#F/32 Private William Jonas
17TH MIDDLESEX REGIMENT
BORN IN 1890 IN NORTHUMBERLAND, the son of a miner, William Jonas had followed his father and taken up work at Cambois Colliery before becoming a professional footballer. He signed a contract with Clapton Orient in 1912 and was so popular with the female fan base that he felt the need to have the club publish a statement in a match day programme to say that, while he appreciated their letters, he was a happily married man. After being harangued in the press, the footballing profession decided to take action against criticism that players, supposedly the most able-bodied men in the country, were not enlisting in high enough numbers. In November 1914, Chelsea, Millwall and Orient instigated meetings in West London to discuss what they could do together to encourage enlistment. More clubs joined them, along with officials from the FA, two West London MPs and the Mayor of Fulham. They formed a committee and decided they would approach the War Office officially with regard to forming a specific battalion for footballers to join. It was a variation on a theme already occurring up and down the country, that of the Pals battalion.
Private William Jonas. (Private collection)
On 15th December some 500 men congregated at Fulham Town Hall, a few yards from Stamford Bridge, to discuss the formation of the 17th Middlesex Regiment. Good progress was made. Officials represented a whole spectrum of London football clubs, including Chelsea, Fulham, Orient, Tottenham, Arsenal, Millwall and Crystal Palace. Clubs would need to be sympathetic, both for the players wanting to go and in giving up their time and facilities to help recruit men. Players would have to have Saturdays off too, to fulfil their club commitments until the end of the season still in progress. Train fares would have to be covered to get men back to the appropriate grounds in time for kick-off at the weekend.
At the December meeting, Fred ‘Spider’ Parker, the Clapton Orient captain, a married man with three children, was the first to commit to joining the battalion. Frank Buckley of Bradford City followed, as did another player from Brighton. After gentle prodding and more stirring words more men stood up and as the meeting concluded thirty-five players had expressed their intention to serve, including William Jonas. In all more than forty men connected with Clapton Orient would volunteer to serve with the battalion, which arrived on the Western Front in November 1915.
The 24th July 1916 was a dull and cloudy day on the Somme, riddled again with heavy artillery fire on both sides. At 3:45pm Sir Douglas Haig arrived for a conference nearby and insisted on the importance of consolidating the positions already held and of clearing Longueval and Delville Wood of enemy troops. William Jonas and the Footballer’s Battalion were about to be among the newest additions to the fighting in this poisonous spot.
On the 27th four British battalions attacked in two waves following a stiff bombardment of more than 100,000 shells. The first deluge rushed through the shaken Germans still occupying Delville Wood and an hour later the second passed through their compatriots on their way further into the bedlam. They began trying furiously to consolidate their position under less opposition than they might have expected and the wood was largely back in British hands when men of the Royal Fusiliers pushed on and cleared the Germans en masse out of its northern section, taking nearly 200 prisoners. The Allies alone had had nearly 400 guns trained on Delville Wood throughout the day in an attempt to clear it, but the enemy was not about to back down. The German artillery too had no qualms about smashing the remains of the trees and undergrowth to pieces with artillery.
The Footballer’s Battalion, players and fans alike, had spent 26th July digging and resting near Bernafay Wood, subjected to gas alarms as the Germans were using these particularly monstrous shells further forward. Almost 900 men of the 17th Middlesex watched more than two dozen aeroplanes buzzing like wasps, criss-crossing, diving upon each other in the evening, under orders to move at short notice should they be needed to support the attack transpiring on Delville Wood.
As early as 11am on the 27th, William Jonas’ battalion received orders to go forward to help drive the Germans out of the wood. Gathering up rifles and equipment, he and the rest of the men prepared for their most daunting task yet. Off they marched via Montauban and Trônes Wood, towards the hellish bombardment going on in front of them, the crashing of artillery shells becoming louder and louder as they approached the fierce fighting ahead.
As the men of the 17th Middlesex trudged towards the right hand side of the wood, weighed down with ammunition, bombs and petrol cans full of drinking water to share out with those already inside, the sheer volume of shellfire made it extremely difficult for the likes of the Footballer’s Battalion to get to those dwindling troops trying to cling on to their tenuous position. Further back a pile of ammunition burned, struck by the German artillery; one gun team watched two men and two of their horses smashed to pulp. Finally, at 5:15pm, two companies of the 17th Middlesex and two of the 17th Royal Fusiliers managed to get through, though suffering heavily on the way up.
A fellow Clapton Orient man named Richard McFadden who was with Jonas later recalled that they found themselves pinned down in a trench. ‘Willie turned to me and said “Goodbye Mac. Special love to my Sweetheart Mary Jane and best regards to the lads at Orient.”’ They were the last words that William spoke to him. ‘Before I could [reply] he was up and over. No sooner had he jumped up out of the trench, my best friend of nearly twenty years was killed before my eyes. Words cannot express my feelings as this time.’ Dick McFadden had just three months to live himself.
By smashing Delville Wood with an obscene amount of guns, the British Army had, although it turned out only to be temporarily, managed to subdue the Germans inside. Yet more men would need to be sent inside, though, if it was to be captured properly. Three players from Clapton Orient would fall during the war in total. William Jonas’ body, if recovered, was never identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier & Face 12d/13b.
The Footballer’s Battalion Memorial, Longueval. (Andrew Holmes)