Steve Bloomer and the real Escape to Victory
by Anton Rippon
Anton Rippon looks back at the life of Derby County's most prolific goalscorer
Every Derby County supporter knows that Steve Bloomer was football’s first super star. He scored a record number of goals for England, endorsed football kit including “the boot that never fails to score”, and when the Queen Mary set out on her maiden voyage his image was part of a giant mural in one of the public rooms portraying famous Britons. His career was spent mostly with the Rams – there was a controversial transfer to Middlesbrough in 1906 but four years later returned to a hero’s welcome, brass band and all, at the Baseball Ground.
Bloomer was renowned for many things – he was also a good cricketer and baseball player – but he was best known for his impeccable sense of timing. When that let him down, it did so in spectacular fashion: on the eve of the First World War he went off to coach in Germany. Thus, in August 1914, he found himself one of several of Britain’s greatest footballers interned in a civilian camp at Ruhleben in the Spandau district of Berlin.
What happened next is a remarkable story, now well told by freelance sportswriter Paul Brown, who, although based in the North-East, has local links.
His father was from Derby and his grandfather ran butchery businesses in Stanley Street and in the Market Hall in the town. Brown has just brought out The Ruhleben Football Association: How Steve Bloomer’s Footballers Survived a First World War Prison Camp. Surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, living in squalor and surviving on meagre rations, Bloomer and others including fellow England internationals Fred Pentland, and Sam Wolstenholme, and John Cameron, the former Scotland international and player-manager of Tottenham Hotspur, found salvation in what they knew best – football.
Bloomer was renowned for many things – he was also a good cricketer and baseball player – but he was best known for his impeccable sense of timing. When that let him down, it did so in spectacular fashion: on the eve of the First World War he went off to coach in Germany. Thus, in August 1914, he found himself one of several of Britain’s greatest footballers interned in a civilian camp at Ruhleben in the Spandau district of Berlin.
What happened next is a remarkable story, now well told by freelance sportswriter Paul Brown, who, although based in the North-East, has local links.
His father was from Derby and his grandfather ran butchery businesses in Stanley Street and in the Market Hall in the town. Brown has just brought out The Ruhleben Football Association: How Steve Bloomer’s Footballers Survived a First World War Prison Camp. Surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, living in squalor and surviving on meagre rations, Bloomer and others including fellow England internationals Fred Pentland, and Sam Wolstenholme, and John Cameron, the former Scotland international and player-manager of Tottenham Hotspur, found salvation in what they knew best – football.
Every Derby County supporter knows that Steve Bloomer was football’s first super star. He scored a record number of goals for England, endorsed football kit including “the boot that never fails to score”, and when the Queen Mary set out on her maiden voyage his image was part of a giant mural in one of the public rooms portraying famous Britons. His career was spent mostly with the Rams – there was a controversial transfer to Middlesbrough in 1906 but four years later returned to a hero’s welcome, brass band and all, at the Baseball Ground.
Bloomer was renowned for many things – he was also a good cricketer and baseball player – but he was best known for his impeccable sense of timing. When that let him down, it did so in spectacular fashion: on the eve of the First World War he went off to coach in Germany. Thus, in August 1914, he found himself one of several of Britain’s greatest footballers interned in a civilian camp at Ruhleben in the Spandau district of Berlin.
What happened next is a remarkable story, now well told by freelance sportswriter Paul Brown, who, although based in the North-East, has local links.
His father was from Derby and his grandfather ran butchery businesses in Stanley Street and in the Market Hall in the town. Brown has just brought out The Ruhleben Football Association: How Steve Bloomer’s Footballers Survived a First World War Prison Camp. Surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, living in squalor and surviving on meagre rations, Bloomer and others including fellow England internationals Fred Pentland, and Sam Wolstenholme, and John Cameron, the former Scotland international and player-manager of Tottenham Hotspur, found salvation in what they knew best – football.
Bloomer was renowned for many things – he was also a good cricketer and baseball player – but he was best known for his impeccable sense of timing. When that let him down, it did so in spectacular fashion: on the eve of the First World War he went off to coach in Germany. Thus, in August 1914, he found himself one of several of Britain’s greatest footballers interned in a civilian camp at Ruhleben in the Spandau district of Berlin.
