By Chris Wright
Leyton Orient have announced that they are to play out the remainder of the season wearing special memorial shirts in tribute to all the club’s ex-players who served in the First World War as part of the ongoing centenary celebrations.
A total of 41 members of the Clapton Orient (the club which later became Leyton Orient) players and staff put football on hold to serve their country – three of whom lost their lives amid the muddy, bloody carnage at the Battle of the Somme.
NEWS: Somme badge unveiled on shirts – http://t.co/LqKJFhEpv4 #LOFC
— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) March 27, 2015
Forgoing the usual sponsor’s logo, the shirts will instead carry the crest of the the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (which became more commonly known as the Footballers’ Battalion) as well as the names of the three Clapton Orient players who died during The Somme in 1916: Richard McFadden, William Jonas and George Scott.
Clapton Orient were also the first professional football club to enlist en masse.
Steve Jenkins, chairman of Orient’s Somme Memorial Fund told the club’s official website:
“As the country continues to commemorate the centenary of the Great War, so many supporters have been asking me over the past 12 months or so if the badge was going to be included on the kit.
“Consequently it makes me feel so proud to see the O’s Somme Badge now emblazoned on Leyton Orient’s shirt, particularly as we are fast approaching the 100th anniversary of Clapton Orient’s last game before going on to serve in the Footballers’ Battalion.”
A limited number of replica shirts will be made available from the club store, with proceeds going directly to the Somme Memorial Fund.
As for Clapton Orient and the Footballer’s Battalion, there’s loads more information over at Football And The First World War should you wish to read on.