Time to honour Tom McNaught -lest we forget
By Reggie Kellison
November 9 2021
Saturday's game will see the traditional minutes silence to honour the fallen of both Word Wars and other conflicts. It is always a poignant moment. Fans fall silent, I for one turn my thoughts to those who lost their lives in battle. In particular, the industrial scale of the killing in the First World War makes it difficult to comprehend the carnage or suffering.
Thomas McNaught is one of the few ex-players know to have lost their lives in conflict. He died on 14th March 1915, shot in the head whilst carrying bandages to an injured comrade. He was a member of the King's Liverpool regiment. However, whilst other former players were injured, little is known of the fate that befell supporters. Whilst many joined the King's in Liverpool, there weee also battalions of the Cheshire regiment established locally. The 13th battalion was formed in Port Sunlight in September 1914, 15th & 16th Batalions were formed in Birkenhead in November & December 1914, and the 16th battalion was formed in Bebington in August 1915. Some of those who fell on active service are likely to have been Rovers supporters.
in the First World War the club was lucky. Camell Lairds was a vital part of the war effort and so many players and supporters were not conscripted into the armed forces. Paradoxically, the presence of Lairds increased air raids in and around Birkenhead during WW2. We therefore have to remember and acknowledge the hundreds of civilians who would have lost their lives in the conflict.
To my knowledge none of this is commemorated around the club. We have statues of former managers, stands and bars named after former players, but nothing that commemorates those who lost their lives in conflict. To some this may not seem important, I personally disagree. Wars are fought by the people who sit beside you in the ground, ordinary people. We have often sung 'he's one of our own' about various players, and undoubtedly the same description could be applied to many many of those who have passed away in conflict. Would it not be fitting that the new fan zone, rather than carrying the names of the sponsors, is instead called the Tom McNaught?
Perhaps in the silence before the game on Saturday we can think of Tom McNaught, and of all those associated with the club, who have lost their lives in conflict.
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Quote:We lost two players in WW2 but I cannot find any link to this casualty and us? Maybe you could outline his connection with TRFC?Total Tranmere
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When the Great War, broke out, Thomas was teaching in Rock Ferry, but played football for Hoylake as well as occasionally playing for St. Marks – Tranmere Rovers. He probably played for Hoylake because his brother George W McNaught married Linda Bird, who was from Hoylake, thus the connection to this locality.
He attested in September 1914 to the 10th (Scottish Battalion), King’s Liverpool Regiment, as Private number 3612, and was killed on March 12th 1915 in the trenches whilst running with bandages to help other wounded comrades. He is remembered on the Menin Gate in Ypres, which is a memorial to those who died in the area for whom there is no grave.
At the outbreak of war he was one of thirty local teachers who all signed up for the King’s Liverpool Regiment. On the 14th March 1915 he was hit in the head whilst carrying bandages to an injured comrade. His commanding officer believed that his concern for his injured friend led him to forget to take cover. He was buried in the field and the location of his grave is still unknown.
As a sign of respect the flag at Prenton Park was lowered to half mast and the players all worn black arm bands at their next home game.
McNaught is the only Tranmere player so far discovered to lose his life during the First World War.
Tranmere players were still involved in the war. At the beginning of the 1915-16 season the Birkenhead News reported ten players from the club had joined the services but it did not say which players.
In 1915 it was reported in the Birkenhead News that Jack Ellis a Tranmere first team player had been injured during the invasion of Gallipoli at Suvla Bay. Another player Haires was also injured but little information was known about him.
No other reports of injuries or deaths are stated in the Birkenhead News again until 1918 when Tranmere legend Johnny Campbell appeared in the paper. He had been shot in the head near Cambrai in France and was being treated in a German hospital after being captured. He returned to Prenton Park after the war but he forever kept a piece of the war with him as the bullet that had injured him in France was never removed from his head. Campbell went on to play for Rovers in nearly 250 games before retiring in 1929.
[www.footballandthefirstworldwar.org]
Just to expand a little on the information provided on the battalions mentioned, which may be of interest.
The 15th & 16th Battalions (Cheshire Regt) were "Bantam Battalions", open to men under the army regulation height of 5 ft 3 inches (5ft to 5ft 3 inches was acceptable) and subsequently becoming 1st & 2nd Birkenhead Battalions.
I am pretty sure the 15th were the first Bantam Battalion in the country.
The Original 13th Battalion members had the distinction of the letter W before their service number and it is always a poignant reminder when visiting the various WW1 Cemeteries, to come across an original local lad from the 13th Battalion.
Whilst the majority of the 13th Battalion enlisted from the Lever Brothers Factory in Port Sunlight, others came from all over the Wirral & Ellesmere Port, to enlist.
The mention of Tom Mc Naught, reminds of another TRFC player George Devaney, a goalkeeper, covered before. Whilst all death in war is tragic, George's is particularly so. George was killed 4th November 1916 , asleep in a dugout which received a direct hit, killing George and five mates and wounding 7 more.
I have visited George Devaney's Grave in the Coucelles Au Bois Communal Cemetery Extension (Grave B1), where he rests side by side with the others, one of which is named Penney from Wallasey.
Reading accounts about George as a goalkeeper, who had a reputation for keeping clean sheets even in his day, who knows what he may have achieved.
We will remember them.