As we remember the Fallen, football can help ensure that we never forget.
Dan Jarvis MBE MP
Many fans of the ‘Beautiful Game’ will be familiar with the famous quote from Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool manager.
‘Football isn’t a matter of life and death,’ he said, ‘It’s much more important than that!’ Having spent many afternoons and evenings at Oakwell, I can well understand what he meant.
But his words hold a different significance in a period when football grounds all over Britain fall silent in tribute to those who have served and sacrificed for our country.
We’ll salute the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for us today and remember those who fell in the past.
In 1914, at the start of the ‘Great War’, there were 16,000 towns and villages across Britain, but only 40 would reach 1918 without having lost someone in the conflict. It means every community has its own story to tell – including our own.
Barnsley is very proud of our football team and the Reds have always been at the heart of our community. So it’s only natural that the story of our town during the First World War should extend onto the football pitch.
It’s the story of footballers like Wilfred Bartrop – the young striker who spearheaded the Barnsley team that won the FA Cup in 1912.
He signed up for military service at the beginning of 1918. He was killed on 7 November in Belgium, just four days before the war ended.
Wilfred was one of more than 5,000 professional footballers in Britain when war broke it. Around half of them hung up their boots and joined up.
Many of them never came home.
And then there’s the iconic Christmas Truce of 1914, when British and German soldiers laid down their weapons and had a kick-about in No Man’s Land. In a funny sort of way, it shows there was some truth in Shankly’s words about life and death after all.
Because amidst the chaos and the carnage of the most brutal conflict that had ever been seen, it was football that brought people together.
It’s a reminder of how sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. As we fall silent, that is well worth remembering.
As someone who served myself and saw friends fall, the act of commemoration will always be hugely important to me. Not just because of the respect I have for the sacrifice others made, but because I hope that in the years to come, the sacrifice made by my friends will also continue to be remembered and honoured.
Today, and throughout the Remembrance period, like those soldiers over a century ago, we put our differences aside and honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
We will remember them.
Dan Jarvis is the MP for Barnsley Central and a former soldier in The Parachute Regiment.
