Season by Season: 1915-19

Since 1914 hundreds of thousands of young British men had returned from the trenches maimed, distressed, gassed or dead. Official national Football League and FA Cup campaigns were suspended at the end of 1914/15 season, and the sport was localised for the new, lower-key season beginning September 1915.

It was not the time for sporting heroism. Perhaps this had been brought home starkly to everyone at home by stories of the famous Christmas truce of December 1914, when German and British troops shared drinks and a game of football in No-Man’s-Land (perhaps with some of the 50 footballs Chelsea had sent to the front). More likely, it was the realisation that soon after the match, the soldiers were ordered to resume the slaughter.

The football authorities assembled regional leagues in the Midlands and Lancashire for 1915-16. A driving force behind arrangements in the capital was Chelsea's influential chairman William Claude Kirby (above, right). He helped establish a London Combination tournament of 12 teams (including, it must be said, Croydon Common) that Chelsea would win by seven clear points in early 1916.

A second, short competition taking in Luton and Reading was also scooped by the Pensioners. These informal championships lasted until the resumption of the League proper in 1919, with attendances ranging from 2-20,000.

Nearly half of the current Chelsea playing staff signed up to serve their country in some way. The most significant casualty of the campaign was Captain Vivian Woodward, wounded in January 1916. Others, inevitably, lost their lives, including several former Blues.

Danish giant Nils Middelboe, however, from neutral Denmark, cemented his popularity with the diminished crowds that turned up at Stamford Bridge and regularly strode the midfield of Stamford Bridge player.

Other big names, helping the war effort locally, guested in the mid-blue shirts of Chelsea. The tall, elegant England international Charlie Buchan, an inside forward who stills holds Sunderland’s all-time League scoring record, returned to his London home and scored 40 goals for Chelsea in 1915-16. He is best known as the later writer and publisher of Football Monthly, a famous magazine that was briefly owned by Chelsea in the 1990s.

Bob Thomson, too, was unstoppable. His fire-power helped earn a league and cup double in 1918, and a further Victory Cup final win over Fulham in 1919.

“So enjoyable has been the local rivalry brought about by the London Combination that many fans have been moved to suggest that it be retained as a competition” Football writer, 1919

Typical Chelsea – the first triumphs were achieved in unrecognised and unofficial tournaments. However, at least there would be good news when normal football service was resumed: an inquiry had ascertained that a vital First Division match back in season 1914-1915 involving Manchester United – who finished 18th to our drop-slot 19th – and Liverpool had been fixed by players involved in a betting scam.

Furthermore, it was any case decided to expand the top flight with the addition of two “relegated” southern clubs: Chelsea (conveniently) and Arsenal - much to the protest of Tottenham, who had finished above their new north London rivals in 1915.

So Chelsea retained top flight status honourably, while the Gunners received a lucky reprieve through the connivance of chairman Henry Norris. Don’t forget to remind your Gooner mates of that the next time you see them…

In 1915-19...
Facts & figures: One-eyed Bob Thomson scored 100 goals during the wartime years
Cup run: Winners of War Fund Cup, 1918 (v West Ham), and London Victory Cup, 1919 (v Fulham)
All the rage: Birth control pioneer Dr Marie Stopes’ illuminating 1918 book, 'Married Love'

Season by Season: 1914/15

The English football season was played with a frown this year. War had broken out across Europe in the summer of 1914.

With dreadful reports of battlefield carnage in the daily papers and horror stories passed on by the war weary on leave, many felt that such a trivial exercise should be suspended. Others wished to retain the sport as a necessary diversion. At the outbreak of war, Chelsea’s directors expressed the view that “football will be played as far as possible.”

In a show of solidarity with the war effort, though, they arranged for a percentage of takings to be donated to the Prince of Wales’s war fund – a facet of the regime since its outset, and a hangover from the Victorian belief in charity. A 1-1 draw with Spurs also benefited “dependants of those who had joined the forces from the Tube, Tramway and Omnibus companies” to the tune of £200.

The club also dispatched 50 footballs off to various parts of the war front.

