West Wallsend NSW Junior Champions 1913-14

It's a measure of the strength of Newcastle soccer that West Wallsend would win the NSW Junior Championship in 1913-14. But perhaps more significant is the number of these players who a few short years later would be battling and dying in the trenches in France.

Of the above players Cantello, Clapham, Jim Leckie enlisted and died at the front. It is likely that others also joined up but this is yet to be ascertained. To be clear, these players are not children. They are young men (early 20s at time of death). Yet the waste is clear to me.

I was asked today: why do research that makes you sad? Sometimes I wonder.