What happened next is a remarkable story, now well told by freelance sportswriter Paul Brown, who, although based in the North-East, has local links.
His father was from Derby and his grandfather ran butchery businesses in Stanley Street and in the Market Hall in the town. Brown has just brought out The Ruhleben Football Association: How Steve Bloomer’s Footballers Survived a First World War Prison Camp. Surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, living in squalor and surviving on meagre rations, Bloomer and others including fellow England internationals Fred Pentland, and Sam Wolstenholme, and John Cameron, the former Scotland international and player-manager of Tottenham Hotspur, found salvation in what they knew best – football.
They bartered for balls, marked out pitches with lime, and formed the Ruhleben Football Association that ran league and cup competitions involving hundreds of players and watched by thousands of spectators. Ruhleben was a former horse racing track now with some 4,500 men who were crammed into 11 filthy stables. The guards were cruel, food was scarce, and the camp commandant was incompetent. Yet somehow, as this “Great War for Civilisation” raged on, Bloomer and his fellow prisoners, through football, managed to establish a kind of order and normality.
A handful of inmates even managed to escape. Bloomer later summed it up: “Myself and many others would not have survived without football.”
Bloomer himself did not have to escape. In March 1918 he was allowed to leave for neutral Holland. He later coached in Holland and in Spain and worked for Derby County. He died in Derby in April 1938. Having read the book, I would certainly now like to see the movie. Paul Brown’s remarkably detailed account of this remarkable enterprise, is, I venture to suggest, the real-life Escape To Victory and worthy of consideration by a filmmaker.
The Ruhleben Football Association: How Steve Bloomer’s Footballers Survived a First World War Prison Camp, Goal Post Books.
Derbyshire Live - 20th January 2020
My Father and the Lost Legend
by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa
It was during my days as a Pear Tree schoolboy that I first came across another of my great heroes in life. As we all walked along in our own little detached groups I walked alone bouncing the knuckles of my right hand gently along the exterior walls of the Baseball Ground having begun to do so from the corner of Vulcan Street opposite the Baseball Hotel Pub. After a short while, I stopped dead in my tracks close to one of the main entrance doors of the Baseball Ground. In front of me screwed into the brickwork was a very old weather-beaten brown metal plaque with some chipped gold etched writing on it. A name then caught my eye. It read:
In Memory of Steve Bloomer 1874-1938
This tablet was erected by many of his friends and admirers as an appreciation of his services to Derby County Football Club and his country. Also as a tribute to one of the greatest players the game has ever produced.
This tablet was erected by many of his friends and admirers as an appreciation of his services to Derby County Football Club and his country. Also as a tribute to one of the greatest players the game has ever produced.
I was dumbstruck. Who? I read it again. Steve Bloomer. Steve Who? Who was this guy? Who was Steve Bloomer? I shouted towards my relations in front of me and also to those that were still behind me. “Come over here and look at this”, I said. We all gathered around the plaque. Who is he I asked? Who cares, someone replied. “He died in 1938 he’s long since dead, keep walking”. I quickly calculated that he was 64 when he died and had he still been alive then, he would have been about 115 or so.
But who was this guy? None of us had ever heard of him. Suddenly a football hit me and disentangled my topknot into a long drawn out plait. The others laughed then continued walking towards the leisure centre. I hung around the plaque for a bit longer. I stood there mesmerised as I grabbed at my loose plait and tried to tie it up again but this time tighter. I made sure not to forget his name by continuously repeating it. Steve Bloomer. Steve – Bloomer. I would not forget him. I didn’t want to forget him. He must have been some player? ‘One of the greatest players the game has ever produced’. That was something quite special to be said about a footballer I had never even heard of. During that period of my life, the greatest players that ever played the game in my own little world were Pele, Maradona and John Barnes.
Even though Pele played long before my time everyone I had heard of his name, especially, because of the film Escape to Victory and his mesmeric bicycle kick. Diego Maradona was also in a league of his own having recently won the World Cup with Argentina, singlehandedly you could say. And John Barnes, well every one I knew who loved football had seen the video clip of that goal he had scored in the Maracana when England beat the mighty Brazil.
