THIS WEEK 2014/15 - No14

[Alan Beckett]

THIS WEEK 2014/15 -25, 50 and 100 YEARS AGO WEEK 14 Saturday 1st November


1989/90
Saturday 4th November 1989
Scoreline Midland Combination Challenge Cup
Bloxwich Town 3 v 2 Coleshill Town
Scorer: Paul Jones, Elroy Richardson.

Coleshill lost in the League Challenge Cup for the second time. Earlier in the season Coleshill were beaten by Bolehall Swifts but they were disqualified from the competition but Town could not take advantage as they bowed out again!

P12 W5 D4 L3 F16 A13 Pts19 Pos 8/20

Fixture Saturday 11th November
Coleshill Town v Hinckley


1964/65
Saturday 31st October 1964
Birmingham Youth & Old Boys League Mercian Division
Bolehall Swifts 1 v 1 Coleshill Town
Scorer: Roy Middleton.

COLESHILL CHRONICLE WROTE
Late Penalty Robs The Town
Middleton returns to score a goal
When Coleshill Town were leading Bolehall Swifts by a singe goal with only ten minutes to go, two welcome points appeared their due reward, but a surprise penalty perfectly executed by centre-half Peter Smith dashed Town's hopes and they were forced to share the spoils. While they welcome the return of centre forward Roy Middleton, The Town were forced to fill a position left vacant by Ian Ewan, who went on a sad journey home to Scotland following the death of his father, Committee man Ron Houghton deputised. There was little to chose between the teams in the first period with the respective defences reaching half time with both goals in tact. Coleshill took the lead 63rd minute when a perfect pass from their "policeman" right winger Bill Fair enabled Middleton to nod a perfect goal wide of Malpass. Bolehall's goal had another narrow escape when a shot from John Dore was scrambled to safety off a post and with only ten minutes remaining, Swifts enjoyed the sight of a penalty - Peter Smith giving Garry Cooper no possible chance. Smith excelled at centre-half for Swifts being followed closely by his opposite number John Clayton with Alan Westley a polished left back.

P5 W0 D1 L4 F3 A8 Pts1

Fixture Saturday 7th November
Handsworth Amateurs v Coleshill Town



1914/15
Saturday 31st October 1914
FROM THE COLESHILL CHRONICLE ARCHIVES
News of casualties from the great war were starting to filter through!

The first soldier from Coleshill killed in action 100 years ago was Private William Gallagher who died on the 11th October 1914.

Private William Gallagher (Service No. 10837)

Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

Commemorated on the Memorial in the Catholic Church of Sacred Heart and St Teresa Coleshill.

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire

Grew up in St Paul’s Home for Boys in Coleshill

1905 Moved to the St Vincent’s Home for Boys on Moseley Road, Birmingham

He enlisted as a soldier before the outbreak of the War and following his place of birth joined the 2nd Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. His battalion was stationed in Dublin when the war broke out.

When war was declared, his battalion was immediately mobilised as part of the British Expeditionary Force and shipped to France, landing in Le Harve on 16th August 1914.

He would have travelled almost immediately to Mons, and on 23rd/24th August 1914 been involved in the first major battle the British Army had been involved in on continental Europe since the Crimea.

On the 24th August the following was reported:

At Wasmes, elements of the 5th Division faced a big attack, German artillery began bombarding the village at daybreak, and at 10:00 a.m. infantry of the German III Corps attacked. Advancing in columns, the Germans were immediately met with massed rifle and machine-gun fire and were "mown down like grass." For a further two hours, soldiers of the 1st West Kents, 2nd Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion,Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, held off German attacks on the village despite many casualties and then retreated in good order to St. Vaast.

They were in action in the subsequent retreat, The Battle of Le Cateau (26th August), The Battle of the Marne (5th-12th Sept), The First Battle of the Aisne (13th-28th September), The Battles of La Bassee in October 1914 having retreated and fought a distance of more than 70 miles in 6 weeks. It is believed Private Gallagher fell in the region of Richebourg, to the North East of La Bassee during this battle.

He is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial in France and has no known grave.

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke.

IF I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.





THIS WEEK will also be in every home game programme.