We Will Remember Them 

The following servicemen had at some point in their careers, played for Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club, and all tragically lost their lives serving their country. 

Albert Edward Bonass: In June 1939, Albert arrived at Loftus Road from Chesterfield. He went on to make 61 appearances for the R’s. 

He was one of the RAF crew who lost their lives when their Stirling bomber crashed near York, in October 1945. Albert was married with one daughter. 

Albert ‘Ben’ Butler: He was the first professional footballer in the ranks of the 17th Middlesex to lose his life. 

Frank Cannon made 29 appearances for the Rangers before moving on to West Ham United. Aged just 27, Sgt. Frank Cannon died on 15th February 1916. He was buried at Potijze Burial Ground in Belgium.  

Charlie Clarke made six appearances for the R’s between 1936 and 1938. He was a Luton Town player at the time of his death in 1943. 

Joseph Dines won more than thirty amateur caps for England, and he also played in all three matches for the Great Britain team in the 1912 Olympics, which earned him a gold medal. He was cut down by machine gun fire on the Western Front in September 1918. 

Albert Edwards made 17 first team appearances for the Rangers between 1902 and 1905. He lost his life in the Great War. 

Alan Fowler guested a few times for the R’s in1940/41, and also during the 1943/44 season. Sgt. Fowler was on Swindon Town’s books when he was killed during the D-Day landings. 

Oscar Horace Stanley Linkson: He joined the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and went missing during the battle to take Guillemont Station. Oscar’s body was never found. His mother never accepted that her son was dead, choosing to believe that he had run away to escape what she had believed to be an unhappy marriage. 

Evelyn Henry Lintott was signed from Plymouth as an amateur in 1907, and he made his Rangers debut later that year. 

He was QPR’s first full England international and went on to make seven appearances for his country. 

Lt. Lintott was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme after leading his platoon of the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Leeds Pals’, over the top. 

Robert McLaren Law: His one appearance was made in the final Southern League match of the 1910/11 season against Plymouth Argyle. Pte. Law served with the 4th Battalion Cameron Highlanders. He died from his wounds in 1915. 

John H. Pennifer joined QPR in 1913 and after making nine appearances, he enlisted the following year. John lost his life at the Battle of the Somme.  

Albert Rogers joined the Rangers in 1907 and later played for Bristol Rovers. Albert was killed in action in April 1918. 

H. V. Thornton’s QPR debut came in 1911. After serving in the Army, Harry later joined the RAF, and on 10th May 1918, Lieutenant Thornton was killed whilst flying over the Austrian lines in Italy. 

John Tosswill made three appearances for the Rangers. He joined the Royal Engineers and became a dispatch rider. Corporal Tosswill passed away on the operating table at the Eastbourne Military Hospital in 1915. 

And sadly, 21-year-old Flying Officer Ernest Edwards must also be included after Colin Woodley recently came across an article in the Acton Gazette from May 1944. 

“Eddie” was born in 1923 and grew up at 12 Walton Gardens in Acton. He was an all-round sportsman, and he captained the QPR Juniors in 1941.  

After joining the RAF, he became a Navigator/Wireless Operator in 605 Squadron. 

He and the crew were reported missing on a mission to the Dinard and Avranches area. The date of his death was later recorded as being on 22nd February 1944. Ernest was buried in the Cherbourg Old Communal Cemetery.  

Also to be remembered are two R’s fans who sadly lost their lives during the conflict in Afghanistan: 

Lance Corporal Tom Keogh came from the Hallfield Estate in Paddington and was just 24 when he died from a gunshot wound in Sangin, Helmand Province.  

And acting Corporal David Barnsdale – 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosives Ordnance Disposal). He was the same age as Tom when he lost his life clearing explosive devices. His parents laid a wreath on the centre-circle, prior to the Burnley home game in 2010. 

Apart from this terrible loss of life, these former Rangers players were amongst those seriously wounded: 

Dennis Higgins – He played 30 times for QPR and later joined the Sportsman’s Battalion. He was so badly injured at Ypres in Flanders that he never played again.  

Lieutenant Harrie Barron, RGA – The Irish Independent reported on 7th March 1916 that it was learned by his mother that: ‘He is suffering from serious face wounds, inflicted by a grenade. 

He was a distinguished Trinity student and a prominent footballer, having played for the University and Shelbourne Clubs, and subsequently, in England, assisted Queen’s Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday as an amateur.’ 

Ralph Cleverly, amateur player, serving with the Queen’s Westminsters, was invalided home after suffering a shrapnel wound. 

James McNaught – The following article appeared in the Middlesex Chronicle on 23rd October 1915: ‘Corporal James McNaught, of the 5th Royal Fusiliers, son of Mrs Kemble, of 8 Lansdowne Road, Hounslow, and who in pre-war days was a well-known professional footballer playing for Queen’s Park Rangers, is now lying wounded in hospital. 

He was first wounded at the battle of the Marne, and on recovering was again sent to Fance, receiving his second wound in the fighting around Ypres.  

He had been operated on several times, but it is feared that one of his legs would have to be amputated.’ 

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM. 

Steve Russell 

Shown above is the Tezze British Cemetery where Harold Thornton was laid to rest. Thanks to Colin Woodley & Gordon Macey (Rest in Peace) for their assistance