Millions had rallied to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for volunteers; many were drawn from the terraces and locker rooms of football. Never the less matchday recruitment drives at stadiums including Stamford Bridge were met with apathy.

In response, the British establishment began a furious campaign of shame directed against the game and its supporters, and Chelsea stars Viv Woodward and local Harry Ford were among the first 'Chelsea Die-Hards' to join the 17th Middlesex Regiment, the 'Footballers' Battalion.'

Not that the entrepreneurialism of JT Mears (brother of the late founder, and new owner of Stamford Bridge) was completely curtailed. An application for a liquor licence at the Bridge in February 1915 was wrathfully rejected by local magistrate John Grey on the grounds that “I do not like to give facilities for entertainment to football at this time.” Considering JT (host of the Swan in Richmond) and the two Janeses on the Chelsea board were licensed victuallers, this must been quite a blow.

The voice from the trenches, meanwhile, was strongly in favour of football continuing. Hundreds of letters were received on the Fulham Road asking how Chelsea were faring and passing on their best. One wrote: 'The troops (well the Londoners anyway) nearly went dotty when they heard of Chelsea's victory over Newcastle. It interested the Tommies far more than any war could.'

On the field Chelsea’s League form was as depressed as the national mood. Had the league not been suspended at the end of the season Chelsea would have been relegated.

Yet the Cup provided rare moments of joy for fans at home and in the trenches. Servicemen, some as prisoners-of-war, had keen letters of support published in the Chelsea programme as the Pensioners saw off Swindon, Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle and Everton on the way to meeting Sheffield United in the FA Cup Final in April 1915.

“The nation is engaged in a huge conflict, and has sons of Empire in action in six or seven different parts of the world. But those who are in our island will rest awhile today” The Sporting Chronicle, on the morning of the 1915 FA Cup final

It said that so many of those who attended football at the time wore army uniforms that it was dubbed the 'Khaki Final.' Eyewitness reports barely mention the fact, though: they draw more attention to the dismal, foggy drizzle.

The venue was Old Trafford, with wartime travel restrictions imposed, and it was a wet and windy welcome for the Blues fans who had struggled north for the occasion.

History records Fred Taylor as the first skipper of a Chelsea team at a cup final - quite some achievement for a club that had not existed ten years earlier. Lieutenant Vivian Woodward had been given special leave to play but on the day of the game, in typically gentlemanly fashion, he stepped down in favour of Bob McNeil, whose goals had propelled the Pensioners there.

Sheffield United ran out easy 3-0 winners. In handing out the medals, Lord Derby caught the mood with a speech noting that “the clubs and players had seen the cup played for, and it was now the duty of everyone to join with each other and play a sterner game for England.”

In 1914/15...
Facts and figures: Chelsea estimated 200,000 supporters would have tried to go had the final been in London
Cup run: Runners-up
All the rage: John Buchan's epic spy novel, 'The 39 Steps"

Season by Season: 1913/14

The ninth season of professional football at Stamford Bridge began under the shadow of imminent war. By August 1914 the whole of Europe would be at war and British troops tramping around France. Football would soon become a meaningless sideshow, but for the time being people still flocked to the Fulham Road every other Saturday full of sporting optimism.

And before the military dispatches, a brigade of new footering favourites emerged on the Stamford Bridge terraces.

Only fourteen goalies have played more than 100 games for the Blues. Our second centurion, following the precedent set by our first great goalkeeping servant Jack Whitley, was the popular Merseysider James “Molly” Molyneux.

Whitley would stay at Chelsea as a trainer until the 1939, but the new man exceeded him in every respect, playing more games, keeping more clean sheets ... and letting in more goals. Soon, he would also become the first Chelsea keeper to appear in a Cup Final. Molly’s playing career spanned the War and he made more than 230 appearances.

Upfront, the experienced Harold Halse, a lithe England international who had twice won the Cup, had begun to share goalscoring responsibilities with the dependable Viv Woodward. There were two bit-part players who fleetingly lit up the Bridge too: Max Woosnam, an all-round athlete who would win an Olympic medal at tennis in 1920, was an amateur sportsman in the Woodward vein, but his career at Chelsea was curtailed by his business interests.

