Did Dawley provide the football for the 1914 Christmas Truce?
Here's a notion that's kicking around in Dawley - was the football which was used in the football match played during the Christmas Truce on the Western Front in 1914 made in the Shropshire town?
In a break from the relentless carnage, British and German soldiers famously got out of the trenches on Christmas Day to chat and swap cigarettes in No Man's Land in some sections of the line, and there are accounts of a kickabout with clothing thrown down to form the goalposts.
The possibility of a Dawley connection has been raised by Malcolm Peel, of Dawley History Group, and has been triggered by a passage in a book by Telford historian Janet Doody which looks at Shropshire's role in the Great War.
"At the bottom of page 67 she mentions a case that came before the Dawley tribunal," says Malcolm.
"It reads: 'At Dawley an interesting case came before the tribunal of two brothers employed in making footballs. The brothers produced documents which showed that the footballs were for a Paris firm that supplied them to the British and French troops; thereby showing that their occupation was serving a purpose in the war effort. "'Nevertheless, the committee felt that one of them ought to join up and it allowed them three months to decide who!'
"The British Government introduced military conscription in January 1916. Following this decision a system of tribunals was instigated along similar lines to a civil court, which meant that men who felt they were entitled to exemption from military service could put forward a case.
"From the various trade directories and censuses of the time, we can find a football manufacturing business in Chapel Street, Dawley, operated by brothers Walter and James Simmonds."
Malcolm says he has sounded out David Shaw, also from Dawley, who is a Great War historian.
"He says that this decision of the tribunal was unusual. He cannot find any record of these two brothers enlisting. But in a book called 'Owd Jockeys at War'' I found four references to a J. T. Simmonds who had been gassed and was invalided home in 1916. John Thomas Simmonds was the nephew of Walter and James and was also employed as a football manufacturer.
"So the question is: was the ball used in the kickabout in the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914, made in Dawley?"
