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Although
war clouds loomed, football preparations continued as normal for the 1939-1940
season. There was a pre-season rumour
of the sale of Richmond Road and possible leaseback from the Council
but if discussions had got under way then the war put paid to that.
K's signed 4 new players, R. James from West Brom 'A' team, G. Richardson
from Dundee Osborne, W. Hughes from Guildford City and W. Tait from London
Caledonians, who had sadly been forced to disband. The Corinthians and
The Casuals were also forced into a merger to preserve their future. Of
the new players only Hughes was to get a game before war broke out. Jim
Stevens moved from the K's to join his former teammate Cyril Longman at
St. Albans and other players were already mobilised.
Trial matches took place as usual and fixture lists were produced. The
Isthmian League brought in two new clubs, Walthamstow Avenue and Romford
and had intended to increase the number of teams to 16 but with London
Caledonians disbanding this was brought down to 15.
K's managed just one game in the season, a very
promising 3-2 away win at Wimbledon. Their next game was due to be
the following Saturday in the F.A. Cup at Richmond Road against Banstead
Mental Hospital but on Friday, 1st September, Germany invaded Poland.
All local games except for Walton v Leyland Motors were cancelled and
on Sunday Britain declared war on Germany.
While many football clubs including Wimbledon, Woking, Hersham, Sutton
and Walton kept their teams running to some degree, K's were unable to
play home games as their changing rooms had been commandeered by the A.R.P
who were to merge with other organisations to become the Civil Defence
Service. There had been talk that Kingstonian might join the newly formed
Surrey Combination League. Teams including Hersham, Woking, Epsom, Walton,
Guilford City and Leyland Motors signed up, but the ground situation made
this hard to achieve even though Hersham had offered to let them use their
ground for home games. They did still have the reserve pitch available
but had no running water in the changing rooms there and also no base
to operate from. K's therefore announced
there would be no football 'for the present'.
It became clear fairly quickly that "for the present" was going
to mean the duration of the war with the Civil Defence well dug in at
Richmond Road. In April 1940 the council had a discussion as to whether
to turn the ground into
allotments. This was vetoed, however the reserve "top Pitch"
did eventually get used for this purpose. The main pitch was kept up for
its use as a football ground and a Civil Defence team played many games
at the ground as well as it being used by the Metropolitan Police football
team. Oppositions included other Civil Defence teams as well as the Army,
RAF and French and Dutch Navies. The most memorable of the games played
was a match against the Army that
included 6 professional players.
A few Kingstonian pre-war players appeared in matches at Richmond Road,
notably Doug Whitehead, although he was to announce his retirement from
football before the end of the war. There was even an appearance
from Pre-World War One player Danny Emms who made up numbers for one
Civil Defence game by turning out in goal. Other benefit games were played
on the ground including a Metropolitan Police v Royal Artillery match
benefiting aid to Russia.
Some of the Kingstonian players were able to find matches and could be
seen playing for various other clubs in the area. Van der Eb played for
the Dutch team in a friendly international in London. Bill Whittaker played
representative games for the RAF as well as playing for Liverpool, Blackpool
and Brentford as a guest player when stationed in those areas of the country.
Many Kingstonian players were on active duty with both George Holling
and Geoff Whittaker captured and spending time in prisoner of war camps
in Germany and Italy respectively. Holling went missing in August 1940
and it was two months before he was reported as being safe and well in
a prisoner of war camp where he spent the duration of the war. Holling's
treatment appears to have been reasonable as there were plenty of letters
home with news of organised football matches and he was even able to do
a course on motor mechanics.
The news was less good for other players with William Butler, who had
played a handful of games for Kingstonian in the 1930's, killed
during the Normandy landings on D-Day. Lionel Thornton, one of K's
top players in the years leading up to the war, also lost his life. He
had only been married in June 1939 and It was a dreadful time for his
family as initially he was reported missing in action in the battle of
Singapore on 15th February 1942. Two months later they were given hope
by a report that that he had been taken prisoner of war with minor injuries,
however nothing further was heard. As the war neared its end there was
still no news on his situation. Eventually it transpired that he had indeed
been a prisoner of war but had been shot dead while collecting personal
clothing from a local school despite having been given permission to do
so.
By September 1944 it became clear that the war was likely to be won and
Kingstonian were again looking forward
to the prospect of seeing football again.
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