Club historian, Tom Sutcliffe guides us through former players from the club's time in and around the football league, who also went on to serve in the first world war.

Patrick Galvin
Glossop born Patrick Galvin played for GNE in the 1906/07 and 1907/08 seasons, mainly as a central midfielder, making 21 appearances and scoring 4 goals, also having a short spell
as player-coach towards the end of the 1907/08 season. He worked in the local paper works
as a labourer. He was described as “a hard worker who never tired; cool and collected when defending and quick to seize an opportunity in attack.”

He also played for Oldham Athletic and Rochdale either side of playing for his hometown
club. Galvin served with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers during the First World War winning the Military Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty under fire.

He was an acting lance corporal when he was killed in action in the Battle of Cambrai during the final Allied push on 17th October 1918, just three weeks before the Armistice and two days before his 36 th birthday. He was buried in Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau-Cambrésis.

Morgan Maddox Morgan-Owen

The superbly named Morgan Maddox Morgan-Owen was an amateur player who found football fame as part of the legendary amateur side Corinthians, touring South America and bringing the football to Brazil, and won 12 caps for Wales.

As an amateur he played for whoever and whenever he wanted and he featured for Glossop just three times over the course of three seasons. He combined his football exploits with his career as a teacher and during the First World War he served in the Essex Regiment, attaining the rank of Major by the end of the war. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for “conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On the occasion of the enemy attack, when his battalion was in reserve, he moved it up to resist the attack, and held on to the position for two days, though the troops on his flank were pressed back. His steadfast determination to hold his ground against repeated attacks and under heavy fire largely contributed to restoring and keeping in hand the critical situation which had arisen''

After the war he became a life vice-president of the FA and served as a magistrate and
councillor .

From our records 54 former Glossop players served in the First World War of which 21 tragically lost their lives. Those who would never return home included 42 year old Thomas Clifford who had been the side’s centre half as we won promotion to the First Division in 1899 and then played for us in the First Division. He lost his life in the Battle of the Somme in 1917.

Thomas Clifford

Yet perhaps the most tragic was the youngest former player to die in the war, Harold Sparkes. Born in Glossop and serving a plumbing apprenticeship, Harold had featured for Glossop as an amateur in our last season in the Football League, making three appearances. He enlisted sometime in 1915 and was killed in action in the Arras area on 3rd June 1917. He was only 21.

Many other players also lost their lives such as George Elmore who scored 14 goals in 35
appearances in Division Two, William Pell who was described as a “mainstay of the defence” between 1902 and 1904, Thomas Porter an England Amateur International and Jonathan Thornley who was the youngest of the three Glossop born and raised Thornley brothers who all played for Glossop in the Football League.

George Elmore