Remembering Swindon Town players who were taken too soon
James Munro was the Swindon captain in the 1890s. Only days after he had taken part in a victory over Tottenham Hotspur, he was dead. One earlier book on Swindon's history puts his death down to falling from a lamp post after over celebrating in the Red Cow, which then stood in Princes Street.
Now it is thought that the flu-like symptoms from which he was suffering and which his wife had described when writing to the Club to explain his absence from training was in fact meningitis. Munro had travelled down from Scotland to join Swindon, tempted by the offer of work as a joiner with Town director Charlie Williams, which he could do alongside that of a professional footballer. A short but stocky midfielder, he was well-liked by the Swindon crowd, and marriage to the daughter of the landlord of the Clifton Hotel made it seem he was in Swindon for the rest of his career.
Sadly, that career was all too short. For those who like conspiracy theories, his wife purchased his grave two days before he died. If disease accounted for James Munro, it was a freak accident that ended the life of former Swindon player Frank Corey Woolford.
Although making sporadic appearances in the Swindon team, which won the Southern League Championship in 1911, he had failed to hold down a regular spot. Moving to Wales, it was during a great storm that he was struck and killed by a falling roof tile at the age of just 22. His funeral at Purton saw over 2,000 turn out to pay tribute to him.
The lie and white colours of the Ton Pentra & Rhondda Football Club, for whom he was playing at the time of his death, were much in evidence, while Peter Chambers, the club captain when Frank had played for them, represented Swindon Town. It was in World War One that Freddie Wheatcroft was killed. He had already scored 96 goals for Town and would undoubtedly have reached 100 if it had not been for the War.
A teacher during his time with Swindon had been divided by a spell at Brentford. He was part of the Southern League Championship-winning teams of 1911 and 1913 and was a good enough player to be capped by England as an amateur international, scoring on his only appearance. He was killed while serving as a Second Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment on 26th November 1917.
He is buried in the Radnor Street cemetery, but a memorial to him also exists in the church at his native town of Alfreton, which reads: 'Tranquil you lie your knightly virtues proved. Your memory hallowed in the Land you Loved.' It was in World War Two that the life and goal-scoring exploits of another Town striker were brought to an end.
Alan Fowler had been the team's leading scorer two seasons in a row and scored the Town's fastest ever hat trick with three in the first six minutes of a match against Luton Town. It was in 1944, during the Normandy campaign, while serving as a Sergeant, that he met his end. His unit were victims of their own success, having overrun an enemy position but been bombed by American aircraft who believed it was still held by the enemy.
Alan is buried in a war grave cemetery in the country where he fell. James Olney was another victim of World War Two. Olney had been signed from Birmingham City in 1936, but a season passed before he made his debut for Swindon in a 2-1 home victory over Exeter City.
He had made himself first choice by the time that War broke out shortly after the outbreak of the War. He was only in his mid-20s and could have expected to have had many years of football ahead of him but for his death in 1944. Strangely, he was signed by Swindon for the 1946 season, although he had already been dead for a year.
The reason for this strange state of affairs was that he had been posted missing, believed killed, when the headquarters of his regiment in France was bombed. Only when the building he had been in was cleared was his body and that of some of his fellow Coldstream Guards discovered. They are now buried in the Gerd Cemetery.
Ralph Hunt had made a name for himself at Norwich City, where he still holds the record for most goals in a season. It was later in his career, in 1959, that Bert Head brought him to Swindon. He had a short but productive stay with Town, scoring fifteen times in 25 appearances before moving on to Port Vale.
It was when he was with Chesterfield, having gone to see Peterborough United, who they were due to play in a Cup match, that he was killed in a car crash. The last person I mention was not really a Swindon player but had played on loan from Manchester United and in the short time he was with the club made himself a fans' favourite, scoring six times in just fifteen appearances in 2002. It was exactly a year to the day of his loan to Swindon when he was about to begin another period out on loan, this time at Watford, that he was killed on the M40 in Oxfordshire.
Jimmy Davis died when the BMW car he was driving ran into the back of a lorry on a foggy night on the motorway. The Coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, and it was perhaps fortunate that no one else was injured. Live every day as though it's your last, they say, and one day you will be right.
For these lads, they were right far too soon.