We continue our tribute to the eight players with Bristol Rovers connections who were killed in the First World War.
ALBERT VICTOR RODGERS
b 1886 Birmingham
d 4.4.1918 killed in action
Début: 6.11.09 v Plymouth Argyle Career: Aston Waverley; 11.1.07 Aston Villa; 1.5.08 Queen’s Park Rangers; 4.5.09 Aston Villa; 5.11.09 Bristol Rovers; 28.4.11 Walsall; 19.8.12 Shrewsbury Town (to May 1915).
In January 1910, Rovers were drawn away to Second Division Grimsby Town in the FA Cup and pulled off an unlikely shock win, Billy Peplow and Albert Rodgers scoring in a 2-0 win.
It was the only goal Rodgers scored for the club, for his 28 Southern League matches at inside forward proved scoreless, 24 games that season and four more in 1910/11.
He did not make the first team at Villa or Walsall, but made two Southern League Division Two appearances for the latter, claiming a goal against Croydon Common.
A wartime fatality whilst serving his country, initially enlisting at Aldershot for the Middlesex Regiment but later in the East Surrey Regiment, Rodgers had earlier contributed nine goals in 27 Southern League games for QPR, including a brace in the 2-2 draw with Millwall in December 1908 and the opening goal as Rovers were defeated 4-2 in January 1909.
His ten Birmingham League goals with Shrewsbury included a hat trick in the April 1915 7-0 thrashing of Wednesbury Athletic.
WILLIAM HOWELL POWELL WESTWOOD
b 4.6.1881 Langley Green, Worcestershire
d 3.5.1917 Bullecourt, France
Début: 4.9.09 v Portsmouth
Career: Thornhill United; Denaby United; 19.8.04 Mexborough Town; 4.7.05 Rotherham County; 17.8.06 Denaby United; 1908 Mexborough Town; 4.5.09 Bristol Rovers; 25.5.14 Mexborough Town (to May 1915).
Apparently unrelated to his namesake at Eastville, Bill Westwood had worked as a coal mine pony driver at Denaby and Conisborough before moving to Bristol.
Having enjoyed Midland League football at Denaby and having represented the Rest of the League against Midlands League champions Lincoln City in April 1909, he appeared in 98 Southern League fixtures for Rovers, without scoring, becoming a fixed name on the teamsheet after recovering from a broken leg, before returning north.
“A full-back of the light and dashing order” (South Yorkshire Times), he lodged with David Harvie at Ernest and Rhoda Miller’s house, 38 Colston Road, Easton and was in the Rovers side which shocked the footballing world by defeating Football League side Grimsby Town 2-0 away from home in the FA Cup in January 1910, as well as the side which beat League champions Aston Villa 2-1 in a friendly in April of that year.
Slight of build but with notable speed, he was considered, according to local contemporary reporters, “resolute and speedy, one of most good natured players in the game and a favourite of the crowd”.
Married in 1909 to Annie Eliza Denham (1883-1914) of 3 Orchard Street, Mexborough, he fathered four children, Elizabeth, Rose, Emily and Willie. Along with most of his teammates, he enlisted at the end of Mexborough’s final game of the 1914/15 season at Gainsborough, into the 2/5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry as 241454, rising to the rank of Corporal.
He was killed in action during the Second Battle of Bullecourt and is commemorated on Bay 7 of the Arras Memorial. Being a widower, his eldest child subsequently lived in Maltby with his mother and the other three stayed in Mexborough with his mother in law; his grandson Dennis Priestley (married with four children and a grand daughter) became Darts World Champion in 1991 and 1994, Elizabeth having married Maurice Priestley (1915-77) in 1940.