Steve Bloomer had now joined my blinkered, elite little club. Steve Bloomer was something special indeed, especially in my book. Unfortunately as I stood, rooted beside the plaque I then began to experience a feeling of overwhelming sadness followed by a flood of thoughts. Why didn’t any one of us know who he was? Did he have any children? Surely they would be dead now too? What about grandchildren? Would anybody alive now still remember him? Then it hit me and I’m not talking about another flying football. What if the only piece of evidence that he ever lived was this small neglected brown plaque? What would happen to his memory if somebody stole it? Would that mean he would be forgotten forever? Was this plaque now the only solitary mention of his existence? A plaque, which would have been very easy to miss if you had not been bouncing your knuckles along the Baseball Ground walls.
I walked away from the plaque a little upset and made my way slowly towards the field to join the others. Just as I set foot on the grass my mood lifted as I shouted out, ‘Bloomer’s here!’. Steve Bloomer was etched into my mind just like his name on the weather-beaten plaque. His name would also be scribbled onto the first piece of scrap paper I could find when I got home later that evening so that I would not forget. I really felt for him when I stumbled across his plaque that day. There he was, all alone in the middle of Pear Tree. The forgotten man of English Football.
The very next day after school had finished I dashed off to Pear Tree library, which was at the top of Portland Street past Jolly Fagman’s news agency. It was my only hope of finding out who Steve Bloomer was, as a teacher I asked could not give me more than I already knew. Once in the library I did not have much to go on other than I knew he played for Derby County and England no doubt. It did not take me very long to track him down. Having found the football section I quickly found a book about the history of Derby County Football Club. I looked up his name in the index. Bloomer. Then flicked to the first page he was mentioned on. And there he was staring right back at me almost as if he was watching me. It was an old picture of a ghostly pale man in a white jersey wearing an England Cap. Stephen Bloomer was his full name, born in 1874 and died in 1938 as the plaque had said. I had found him. I had rediscovered him. Forgotten no more. I was pleased with myself. Even though he had been dead for nearly 50 years in a way I felt like I had brought him back to life just by remembering him. Having previously thought his exploits and his memory might have died with him. As I read the little information there was about Bloomer in the book I was absolutely amazed to read that he had scored 28 goals for England in 23 international appearances. That was remarkable. I also found out that he was Derby County’s all-time record goalscorer behind another man I remember my Father mentioning to me every now and again, Kevin Hector.
Up until that age I did not really know much about Derby County other than the exploits of ‘King’ Arthur Cox and his squad. I also at the time had no idea that Brian Clough once managed Derby County. Although I did know that Brian Clough was the then manager of our fierce local rivals Nottingham Forest.
28 goals in 23 England appearances is all I needed to know about Steve Bloomer so I could tell the world about his greatness, in my case ‘the world’ that meant my small Pear Tree social circle of friends and family. I could now tell them all that the greatest player that ever lived played for my team, Derby County Football Club. Many people I told about his feats were not very interested but it did not dampen my enthusiasm to share. I did not care, as I was happy enough to keep his name alive.
After visiting the library and finding out more about Steve Bloomer’s amazing goal scoring records I always made sure to look out for the plaque whenever I would pass by it and give it a little tap with my knuckle and a nod of my head. In my own personal little way I tried to keep the torch of Bloomer’s legacy still burning. However over time the thought of Bloomer’s memory vanishing altogether returned and filled me with previous anxieties. Again I would think, ‘What if someone stole his plaque? Would the memories die too?’ At one point I even considered taking a screwdriver down to Shaftesbury Crescent and remove the plaque from the wall myself and then sneak it back home and keep it safe under my bed. The thought of it disappearing reinforced my thoughts that the plaque should really be put in a place where it was safe from vandalism and theft: where people could see it and appreciate it in greater numbers knowing its significance. Thousands would have passed it on a Baseball Ground match day no doubt but how many would have actually stopped to read what it said? It belonged in a museum of some sort I felt.
Steve Bloomer and his tribute plaque left a lasting memory in my heart on the day I first came across it. I would reflect back on that day many years later when I had reached a crossroads in my life. That plaque saved my life.
