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THOMAS
ELLISON played for the club during the 1912-1913
and 1913-1914 seasons as a forward, scoring
twice in six appearances. He joined up at the outbreak of war, becoming
Gunner 37654 in the 13th Battalion of the 32nd Brigade of the Royal
Field Artillery. He was killed on 20 October 1914 and is buried in the
Bailleul Communal Cemetery in France. Unfortunately, his was one of
several graves destroyed when a shell hit the cemetery in 1918, with the
result that his headstone merely records that he is "known to be buried
in this cemetery". He
also played for Colchester Town and Grays Athletic, but it appears that Croydon
Common was his only senior club.
On Saturday 11 October 2014, before an F.A. Cup
3rd Qualifying Round match with Bromley,
the players, supporters and officials of Grays Athletic F.C. marked the
100th anniversary of his death by holding a minute's silence, while the
club captain laid a wreath on the pitch and a bugler sounded the last
post.
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FRANK HESHAM was on the books of a number of
senior clubs (Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra, Accrington Stanley, Stoke, Leyton, Oldham
Athletic and Preston North End) before joining Croydon Common for the
1909-1910 and 1910-1911
seasons. A forward, he scored 27 times in 55 appearances for the Robins
and was the club's top scorer in his first season.
He died on active
service as Gunner 53546 with the 21st Siege Battery of the Royal
Garrison Artillery on 17 November 1915 and is buried in La Clytte
Military Cemetery in Heuvelland, Belgium. He was awarded the 1914-1915
Star.
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ROBERT HEWITSON played for Croydon Common in
the 1909-10 season, its first in Division One of the Southern League.
A goalkeeper, he played for Barnsley, Crystal Palace, Oldham Athletic
and Tottenham Hotspur before joining the Robins and Doncaster Rovers
afterwards. He won a Southern League Division Two championship
medal with Crystal Palace in 1905-06 and played in the first ever
Football League match played by both Oldham Athletic and Tottenham Hostpur.
He served as Private S/43291 with the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
and was killed in action on 18 September 1916 during the Battle of the
Somme. He is buried in Contalmaison Chateau Cemetery in France.
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WILLIAM KIRBY played for Croydon Common during the
1915-1916 season, when the club was in the London Combination after the
outbreak of war. He also played for Brentford in the same competition
the following season. Earlier in his career, he had spells at Preston
North End (twice), Swindon Town (twice) and West Ham United, but his
main club was Portsmouth, where he played for seven seasons. He made
277 appearances for the club and scored 107 goals; an impressive strike
rate. He originally joined the Royal Engineers, but was invalided out
and went to work at the Woolwich Arsenal. However, he apparently did
not like the conditions there and so re-enlisted with the Royal
Engineers and was killed at Ypres shortly afterwards on 3 October 1917 at the age of 35.
He is buried in the Bard Cottage Cemetery near Ypres.
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NORMAN WOOD played for Croydon Common in the 1911-1912
season, scoring 18 goals in his 38 games as an inside forward. His
display against Chelsea Reserves so impressed the Football League side
that they immediately put in a transfer bid and he moved across London,
but he did not make any first team appearance for his new club. He was
also on the books of Tottenham Hotspur early in his career,
featuring on a Taddy Prominent Footballers cigarette card in 1908
in the club's kit, but he played no first team
games there either. However, he made four representative appearances
for the London Select XI around that time. He later played for Crystal
Palace and Plymouth Argyle before joining the Robins and his last club
was Stockport County. Oddly, he played in goal for the Robins in their
record away win (12-2 v. Chesham Town in the Southern League on New
Year's Day 1912) when the selected goalkeeper failed to arrive.
At the outbreak of war, he enlisted in Chester and joined the
17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, famously known as The
Footballers' Battalion. As Serjeant F/663 in No. 3 Company, he was
killed on 28 July 1916. Unfortunately, he has no known grave and so his
name is listed on the Thiepval Memorial in France, along with 72,000
others.
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