Lanky, skilful half-back Nils Middelboe, our first glamorous overseas recruit, began a ten-year love affair with the Blues that comprised mostly of one-night stands as he was so often unavailable because of his salaried work as a banker.

The “Great Dane” as he was inevitably called, is a legend in his native land. And in an era when there is overblown talk of “foreign mercenaries”, it’s refreshing to recall that the Danish amateur international would not even put in the expense claim top-ups that his English colleagues would. Middelboe was a star from the off. It was well-known he had scored the first ever goal in Olympic football in 1908, and on his debut for the Pensioners he was handed the honour of captaincy by his friend, Woodward.

"At Stamford Bridge, we have been told
Are seen obstructions; far too bold,
With Plume, and Hat, so very tall
'Not Half' the game is seen at all
Apart from that, a Gallant Dane
Is seen; and long may he remain
With Chelsea; so, please just to show
Respect; 'Hats off,' to Middelboe"
E. A. Goddard (Oxford Street)

Less fortunate was the great Ben Warren, whose descent into mental ill-health and death from tuberculosis deeply affected the football world - a benefit match was held at Stamford Bridge for his wife and children at the end of the season.

The Bridge also staged a display of hands across the water in February 1914, as George V attended a baseball match between two top US teams, New York Giants and Chicago White Sox.

As far as the football was concerned, though, this season was all about consolidation. Chelsea never really excelled, but rarely looked out of their depth in the top tier – despite a 1-6 humiliation at the hands of Burnley. David Calderhead's team finished the season in a promising eighth place.

Gratifyingly, they were also the top-placed London club at a moment when the capital’s clubs were competing feverishly for audiences. It would be two seasons – but six years – before that feat was achieved again.

In 1913/14... Facts & figures: Chelsea finished just five points short of the runners-up position in Division One
Cup run: First round, losing to Millwall
All the rage: The world’s first full-length colour feature film: 'The Word, the Flesh and the Devil,' a British production

Season by Season: 1911/12

At this point in Chelsea's history, just before the advent of “the war to end all wars” – the First World War of 1914-18 – it’s worth taking a look at the make-up of football in those days.

Let’s look at the map of the old Second Division in which we found ourselves in August 1911. At the end of the Edwardian era Leicester had a Fosse, not a City; Leeds had a City not a United; and Bradford’s City was a mere Park Avenue then.

There were plenty of familiar names: Blackpool, Bristol City, Wolves, Derby, Hull, Nottingham Forest, Burnley; but whatever happened to Glossop North End and Gainsborough Trinity?

Other recognisable aspects of the game included the football ‘pools’, which at that time were free but required the prediction of a scoreline to net a potential £300, and Spot-the-Ball. The Beckhams of the day – the likes of England striker Steve Bloomer – were already endorsing various products to augment their meagre, tightly-capped salaries.

So Chelsea's second season ending in glorious promotion to the First Division was played out across a timeless landscape in well-known settings. The prolific Bloomer’s club, Derby County, were one of Chelsea’s chief rivals for the step up, along with Burnley and Wolves. An early home win over County, following consecutive, confidence-sapping 0-0 draws to Stockport and Leeds, helped form the platform of belief for eventual success.

On Boxing Day, a fixture that has periodically been a ‘traditional’ one – home to Fulham – brought victory and third slot. In those days teams played the same opposition home and away over the festive period – the 26th; we beat over our closest rivals 1-0 in both.

February, however, brought devastating news: Chelsea's founder and owner, the larger-than-life Henry Augustus Mears (pictured above, right), died suddenly from kidney failure. His passing threw ownership of the freehold at Stamford Bridge into a dispute which took decades to settle. Gus is buried in Brompton Cemetery, next to the ground he built; the large funeral cortege paused momentarily at the stadium gates en route.

Nothing could stop the Pensioner filling one of the promotion slots, not even a disheartening 0-2 defeat at Derby. Four wins on the spin closed out the season while others faltered and David Calderhead's side finished second behind County solely because of an inferior goal average.

