the wrong side of the fence on an Alexandria beach and becoming violently ill. Also, of the luxurious sandpit on board their transport home, the only form of entertainment dedicated to children, and one that resulted in all kids on board winding up with croup. Promoted to engineer commander on the 31st of December 1937, Sid rejoined the Sydney in June 1939 as engineer officer.

29:44Al Murray: In May 1940, the ship was deployed for service in the Mediterranean. On the 19th of July, while patrolling off Cape Spada, Crete, a flotilla of British destroyers sighted two Italian cruisers, the Bandanere and the Bartolomeo Colleone. Some 40 nautical miles to the north, Sydney changed course to lend assistance. She pursued the Italian vessels at high speed down the west coast of Crete, destroying the Bartela Moja Colioni and damaging the Bandaneri. For his role in the battle, maintaining the ship's engines at maximum speeds, despite shrapnel damage to steam lines from the one hit to the ship on the forward funnel, Lyon was awarded the DSO.

30:20Al Murray: On her return to Alexandria the next day, it is written, As we moved down between the lines of ships, we were given a wonderful ovation. In fact, a royal welcome in every respect. Each ship had cleared the lower deck and as we passed, they each gave us three terrific cheers, followed by a loud burst of clapping, whooping and whistling. It could not have been louder or more sincere than had it been a response to an announcement that the war was over. We were so filled with pride by this kind gesture that we would not have changed places with anyone in the world. The cheering seemed to be a continuous roar for 15 minutes or more.

30:53In 1940, the demands made on Sid and his staff were enormous,

30:57Al Murray: with the ship steaming a total of 66 ,000 nautical miles, which is around 122 ,000 kilometres. Sidney II returned to Australian waters in February 1941. On the 19th of November 1941, about 150 nautical miles southwest of Carnarvon, Western Australia, Sydney too challenged a disguised merchant vessel, later known to have been the German raider HSK Kormoran, which lured the cruiser closer, then opened fire. Both ships were lost in the action. Sydney too with her entire complement of 645 men. Sadly, my grandfather was aboard her when she was lost. My father, nine years old at the time, recalled the arrival of the telegram at his home with his mother and it remaining up unopened on the kitchen table until it disappeared.

31:46also of being called out of assembly at the local prep school with another boy whose father was also in Sydney too and being escorted to the headmaster's office on some spurious pretext which allowed the entire school to be told of the loss of the ship. In 1946 aged 13 my father boarded a train alone in Sydney and travelled to Melbourne to join what would be the first post-war intake at the Australian Naval College. During his 38 year naval career he too became an engineer officer. One of his postings was to HMAS Sydney 3, during which he completed seven or eight trips to Vietnam aboard her, where she was nicknamed the Vung Tao Ferry.

32:24Dad passed in 2021, but not before Sydney 2 and Cormoran were found lying on the ocean floor, almost two and a half thousand metres below the surface in 2008. The images obtained then, and in a subsequent exploration in 2015, and available online are truly amazing, and have done much to dispel considerable speculation, even conspiracy theories surrounding a loss. Similarly, in 2016, I was able to take my father to Geraldton in Western Australia for the 75th commemoration of the battle and the loss of Sydney 2 and Cormoran. Geraldton has the most amazing memorial there to the ship and crew, which was dedicated in 2001.

33:02One of the most moving aspects of the memorial is a bronze figure of a woman looking out to sea, the waiting wife, mother or daughter. It is said that our line of sight crosses the location of the wreck. Given the significance of the commemoration, researchers from the University of Western Australia and Western Australian Museum were present to capture personal histories and stories from family members. I recall Dad sitting down in front of a group of researchers and historians and being asked what he remembered. His first comment was, there's my dad, as he pointed to a large image on the wall behind the panel.

33:35It showed the officers of the ship on the steps of Sydney's town hall after their march through the city on the ship's first return to our home port following her Mediterranean campaign. Schools were closed to permit students to attend the march. It was also thrilling to see the reference on the faces of the academics when Dad produced a thin bent piece of sheet metal mounted in a wooden block. A piece of Sydney 2's funnel Sid had obtained while supervising repairs following the only hit sustained during a successful Mediterranean ventures. It is likely the only known physical piece of the ship that remains other than what lies beneath the sea and holds a special place in our family it was also the first and only time i can recall seeing

34:15Al Murray: dad cry as he recounted the impact his father's death had on his mother although mum swore he had shed a tear when the cat passed away many years prior in honor of all those that served and serve thank you scott for that very moving story our final contributor is conrad and uh he writes you might be interested in my wife's great uncle Mickey Fenton. He played for Middlesbrough and England. During the war he served in the forces and played football with some true greats. I've attached a photo of Scotland's Bill Shankly and England's Mickey Fenton challenging for the ball at Wembley in 1938. Both would end up playing for the RAF team during the war.

34:53The RAF had some outstanding footballers at their disposal. My wife's great uncle Mick roomed with Shankly wherever the RAF team toured. Shankly eventually became the legendary Liverpool manager. Mick played a lot of football during the war in order to entertain the troops and civilians back home. However, Mick recalled touring Turkey during the war. He believed that he was playing in goodwill games in order to prevent the Turks from joining the Axis side. That's what the players were told. Perhaps a form of soft power. Fenton is a borough legend. He scored 162 goals in 269 appearances either side of the war and received one England cap.

35:30The war seemed to disrupt his professional career. In retirement, he ran a newsagent in Stockton-on-Tees and passed away in 2003, aged 89. My father-in-law conducted a reading at his funeral and the service received coverage from local TV stations. Other well-known Middlesbrough players of the era served in the armed forces. Centre-half George Hardwick played with Fenton at Borough, as well as in the RAF team. Borough's other star striker, Wilf Mannion, was in the army and served in the Green Howards. Middlesbrough, the town, was briefly in mourning as the local press incorrectly announced Mannion had died at Dunkirk when he had in fact been evacuated.

36:06He also went on to serve under England cricketer Hedley Verity as his company runner. It's believed the death of Verity deeply impacted him. My mother-in-law recalled Uncle Mick as being a very quiet man and not a big drinker. He'd only ever have one glass of sherry on a night out. His legacy still lives on. My brother-in-law has signed framed photographs of Mick in his playing days, as well as his England cap. There was also a large function run named in his honour at the Riverside Stadium. Well, thank you, Conrad, for that fascinating story.

36:38Al Murray: And if you have a family story that you'd like to share with us, please email wehavewaysatgoalhanger.com. And don't forget to title it Family Story so that we don't miss it. A huge thank you to Will, Alfie, Tim, Scott and Conrad for sharing these fascinating stories with us. Thanks for listening. Cheerio. Cheerio.

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37:43Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed Brussels, and crave-worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon Brussels side. the season's most desirable menu has returned to Sweetgreen, featuring fall's best dressed. Make your move. Order on the Sweetgreen app.