War Memorial to fallen Rovers players at the KM

[Dagenham Rover]

Bristol Red Rover that was the page I was trying to link if you click on Jack Hall the bloke went on to manage Feyenord a couple of times PSV  and others don't know how succesfully though.

Sorry posting on my phone and its ruddy useless

[The Red Baron]

Sorry I've been behind the curve on this- I've been offline quite a bit lately and am doing my usual "getting away from football" once the season ends.

As far as I am aware the only Rovers' player who appeared for the club in the Football League and was killed in action is Wilf Shaw. Major Booth, better known as a Yorkshire and England cricketer, did play briefly for Rovers in the Midland League.

As we don't have full records of all the players who appeared in the Midland League, it would be difficult to compile a definitive list. The only way to do so would be to work back through those Doncastrians who were killed in the Wars and then check their obituaries in the local press to see if they had played for Rovers in the past.

I am pretty certain that Frank Pepper (who died in 1914) and Joe Bowman (d.1941) were not war casualties.

[The Red Baron]

One is the lack of information on the history of the club that the club actually holds. I understood that a lot of the archive just "disappeared" in about 2002. 

In that case we'd probably have to ask about the FA archives, everybody registered with Rovers should be on record there somewhere..?

The "FA Archives" are pretty useless. Most of their stuff was destroyed at various times, although the FA's own historian, David Barber, has done a decent job of building up historical material. However, he has had to rely on other sources than the FA itself.

[les@donr]

I got the following email from a researcher at Sheffield Archives.

Dear Mr Smart
Thank you for your E-Mail regarding Doncaster Rovers players who died in the World Wars.
I am not aware of any records held that will list these.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website at www.cwgc.org lists those killed in both wars by surname.
It can be very difficult if you just have a name which might be common to match it to a name on the CWGC without knowing the soldiers number and regiment.
In addition the CWGC website might not necessarily indicate that the person killed was a footballer.
There is a book held by us that lists those killed in World War One from Sheffield but again there will be no indication that they happen to have been a footballer and as with a lot of lists of this kind it is not complete.
There is a website in progress that is attempting to provide information on every Sheffield soldier so if the Doncaster Rovers player was from Sheffield he might be on there at www.sheffieldsoldierww1.co.uk
So unless you know of any of the Rovers players who were killed were from Sheffield (and you would need a name) then we cannot help any further.
You probably would know more than I do about this but you would need if one exists an A-Z of Doncaster Rovers players similar of which have been produced for other clubs.
I can only suggest contacting if you have not already done so  Doncaster Archives at doncaster.archives@doncaster.gov.uk or the Doncaster Local Studies Library at library.doncaster.gov.uk/web/arena/local-studies
Yours Sincerely
Graeme Siddall
Archive Assistant.