Punch-ups, sex scandals, flash lifestyle…but footie star Leigh Roose was REAL hero who died fighting in Battle of the Somme
Goalie from 100 years ago may share some scandalous traits with today's players but in fact he couldn't be more different
WITH his cheeky charm, on-the-pitch punch-ups and a scandalous affair with a famous singer, 1900s football star Leigh Roose could hold his own with some of today’s players.
But there is a big difference between the Stoke City goalie from 100 years ago and the current pampered mega-rich ranks of top British players.
For Leigh bravely left football behind to fight for his country in the Battle of the Somme — one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, with more than a million Allied and German casualties during more than four months of fighting.
On the first day alone — 100 years ago tomorrow — nearly 20,000 British soldiers died.
The Somme’s catastrophic death rate illustrated why World War One spared hardly any men from call-up, including our leading sports stars.
Hundreds of them were killed, including gold medal-winning Olympic athletes, top-flight footballers, rugby stars, world champion boxers, rowers, golfers and Test cricketers.
To mark the Somme’s centenary the Royal British Legion has launched Sport Remembers, a campaign commemorating sports stars’ sacrifices.
It includes stories of 100 sportsmen who fought at the Somme. Among them is Leigh — one of the most extraordinary men ever to play the game, yet someone who most people today have never heard of.
Women hung about hoping to spend a night with him
The hell that he and his fellow Somme soldiers endured was meant to have been acknowledged by today’s dismal England soccer squad during their brief time in France, with a visit to the battle’s Thiepval memorial — but FA chiefs scrapped the plan, saying it would have been too tiring.
Such attitudes are a world away from the grim reality that faced Leigh in the trenches. Rather than cave in, he simply modified his soccer skills, becoming an expert grenade thrower, which saw him win a
Military Medal for fending off a German flamethrower attack.
Born in Wrexham, North Wales, in November 1877, Leigh started his footballing career at Aberystwyth Town in 1895 while studying medicine.
He went on to play for Stoke, Everton, Sunderland, Celtic, Aston Villa and Arsenal, as well as winning 24 caps for Wales.
The eccentric player built up a reputation for his crazy behaviour which saw him perform gymnastics on the crossbar during matches, turn his back on play to tell jokes — and even beat up a football director.
He lived the ultimate man-about-town lifestyle in a plush London flat and would wear top-notch Savile Row suits.
But it was on the pitch where he had the most flair. His brutal style of play even led to the rules of the beautiful game being changed.
Biographer Spencer Vignes said: “He was the first football superstar, with the playing style of Peter Schmeichel, the bon viveur attitude of George Best and the media-savvy sense of David Beckham.
“People who had never watched football in their lives knew who he was, children chased his carriage and women hung around his hotel for the chance to spend a night with him.”
During his 11-year club career, Leigh revolutionised the way the game was played. Under the then rules, goalkeepers could be pushed and barged by rival players but could also handle the ball anywhere in their own half.
At 6ft 1in and more than 13st, Leigh used his bulk to charge opposing strikers.
It led to the FA changing the rules so that goalkeepers could only handle the ball in their own penalty area.
Writer Spencer said: “Before Leigh, goalkeepers were just shot-stoppers. If they came off their line they had no protection from being punched, shoulder-charged and trampled by the forwards in a game which was vastly more physical than today.
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“Usually they were too terrified to come out of their goal, even though in those days they were allowed to handle the ball anywhere in their own half.
“But Leigh was such a physical specimen that he could take on the forwards at their own game. He’d flatten the striker, catch the ball and carry play up the field, like a rugby fullback does today.
“So in 1912 the rules were changed so that keepers could only handle the ball inside the penalty area.”
Leigh played as an amateur, which meant he was unpaid — but he went some way to making up for it by exploiting his clubs’ expenses systems.
His brutal style of play even led to the rules of the beautiful game being changed
When he missed his train for a Stoke match away to Aston Villa, he hired his own carriage to get there on time and sent the club the £31 bill — which was the equivalent of a year’s wages for the average worker at the time.
While playing for Sunderland he even claimed for “using the toilet (twice), 2d”.
His nephew Cecil Jenkins recalled seeing his uncle’s flashy lifestyle when he was taken to lunch in London. He said: “He was in full morning kit with a top hat, he was a real man about town. I was only about five or six and it was very exciting for a young boy like me.
“When a carriage picked him up from the station to take him to the game, schoolboys would run after it.”
Leigh was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in the country, which led to him becoming embroiled in a scandalous relationship. He had an affair with married music hall star Marie Lloyd — who popularised the song My Old Man — which created a media frenzy.
Leigh ended his football career at Arsenal in 1912 after suffering a wrist injury.
When war broke out two years later, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps before enlisting as a private in the Royal Fusiliers in 1916.
At the Somme he earned the Military Medal for fending off a German flamethrower attack with astounding bravery.
The fusiliers’ regimental records detailed the vital role he played.
It read: “Private Leigh Roose, who had never visited the trenches before, was in the sap when the flammenwerfer (flamethrower) attack began. He managed to get back along the trench and, though nearly choked with fumes with his clothes burnt, refused to go to the dressing station. He continued to throw bombs until his arm gave out, and then, joining the covering party, used his rifle with great effect.”
But Leigh never actually received the medal.
Just weeks later, on October 7, 1916, he was killed in an attack on Bayonet Trench near the village of Gueudecourt.
One soldier described seeing Leigh “running at great speed” across no man’s land towards the German trenches, firing rapidly at the enemy.
Another said he later saw him lying in a bomb crater, but his body was never recovered. Leigh is commemorated by a plaque on the Pryce Griffiths stand at Wrexham’s Racecourse football ground.
It was unveiled in 2006 by the then Wales team manager and Liverpool legend John Toshack.
But despite his heroic efforts, Leigh’s name does not appear correctly on the Thiepval memorial, where it is written as L Rouse.
His family and supporters have campaigned to correct the spelling so Leigh can be remembered properly.
Biographer Spencer said: “His life had all the ingredients to make him a legend a century on.”