Steve Bloomer: the Destroying Angel
by Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa
Steve Bloomer had boot deals more than 100 years ago and his goals put him up there with Cristiano Ronaldo... he was a prisoner of war who became known as the 'Destroying Angel'
More than a century has passed since Steve Bloomer last hit the target but when Cristiano Ronaldo sets a glittering new record and the all-time goal charts are reproduced, he is never far awayThe first of Ronaldo's two goals at Celta Vigo last month eased the Real Madrid striker clear of Jimmy Greaves at the top of the list for league goals scored in Europe's top five leagues. Next came Gerd Muller and Lionel Messi. Then Bloomer. Still fifth and in elite company nearly 80 years after his death.
His Derby County record of 332 goals in all competitions may stand for ever. It is a staggering 131 clear of Kevin Hector in second and 271 clear of Chris Martin, the current player with the most goals for the Rams. Although his legend is proudly preserved at Pride Park thanks to the efforts of various people over the last 25 years, Bloomer's achievements are worthy of national acclaim. He was born in Cradley in Worcestershire in 1874, the youngest of six children, and moved with his family across the Midlands to Derby at the age of five.
His father Caleb found work at Ley's Malleable Castings foundry, owned by Sir Francis Ley, who also owned the adjacent plot of land where they first played baseball and later football. Some foundry buildings still stand but the Baseball Ground, home to Derby County for 102 years, is no more; replaced by 149 houses and a 15ft sculpture in stone and steel, vandalised by marker-pen scrawl around the base and surrounded by overgrown grass verges. Bloomer turned professional at the age of 18 and reluctantly retired at the age of 40.
Bloomer has an amazing scoring record, which still remains in the top five ever. Two spells with the Rams were split by four years at Middlesbrough, where the inside right also boasted a decent strike-rate of 62 goals in 130 games. He was an England captain, capped 23 times in an era of three international games a year, and scored 28 goals for his country which survived in the all time top 10 until 2013 when he was nudged out by Frank Lampard's goal in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland.
Bloomer featured on a vintage cigarette card issued in 1906 and was a genuine celebrity at the dawn of the 20th century. With boyish looks and a pasty complexion combined with his deadly finishing ability, he was known as the 'Destroying Angel'. Off the pitch, he pioneered commercial endorsements such as his 'Lucky' boots and Perfegrippe, 'the boot that took the football world by storm' with its moulded studs. A tan coloured pair can be found in the display cabinet in the reception at Pride Park alongside assorted cups and medals from Derby's heritage as well as manager Brian Clough's telegram to Sam Longson in 1971 informing his chairman, who was on holiday, that he had signed Colin Todd for a British record of £175,000 and was 'running short of cash'.
To commemorate his England goal record, Bloomer was photographed by the FA in 1905 wearing his international kit, complete with a resplendent pair of white leather boots. In it he strikes a pose Ronaldo might approve of, with hand on hip, eyes fixed in the middle distance. Trophies, however, eluded Bloomer. By the time he hung up his Luckys and Perfegrippes, he had only a Division Two title to his name, having been on the losing side in three FA Cup finals and finished as a runner-up in Division One in 1896. He went on to coach abroad and led the Basques of Real Union to victory in Spain's Copa del Rey in 1924 when his team beat Real Madrid in the final. Ten years earlier, he had been coaching in Berlin when war broke out. He was held for more than three years at the Ruhleben prison camp and was there when a letter arrived from his wife Sarah with news of the death of Violet, the second of their four daughters, at the age of 17.
Bloomer was a civilian prisoner of war during WWI, and he played football to keep depression at bay. He was encouraged to start playing football once again inside the camp. He would later acknowledge the game saved his life. 'He was football's equivalent of WG Grace,' said Peter Seddon, who wrote the first biography of Bloomer, entitled Destroying Angel: Steve Bloomer, England's First Football Hero. 'Probably because of cricket's more scholarly approach, he did not survive the test of time as well. 'Steve Bloomer had been forgotten and a lot of keen football people might still say "Steve who?" but this great personality who went off the radar has been resurrected and brought back into focus.' Seddon's book was published in 1999 and became a key to the modern revival of the Bloomer legend.
