Potters pay emotional tribute
SAMUEL ASHWORTH Fenton-born defender played for Port Vale, Everton, Manchester City and Reading after making his breakthrough at Stoke.
He served as second lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery and returned to Stoke after the war to become a club director until he died at the age of 48 in 1925.
SAM BADDELEY Right-half who played for Port Vale before joining Stoke in 1907 after Vale quit the Football League in the midst of a cash crisis… although Stoke then also entered liquidation and went into nonleague at the end of his first season.
He was one of few players who stayed to help the club rebuild and try to win a place back in the Football League, which they did in 1915 – even if the War put that on hold and effectively ended his career as he went off to serve. He died in his mid-70s in 1958.
BILLY BRADBURY Half-back from Fegg Hayes who joined Stoke from Port Vale and went on to play for Aberdare and Oldham Athletic before serving in the War. He returned to play for Oldham in peacetime. He lived into his 80s, dying in 1966.
CHARLIE BURGESS Fearless but fair full-back grew up in Church Lawton and signed his first contract with Stoke while sitting on a haystack at his father’s farm. Played nearly 200 times for the club before joining Man City in 1908.
He served in the Royal Army medical corps, firstly at the Number 28 Casualty Clearing Station in Fouilloy, France then at the 49th Stationary Hospital in Bralos, Greece, where he contracted malaria.
Recovered, survived the war and lived up to the age of 72 in 1956, when he died in Hartshill.
TOMMY CLARE Congleton-born defender was an early Stoke legend, winning four England caps – which are kept with pride at the bet365 Stadium. Big, strong, quick and good in the air, he won a reputation for some fierce tackling.
He made more than 200 appearances for the club in the 1880s and 90s and also turned out for Man City and Vale, who he went on to manage in 1905.
Emigrated to Canada shortly before the Great War and served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the Battle of Passchendaele, falsifying his age to meet the upper limit. The Military Service Act ruled that single men aged between 18 and 40 could be called up. Clare was 49.
He was discharged in 1917 after serving in France and Flanders – and his true age and growing medical problems were discovered. Returned to Vancouver, where he died aged 64 in 1929.
REG FORRESTER Penkhull-born left-half was on the books of Manchester City before joining Stoke in 1912 – and he played for the club either side of the War. He went on to play for Macclesfield Town, where he scored a hat-trick in three consecutive matches in 1922.
ARTHUR GRIFFITHS Centre forward was only 20 when he scored in a 3-0 win for Stoke at Everton in April 1906, but was sold to Oldham when the club hit financial troubles.
Came back when Stoke were playing in the Birmingham and District and Southern League and scored 36 times in 42 appearances in 1909/10. Survived the War but died aged 59 in 1944.
FRED HARGRAVE A clever centre-forward for Stoke, Aston Villa, Burton United and
HENRY HARGREAVES Right winger born in Wolstanton and played 38 games for the club leading up to April 1915, having joined from Newcastle Town.
He was killed in action in France in December 1917 at the age of 24.
DICKIE HERRON Tipped to become a fine keeper despite apparently measuring just 5ft 7in, having won his starting place while Stoke were in the Southern League in the 1910s.
He served in the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) and died on September 19, 1918. He is honoured at Trefcon British Cemetery, Caulaincourt, just east of Amiens in France.
CHARLIE HINKS Corporal Clerk in the Royal Naval Air Service, the air arm of the Royal Navy which was to merge with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force by the end of the War.
He had joined Stoke as a defender in 1903 after spells with Stockport County and Man City. Died at the age of 76 in 1956.
TOM HOLFORD Tom “Dirty Tom” Holford was a wing-half who could really play anywhere – and did, for Stoke, Manchester City and Port Vale in a career that stretched from 1898 to 1924, when, as a 46-year-old, injuries saw him come out of retirement for Vale.
He got his nickname due to some occasional naughty tackles and he was a near ever-present in the Stoke team for a decade, becoming captain in 1905. Manager Horace Austerberry said: “He’s an excellent passer of the ball who played every match as if it was his last.”
Helped Man City win the Second Division title in 1910, played in more Potteries derbies (28) than anyone else and one of the smallest centre-halves (5ft 5in) to play for England, winning his only cap in a 4-0 win over Ireland in 1903.
Conscripted in 1917 while player-boss at Vale and served in the Royal Artillery, guest playing for Nottingham Forest into the bargain. He managed Vale in the 1930s too. Died in 1964 at the age of 86.
TOM KINSON Stoke reserve player who served as private in the Leicestershire Regiment and died on October 6, 1917. He is remembered, along with the names of 35,000 others, at Tyne Cot Memorial, near the town of Ieper in Belgium.
GEORGE LIMER Made 17 appearances for Stoke in the Lancashire War League, scoring to secure a draw at Preston in January 1917. It is believed he died in France the following year.
BILLY NIXON A right winger who played twice for Stoke in the Southern League in 1912, losing at Northampton before stuffing Millwall Atheltic 7-0 at home.
Killed in action in France in 1916 at the age of 30.
STAN RIPLEY Ripley had played just once for Stoke, according to the records – a 3-0 home win over Brentford in December 1914 – before being called up to serve in the 17th Batallian (1st Football).
He was 25 on March 10, 1917 when he fell and died from gunshot wounds during the carnage at the Somme that would claim more than 1.5m casualties. He is remembered in his home town of Sunderland at the Mere Knolls cemetery.
LEIGH ROOSE An eccentric, pioneering goalkeeper with an incredible life story covered in the brilliant biography Lost in France, by Spencer Vignes.
Where to start? His reputation for claiming elaborate expenses included the time he HIRED HIS OWN TRAIN after missing a connection to Birmingham. Stoke didn’t pay his claim for £31.
He ate dodgy fish with such gusto before a match at Liverpool that he had to run to the toilet after a shot hit him in the belly – and was so ill and flustered he ended up diving around the pavements outside Anfield thinking he was still playing.
He fell out with the board so spectacularly he returned to play against Stoke for Port Vale as a