Burnley, the only team who could have pipped the Londoners, lost to Wolves on the final day, while Charlie Freeman’s strike was enough to see off Bradford in front of 40,000 at the Bridge.

"What a scene at the final whistle last Saturday! Those scribes who ascribe our crowds to mere 'accessibility of ground' were given the lie direct. There was no getting away from the delirious, almost hysterical joy of thousands of strong men who surged around the Pavilion, and cheered themselves hoarse." The Chelsea Chronicle, 30th April 1912

Chelsea had finished one place higher than the previous season, principally because the fewer goals scored were better spread out - more matches were won and fewer drawn.

'The Sphinx' Calderhead’s yo-yo team were at it again. This time, the stay in the top flight would last for 12 years, sometimes with ease, sometimes without.

Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to perhaps the first Chelsea icon, George Hilsdon. His off-pitch antics had become too much for the management, and he moved on to a more easy-going atmosphere at West Ham.

Better summer news, though, was that Chelsea forward Viv Woodward captained the amateur England national team to victory in the Olympics.

In 1911/12...
Facts & figures: Bob Whittingham, scoring 26, was Chelsea's new goalscoring hero
Cup run: second round, losing to Bradford
All the rage: the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 shocks the world

Season by Season: 1909/10

These were uncertain times around the world, not just the footballing community of London SW. In England’s coffee houses there were fears about Germany building a battleship fleet, problems in the Balkans and the destabilising effect of the Revolution in Russia.

From Indonesia, meanwhile, Dutch zoologists announced the discovery of the enormous Komodo Dragon to the world. If dragons - albeit not fire-breathing ones - actually existed, what other unwelcome surprises lay in store?

For the growing band of followers of Chelsea, London’s second and infinitely more attractive alternative to Woolwich Arsenal, the answer came on 30th April at White Hart Lane. A win against Spurs would have earned two points and, on superior ‘goal average’ (goals for divided by those against), consigned our Woolwich rivals to Division Two. As it is we lost 1-2, the winner coming courtesy of former Pensioner Percy Humphreys, and the bitter pill of relegation was swallowed for the first of six times in our history.

"To-day it is brass bands and fireworks or the Dead March in Saul and funeral coaches. Ah me! How we shall await the half-time verdict from Tottenham!" The Chelsea Chronicle ponders the club's fate ahead of the last game of the season

In actual fact for parts of the season it had looked as if Chelsea would achieve tedious mid-table again. But David Calderhead's team gradually slipped away from 14th at Christmas, with home form standing examination against the very best, but away form woeful.

The team, despite regular shake-ups from manager David Calderhead, won only once on its travels – at Middlesbrough. There were dispiriting defeats to Liverpool (1-5) and Bolton (2-5).

One of the primary causes was the early absence through injury of peerless goal poacher George Hilsdon, who played only a few matches and contributed just three goals rather than his familiar two dozen. The quality of a squad also boasting Ben Warren and Jimmy Windridge was augmented by the arrival of muscular midfield artist Sam Downing and another Chelsea legend, Vivian Woodward (pictured scoring against Tottenham). Woodward, a celebrated amateur international forward who oozed class, had quit Spurs in the summer and surprisingly reappeared as a Chelsea player.

His association with Chelsea would be a long one, but it began with disappointment. In April, as the Division Two trapdoor creaked open, Chelsea’s pockets were rifled again. English McConnell, Marshall McEwan and lantern-jawed striker Bob Whittingham, all deployed in the final match of the season, were among the panicking manager’s last throw of the dice. These emergency purchases prompted the Football Association to introduce the first ever transfer deadline.

But the wave of enthusiasm and finance that created had Chelsea Football Club, and that had carried the team into the upper echelon of the Football League after just 76 matches, had waned.

The Pensioners finished 19th, with just 29 points and a goal difference of –23.

In 1909/10...
Facts and figures: The 29 point haul remains Chelsea's worst ever
Cup campaign: Second round, losing to Tottenham Hotspur
All the rage: Morgan’s first three-wheel Runabout motor car is the urban head-turner