On this day in Yorkshire

January 20, 1915

Fred Bonsor, the once-famous rugby international, writing from Clyde, Alberta, to Bradford, says:- “What sickens me most about England is to see in the papers reports of football matches, and big crowds spending their money and time watching a lot of skunks play when the Empire is in such danger.

Every man under 40 attending football matches I would rush into training camps to swell Kitchener’s Army, but I am afraid you are too soft in England, and fools and cowards will continue to play and enjoy all the pleasures and luxuries at their command whilst others are spilling their blood on foreign soil for the honour of their country.”

Bonsor served through the South Africa War, and volunteered this time with the Canadian contingent, but was too old.