Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, Wolves Academy players have been paying their respects and educating themselves on those who served from an Old Gold persuasion.
Last Friday the club’s under-12 players planted a tree at Compton Park in memory of the Wolves players who served in both the First and Second World Wars, with vicar Anne Martin present as the youngsters read out the names of each individual, as well as a poem to commemorate their feelings towards Remembrance.
The moment of reflection provided an appropriate end to a week of events surrounding Remembrance for the group. The youngsters visited the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, attended a Wolves Elders session and ran a cake sale for Compton Park players and staff to raise money for the Wolves Foundation initiative.
The work is in conjunction with the Premier League’s yearly Christmas Day truce initiative and allows the club’s younger players to learn about the past at a particularly poignant time of the year.
Natalie Deakin, head of education at Wolves Academy, said: “It's really important that we're looking after them as potential players, but also nice, super rounded people. That's really important to us and the boys have worked really hard on this project.
“We feel it's really important that the boys have got some perspective of actually what happened in the past and what is going on now, and what's out there around Remembrance. So, we will always look to make sure that we're getting these extra bits of education into them.
“Some of them do things at school, but we always take part in the Premier League initiative and also make it around Wolves and the players, so they feel really part of the Wolves community, and they've been researching players, looking at their contributions to Wolves, but obviously also during the wars.”
The theme of this year’s Premier League Truce initiative is veterans, and for the Wolves youngsters, two individuals provided their area of research.
Major Frank Buckley served at the Great War, commanding the Football Battalion, and later managed Wolves between 1927 and 1944, taking the club into the top division and laying the foundations for the historic 1950s era.
Meanwhile, Harry Robotham was born in Heath Town and played for Wolves before enlisting in the Football Battalion and took part in the Battle of the Somme before being killed at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette.
Both Buckley and Robotham piqued the interest of the under-12s, who were hard at work in the classroom learning about both, but also broadening their knowledge away from their desks.
“We’ve had loads of stuff going on and the boys have really, really engaged in it. Some have got some prior knowledge from school, but some have come to us really fresh, with not having anything. So, it's been really interesting to see them react to that.
“Friday was around remembering Wolves players who served during the wars which was really important. They read out all the players' names who'd served during the First and Second World Wars and read their poem. It felt was a really nice, fitting ceremony to cap the week of Remembrance and activities the boys have been doing.
“We took them to the National Arboretum to have a look at the Truce Memorial – the specific football one and the Football Battalion that served during the war. We saw King Charles and he gave us all a wave, which was lovely.
“The boys created a memorial art piece around Poppy Day, with a centrepiece around soldiers’ boots. They've talked about how it felt to remember past players, as some had granddads or great grandads who served during wars.
“They also visited the Wolves Elders, seeing what goes on during a project around the elderly, having a chat around their war stories and playing a game of bingo, which was nice. The cake sale then raised money for the Wolves Elders, but also a Wolves veteran charity as well.”
Members of the Wolves first-team, including Jorgen Strand Larsen, attended the cake sale to interact with the young players, which added further value to the event.
Away from the classroom, all category one academies and Premier League clubs take part in the Remembrance Tournament, with the winners competing in a larger tournament in Ypres in Belgium – a tournament Wolves have featured in previously.
However, Wolves staff ensure their work goes beyond Remembrance Sunday, creating well-round people, as well as footballers.
“It's all part of a wider piece that we do with the boys and we have different age groups that will concentrate on different projects. We've got the under-12s looking at the truce and our under-14s are looking at a project around the Holocaust, and a couple of boys will go to Poland in May to visit Auschwitz.
“The boys have just taken part in their education sessions around Black History Month as well, so they’ve worked really hard and have all contributed well.”
