First XI of the Fallen

Who was the greatest sporting star who fought in the first world war? It is a difficult argument to settle at a century’s distance, with nobody still alive who saw them play and only fleeting glimpses from the very first steps of the newsreel era. The names are less familiar now, but contemporary accounts of their exploits and the sporting record books prove that they belong in the first rank of British sporting history.

British Future has selected an inevitably subjective ‘1st XI’ of the fallen, to help to bring the names of these sporting greats back into our public consciousness. In our new essay How should sport remember, published this weekend, Matthew Rhodes and I argue that the story of how sport went to war, with players and supporters signing up together in ‘fans’ battalions’, could prove an accessible starting point for the next generation of schoolchildren and sports fans to understand the nature of the conflict.