On November 8, 1918, Wilfred Bartrop was killed in action on the Western Front with the British Army, losing his life just four days before the Armistice.
A popular outside-forward who played in two FA Cup finals for Barnsley before joining Liverpool in the months leading up to the World War One, Bartrop was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire on November 22, 1887.
He was the first of 13 children raised by timber yard worker Benjamin Bartrop and his wife, Annie.
By the time Bartrop left Barnsley in 1914, he had played 183 league and cup games and scored 17 goals for the club.
His performances in both FA Cup runs (1910 and 1912) had been integral to Barnsley’s success and he continued to be held in the highest regard by Reds supporters long after leaving Oakwell.
Not only was the family footballer a successful one, he was a war hero too.
Set against the backdrop of the Great War, Bartrop, having left the Reds, had to wait until December 19, 1914 to make his Liverpool debut.
With professional football subsequently suspended until the end of hostilities, Bartrop took the decision to return to Nottinghamshire where he began vital war-work in the pit at Worksop’s Manton Colliery.
Bartrop continued to play football and would make a number of war-time guest appearances for local clubs including one high-profile turn-out for Notts County in a match against the Reds on September 9 1916.
By the start of 1918, however, he had decided to join the British Army as a gunner in the Royal Field Artillery.
His unit were in positions at Warcoing on November 7 when they came under heavy enemy artillery fire and Wilfred was mortally wounded, dying of his injuries, just four days before the war ended.
He was so close to the end of the war and would have returned as a Liverpool player but got caught by a mortar shell.
Club historian David Wood visited his grave in Belgium on the centenary of his death – November 7, 2018.
Against Rotherham tonight, the club will hold a Remembrance service just before kick-off, which is at a slightly earlier time of 7.15pm.
Wreaths will be laid, the Last Post will be played and Oakwell will fall silent for a minute.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them.
