Chelsea had responded regularly in the matchday programme with contempt for the ‘mud-slingers’, publishing a photograph of a crowd comprising almost entirely of men in uniform and therefore ‘doing their bit’ for King and country (pictured top). They also printed dozens of letters from fighting men craving to hear how their beloved Pensioners were faring, particularly as they progressed to the FA Cup final for the first time ever in 1914/15.



Exiled Belgians were handed tickets to games, including a 2-2 draw with Oldham. They were ‘Chelsea partisans to a man – and woman,’ cheered the Chelsea goals and ‘seemed almost to forget their own terrible sufferings.’

The club was also quick to collect money in a ‘Footballs for Tommies’ scheme to dispatch 50 top-quality footballs off to servicemen on the frontline who applied for one at Stamford Bridge (see programme extract right). They were sent in November 1914. One of them may even have been used in the legendary Christmas truce match a month later.

‘The Southdown Battalion of the Sussex Regiment are proud in the possession of the ball used in our match v Liverpool,’ it was announced. Two representatives from that battalion, Lieutenants Clifford Whitley and Ernest Wenden helped establish a ‘Chelsea Supporters’ Company’ with a recruitment drive at the Bridge. (Perhaps as a result, both went on to marry Maie and Julia, daughters of Chelsea director Fred Parker.)

The Chelsea hierarchy also supported the grand initiative of a Footballer’s Battalion, the 17th Middlesex, created on 14 December 1914. Not only did several current and former players sign up, but club secretary Bert Palmer became ‘Honorary Recruiting Officer’ for the 17th, prompting the attestations of 60-70 soldiers. One of the first was Chelsea’s star winger Teddy Foord.

An odd memento of the club’s closeness to this fabled battalion lies in a unique engraved silver plate on display in the Chelsea FC Museum. The inscription reads: ‘In Honour of the Khaki Recruits – Our Chelsea Diehards. Presented to the Earl of Lonsdale by the men of the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regt. and Chelsea Football and Athletic Company Limited, Feb 12 1916.’

By then the Football League had been suspended and regionalised. The Pensioners had lost the FA Cup final at Old Trafford 0-3 to Sheffield United and, disastrously, finished in a relegation slot. However it later emerged that players from Liverpool and Manchester United had colluded to fix a match, saving the latter from the drop and condemning Chelsea. The football community was scandalised, and when the war was over the League made sure the Pensioners were reinstated in the top flight.