JS Greer – A Dedicated Saracens Club Man
John Stanley Greer was a member of the 1913-14 1st XV who served in WW1
A Postcard Home from a Saracen – 4th Feb 1915
Sydney Sylvester’s Postcard to Home 4th February 1915 We have followed Saracens scrum-half Sydney Sylvester in earlier blogs, including ‘Sydney Sylvester Joins Up!’ as he volunteered for duty in 1914 with the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. This body of men had quickly acquired the nickname ‘The Stockbrokers’ Battalion’, due to the very high…
Saracens at War – November 11th, 1914
There was to be no ‘Remembrance Day’ on November 11th 1914, obviously. Wednesday, 11th November 1914 was the one hundredth day of the war, and was instead marked by the launch of von Hindenburg’s offensive against Warsaw in the east, and a final attempt by the Prussian Guard to seize back the Belgian city of…
Sydney Sylvester Joins Up!
Sydney, as we have seen, had fought his way into the Saracens 1st XV in 1909 as a 17-year-old, where his agile running into spaces as the Club’s first-choice half-back had won the appreciation of his teammates. With Britain declaring war against Germany on August 4th, his thoughts clearly turned to how best he could…
The Call to Arms – Voluntary Recruitment in Britain in August 1914
Although Europe’s great powers had not engaged one another in land-based conflict since 1871, Great Britain’s standing armed forces in 1913 numbered 522,000 men (more than 5 times higher than our current levels in 2014, by way of comparison). At the outbreak of war on August 4th 1914, however, none of these troops were stationed…
Introducing Sydney Sylvester, Saracens 1st XV 1909-10 to 1913-14
Sydney Stuart Sylvester sits calmly in the front row of the 1913-14 Saracens team alongside his team-mates, not staring directly into the camera lens, but rather appearing somewhat reflective as the photographer captured this poignant image of the last Club side that would wear Saracens colours before the outbreak of war. He was just 20 years…
