Acknowledgements

Thanks

During a few years I have been visiting archives and libraries in my search for information about Albert Schmidt and Jimmy Coyle. In all of those places people have helped me and have also encouraged me in my work.

Two of these helpers gave me the most valuable leads. In Stadtarchiv Zwickau Jürgen Schünzel showed me the football club’s 25-year history from 1927. This is where I found Albert Schmidt. In the regimental museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Stirling Castle Rod MacKenzie showed me the two pictures of Jimmy Coyle.

Manfred Beyer in Dresden wrote back when I sent out emails to anybody I could find who was connected with military history in Saxony. He is an active member of Arbeitskreis Sächsische Militärgeschichte. From then on he has helped me. He has shared documents and pictures from his archive and he has answered many questions. He also guided me in Sächsisches Staatsarchiv in Dresden. Then in Zwickau I was guided by Lorenz Zentgraf, who answered questions and showed his archive. Local historian Norbert Peschke has helped me in the same way. Christoph Meister in Germany helped me with the language.

When I first came to the museum in Stirling it was Archie Wilson who answered my questions and showed me documents. When I came next time to start working Rod MacKenzie had laid a table for me with books and diaries. Then he guided me in the museum archive, where he seems to know every shelf without the help of the computer. In the museum in Stirling I was lucky to share a table with Tom Greenshields, who knows everything that I need to know. He read my text and gave me much to think about. In Stirling is also my friend Scott Patrick. He too has read my text and helped me with the language and many other things.

Robert Morris guided me on the Edinburgh of the early 20th century, which also helped me get more out of the material laid in front of me in the National Library of Scotland. In Mitchell Library in Glasgow I was shown the small newspaper article about the sergeant who wrote about football between the Scots and the Saxons. And in the database of the Scottish Football Museum I was shown the entry about Jimmy Coyle’s contract with Albion Rovers. Richard Gray helped me get to the Airdrie Library and Allan MacKenzie helped me find what the local newspapers wrote about Jimmy Coyle’s matches.

Jesper Ericsson works in the museum of the Gordon Highlanders in Aberdeen. He answered my questions fully and quickly. Alan Weeks answered questions about the soldiers’ food. I have learnt much from contributors to the websites The Long Long Trail and Great War Forum. There I got in touch with Colin Taylor, who looked up documents in the National Archives. When I came there myself they patiently answered my beginner’s questions. I have visited the Imperial War Museum many times and had the privilege of studying their material in the reading room, the picture library and the film archive.

Tasmin Bacchus kindly let me use her grandfather E.R.P.. Berryman’s drawings. In the archives of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Pieter Trogh had prepared material for me. Together with Dominiek Dendooven he was always ready to help me, then as well as later. Kristin de Meyre is a guide in Ypres. Thanks to her I made good use of my days in Flanders. When I returned in the autumn of 2013 photographer Kristofer Sandberg came along to take pictures of the football field.

In Stockholm I have visited the library of the Army Museum and the Anna Lindh Library. Their advice saved me much time and I could study material that I had earlier just had time to leaf through during short days in London. The mediators Therese Jönsson and Peter Wallensteen took time to speculate how they could have used the Christmas Truce to end the war. Johnny Carlsson at the Artillery Museum in Kristianstad answered questions and gave me background material. I happened to meet the knowledgeable Hans Aili on the Internet. He read my text and suggested valuable improvements.

All of you gave me what I needed to be able to make my idea real. Thank you.

After my book was published in Sweden by Atlantis Bokförlag I wrote to some 70 publishers and literary agents in the UK. No one dared take on my story until I was introduced to Ryan Gearing and Uniform Press. He took the risk. I say “Thank You”, but the words are too small.

Please write to me

I ask readers, who have information about the Christmas Truce and especially about those who played football, to write to me. My email address is: footballinnomansland@gmail.com.