A bronze figure was installed beside the home dug-out, mounted on red bricks from the Baseball Ground and featuring a replica of the original plaque once fixed to the wall beside the directors' entrance at the old stadium. Its unique position by the pitch was inspired by the song Steve Bloomer's Watching written by Derby fans Mark Tewson and Martyn Miller in 1996 and adopted as the club anthem as the Rams moved home. The statue catches the eye when the TV cameras pan past the stressed-out features of different managers longing for a striker of Bloomer's calibre to satisfy the demands of the club's current owner, Mel Morris.
The bronze bust was unveiled in 2009 by two of Bloomer's grandchildren: Steve Richards, a sports reporter who once ghosted Leeds and England striker Allan Clarke's autobiography Goals Are My Business, and Alan Quantrill. Bloomer's eldest daughter Hetty married England international Alf Quantrill, who played for Derby, Preston, Bradford Park Avenue and Nottingham Forest. Steve and Alan have since died, leaving great grandchildren as the closest living relatives to Bloomer. There is a branch of lineage in Norway. They all cherish his memory and tend his grave in Derby's Nottingham Road cemetery but there is no family trove of memorabilia. They sold off the 19 caps they owned at an auction in 1994. They were bought for little more than £8,000 by Michael Knighton, a Derbyshire-born businessman who was then chairman of Carlisle after his failed takeover at Manchester United.
Bloomer wore his own 'Lucky Strike' boots and scored 332 goals in all competitions for Derby. This money was put towards creating Derby's first permanent memorial to Bloomer, a short marble pillar, curiously located in the Lock-Up Yard near the city centre fish market where it stands today. Those international caps later turned up as part of a collection of Bloomer artefacts, also including portraits and photographs, which sold at auction in December 2016 for £320,000.
Dhindsa is still on the case, fighting for a blue plaque to be fixed to one of his old houses or the old school building, now Wallis Fashions, at the junction of Pear Tree Street and Portland Street, where Bloomer would have emerged as a boy, within sight of the Baseball Ground. No longer forgotten. The Bloomer legend is strong and getting stronger. Maybe one day there will be a bust to welcome visitors at East Midlands Airport to rival Ronaldo's in Madeira.
- Steve Bloomer is fifth on the list for league goals in Europe's top five divisions
- He is Derby's all-time top goalscorer and is still well clear over 100 years later
- Bloomer was known as the 'Destroying Angel' and even had his own boot deal
- He was held at a prison camp in WWI and turned to football to fight depression.
More than a century has passed since Steve Bloomer last hit the target but when Cristiano Ronaldo sets a glittering new record and the all-time goal charts are reproduced, he is never far awayThe first of Ronaldo's two goals at Celta Vigo last month eased the Real Madrid striker clear of Jimmy Greaves at the top of the list for league goals scored in Europe's top five leagues. Next came Gerd Muller and Lionel Messi. Then Bloomer. Still fifth and in elite company nearly 80 years after his death.
His Derby County record of 332 goals in all competitions may stand for ever. It is a staggering 131 clear of Kevin Hector in second and 271 clear of Chris Martin, the current player with the most goals for the Rams. Although his legend is proudly preserved at Pride Park thanks to the efforts of various people over the last 25 years, Bloomer's achievements are worthy of national acclaim. He was born in Cradley in Worcestershire in 1874, the youngest of six children, and moved with his family across the Midlands to Derby at the age of five.
His father Caleb found work at Ley's Malleable Castings foundry, owned by Sir Francis Ley, who also owned the adjacent plot of land where they first played baseball and later football. Some foundry buildings still stand but the Baseball Ground, home to Derby County for 102 years, is no more; replaced by 149 houses and a 15ft sculpture in stone and steel, vandalised by marker-pen scrawl around the base and surrounded by overgrown grass verges. Bloomer turned professional at the age of 18 and reluctantly retired at the age of 40.
Bloomer has an amazing scoring record, which still remains in the top five ever. Two spells with the Rams were split by four years at Middlesbrough, where the inside right also boasted a decent strike-rate of 62 goals in 130 games. He was an England captain, capped 23 times in an era of three international games a year, and scored 28 goals for his country which survived in the all time top 10 until 2013 when he was nudged out by Frank Lampard's goal in a friendly against the Republic of Ireland.
