{"id":3674,"date":"2014-05-11T21:11:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-11T20:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/?p=2808"},"modified":"2014-05-11T21:11:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T20:11:19","slug":"football-remembers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/live\/2014\/05\/football-remembers\/","title":{"rendered":"Football Remembers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian McClory\u00a0looks at\u00a0Bruce Bairnsfather, participant in one of history’s most famous football matches.<\/p>\n

\"Bruce<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a campaign to remember football played between the British and Germans in no mans land on Christmas Eve 1914 – http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-27327162<\/a><\/p>\n

One man who took part was Bruce Bairnsfather and his blue plaque (pictured) is in Sterling Street SW7 This was the house of Bruce Bairnsfather (1888-1959), who was a cartoonist, and sports a blue plaque giving that information. The fact that it shows that he was a cartoonist doesn\u2019t tell you very much so here\u2019s the story.<\/p>\n

During the First World War Bairnsfather , who was an\u00a0captain in the trenches on the Western Front, took part in the famous football match between the Germans and the Allies at Christmas 1914. \u00a0 He drew a picture of himself trying to buy buttons from a German officer.<\/p>\n

His series of cartoons centred around the British soldier whom he depicted as a thick set, corpulent man with a moustache who was always moaning and whom he called Ole Bill.<\/p>\n

After the war many of these men joined the police force and it is only one of a series of explanations why the current day police are referred to as Old Bill.<\/p>\n

Widespread use of the term Ole Bill is confirmed by the name plate on the London Transport bus used to take the men towards the front line.\u00a0 It is in the Imperial War Museum.<\/p>\n

\"olde<\/a><\/p>\n

Brian visits Bruce Bairnsfather’s plaque on his Hidden Knightsbridge walk –\u00a0you can join him\u00a0\u00a0on 18th May<\/a> \u00a07th June<\/a>\u00a0 and 21st June<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian McClory\u00a0looks at\u00a0Bruce Bairnsfather, participant in one of history’s most famous football matches. There is a campaign to remember football played between the British and Germans in no mans land on Christmas Eve 1914 – http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-27327162 One man who took part was Bruce Bairnsfather and his blue plaque (pictured) is in Sterling Street SW7 This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFootball Remembers - Footprints of London<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/footprintsoflondon.com\/live\/2014\/05\/football-remembers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Football Remembers - Footprints of London\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brian McClory\u00a0looks at\u00a0Bruce Bairnsfather, participant in one of history’s most famous football matches. 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