Bloomer featured on a vintage cigarette card issued in 1906 and was a genuine celebrity at the dawn of the 20th century. With boyish looks and a pasty complexion combined with his deadly finishing ability, he was known as the 'Destroying Angel'. Off the pitch, he pioneered commercial endorsements such as his 'Lucky' boots and Perfegrippe, 'the boot that took the football world by storm' with its moulded studs. A tan coloured pair can be found in the display cabinet in the reception at Pride Park alongside assorted cups and medals from Derby's heritage as well as manager Brian Clough's telegram to Sam Longson in 1971 informing his chairman, who was on holiday, that he had signed Colin Todd for a British record of £175,000 and was 'running short of cash'.
To commemorate his England goal record, Bloomer was photographed by the FA in 1905 wearing his international kit, complete with a resplendent pair of white leather boots. In it he strikes a pose Ronaldo might approve of, with hand on hip, eyes fixed in the middle distance. Trophies, however, eluded Bloomer. By the time he hung up his Luckys and Perfegrippes, he had only a Division Two title to his name, having been on the losing side in three FA Cup finals and finished as a runner-up in Division One in 1896. He went on to coach abroad and led the Basques of Real Union to victory in Spain's Copa del Rey in 1924 when his team beat Real Madrid in the final. Ten years earlier, he had been coaching in Berlin when war broke out. He was held for more than three years at the Ruhleben prison camp and was there when a letter arrived from his wife Sarah with news of the death of Violet, the second of their four daughters, at the age of 17.
Bloomer was a civilian prisoner of war during WWI, and he played football to keep depression at bay. He was encouraged to start playing football once again inside the camp. He would later acknowledge the game saved his life. 'He was football's equivalent of WG Grace,' said Peter Seddon, who wrote the first biography of Bloomer, entitled Destroying Angel: Steve Bloomer, England's First Football Hero. 'Probably because of cricket's more scholarly approach, he did not survive the test of time as well. 'Steve Bloomer had been forgotten and a lot of keen football people might still say "Steve who?" but this great personality who went off the radar has been resurrected and brought back into focus.' Seddon's book was published in 1999 and became a key to the modern revival of the Bloomer legend.
A bronze figure was installed beside the home dug-out, mounted on red bricks from the Baseball Ground and featuring a replica of the original plaque once fixed to the wall beside the directors' entrance at the old stadium. Its unique position by the pitch was inspired by the song Steve Bloomer's Watching written by Derby fans Mark Tewson and Martyn Miller in 1996 and adopted as the club anthem as the Rams moved home. The statue catches the eye when the TV cameras pan past the stressed-out features of different managers longing for a striker of Bloomer's calibre to satisfy the demands of the club's current owner, Mel Morris.
The bronze bust was unveiled in 2009 by two of Bloomer's grandchildren: Steve Richards, a sports reporter who once ghosted Leeds and England striker Allan Clarke's autobiography Goals Are My Business, and Alan Quantrill. Bloomer's eldest daughter Hetty married England international Alf Quantrill, who played for Derby, Preston, Bradford Park Avenue and Nottingham Forest. Steve and Alan have since died, leaving great grandchildren as the closest living relatives to Bloomer. There is a branch of lineage in Norway. They all cherish his memory and tend his grave in Derby's Nottingham Road cemetery but there is no family trove of memorabilia. They sold off the 19 caps they owned at an auction in 1994. They were bought for little more than £8,000 by Michael Knighton, a Derbyshire-born businessman who was then chairman of Carlisle after his failed takeover at Manchester United.
Bloomer wore his own 'Lucky Strike' boots and scored 332 goals in all competitions for Derby. This money was put towards creating Derby's first permanent memorial to Bloomer, a short marble pillar, curiously located in the Lock-Up Yard near the city centre fish market where it stands today. Those international caps later turned up as part of a collection of Bloomer artefacts, also including portraits and photographs, which sold at auction in December 2016 for £320,000.
Dhindsa is still on the case, fighting for a blue plaque to be fixed to one of his old houses or the old school building, now Wallis Fashions, at the junction of Pear Tree Street and Portland Street, where Bloomer would have emerged as a boy, within sight of the Baseball Ground. No longer forgotten. The Bloomer legend is strong and getting stronger. Maybe one day there will be a bust to welcome visitors at East Midlands Airport to rival Ronaldo's in Madeira.
Daily Mail - 6th June 2017