The Life and Death of Fred Bullock
Nathan Stewart, Feature Writer
Twitter: @flyingP0TUS
Huddersfield fans from all ends of town (and further afield) may find themselves taking in an early afternoon pint or two as part of their pre-match ritual. Those from a certain end of town might unwittingly do so in the location of one of the more tragic events in the club's history.
Fred Bullock was one of the most highly regarded players of Huddersfield Town's early days, and perhaps their standout player of the era before Herbert Chapman's team swept all before them in the 1920's. After two years in the regional leagues, Huddersfield Town were first elected to Football League Division 2 in 1910. Shortly before their professional bow, the 24-year-old left-back signed for the Terriers, initially as an amateur. Bullock, a Londoner, had previously made his name in defence Hounslow and Ilford, racking up a solitary England Amateur XI cap in the process.
As Town found their feet in league football, registering lower-mid table finishes for their first two seasons, Bullock was a regular member of the side's defence, usually alongside Fred Fayers, with whom he shared a house in Fartown. While Town attained the first of the many mediocre league placings throughout the club's history, the future looked far from assured. Town's entry to the Football League had been dependent on expensive upgrades to the Leeds Road ground, which were overseen, like many stadium designs of the time, by Archibald Leitch. However, the construction and drainage had been shoddy, resulting in a pitch that wasn't befitting of the club's league status. The lack of spectators who attended the new stadium was a larger problem. Rugby League reigned supreme as the most popular sport in the town of its foundation. Meanwhile, the town's football club narrowly escaped bankruptcy at the end of its fourth year.
Bullock became one of the first players to wear Town's famous blue and white stripes the following season, in which they finished 5th, but kept the second tightest defence in the league thanks to Bullock and co, while Frank Mann hit 16 goals. Despite these promising signs, Huddersfield continued to bounce around the middle of the second division until competitive league football was halted by the outbreak of war. Over the next four league seasons, various members of the Town's pre-war sides appeared in their wartime league outfit. Mann remained a regular goalscorer. Meanwhile, Fred Bullock went to war. While the national league structure was suspended in 1914, initially the players turning out were the same ones as the previous season. As it became clear the war would not be 'over by Christmas', public opinion turned against the able bodied men who played sport while others lost their lives overseas.
The response to this was the creation of the 17th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, more commonly known as the Football Battalion, in January 1915. Fred Bullock joined a month later, and would go to war among hundreds of other footballers. Two of his Huddersfield team-mates, Sidney James and Larrett Roebuck, would be killed in action during this time. Bullock could've met the same fate. At some point in July 1916, the first month of the Battle of the Somme, Bullock was wounded in action, injuring his right shoulder. Two years later, while still serving, an accident left him with a serious knee injury. During his service he was promoted to Lance Corporal, and was officially demobilised in March 1920.
The Battle of the Somme, which Bullock fought in alongside the Football Battalion. c. 14th July 1916.
Upon his return to Huddersfield, things were looking up for Bullock. He was appointed as the new club captain, and played the majority of games in the 1919-20 season, despite still being enlisted. This season proved to be the most successful in the club's short history. Town romped to their first ever promotion, finishing 8 points clear of third place, with Sammy Taylor scoring a club record 41 goals in the process. The season was also notable for Town's cup run. Bullock captained the side to victory in the first five rounds of the FA Cup, and was the first player to lead out Huddersfield Town in an FA Cup Final. Second Division Town were unable to cause an upset, however, and lost to First Division Aston Villa. With the score 0-0 well into extra time, Billy Kirton out-jumped Bullock to head home. Footage of the final can be found here:
The disappointment of the cup final defeat could certainly be offset by the prospect of Huddersfield's first appearance in the top flight of English football. The 1920-21 First Division season saw Town get off to a bright start, struggle for goals throughout, embark on a losing run during the mid-season, but pulling through to finish 17th (sound familiar?). Goals scored proved a particular problem, with Taylor contributing 36 less than the previous campaign, and only relegated Derby County scoring less times. However, Town were saved by a miserly defence that remarkably managed to concede less goals than 2nd placed Manchester City. The early season form, which saw Town keep clean sheets in 6 of the opening 7 games, saw the captain get a call up to the England side for the first and only time in his career, making him only the second Huddersfield Town player to do so.
Bullock made one appearance wearing the three lions on his chest, a 2-0 victory against Ireland in the Home Internationals in October 1920, with future Town player Bob Kelly among the goalscorers. It would prove to be a remarkable pinnacle of his career, at 34 years old, war-wounded, and with less than two months of top flight football under his belt. Following his international cap, Bullock's presence in the Huddersfield starting eleven became more infrequent, with Ralph Rodgerson emerging as a semi-regular starter. What's more, the left knee injury from his time in the army had continued to cause him grief.
Fred Bullock shakes hands with Aston Villa captain Frank Barson before the 1920 FA Cup Final
A particularly serious recurrence of this injury prevented him from making any appearances for the whole of the club's sophomore season in the top tier. During his time out of the side, centre-half Tommy Wilson became the regular team captain in his stead. This time around, Town would go one better than the side Bullock led had managed in 1920, and they ran out as the winners of the 1922 FA Cup. Around the time of winning this first trophy, Bullock elected to call time on his professional career. Although he played no part in the FA Cup victory, it acted as a fitting bookend to his 12-year stint at the club. In Bullock's first campaign, Town failed to even progress beyond the qualifying rounds; a true testament to how far the club had come in that time.
In February of Bullock's final season, Herbert Chapman entered employment with the club, ushering in the era of Huddersfield Town's dominance of the Football League. Sam Wadsworth was signed by Chapman in 1921 to replace the injured Bullock at left-back, and was a consistent presence for the thrice champions of the mid-1920's. In the days when footballers earned less-than-substantial wages in any case, Bullock had stayed at a club which was verging on bankruptcy for much of his time there. This was further compounded by him losing the prime years of his career to the First World War. Shortly after his retirement, Bullock put out an advertisement in the Daily Mail offering his services as a manager, seemingly with no luck. Instead, in October he opted to become the licensee of The Slubbers Arms on Halifax Old Road, moving there with his wife Maude, and 8 year old son Kenneth.
A few weeks later, Fred Bullock was dead. On the morning of Thursday 9th November 1922, his wife found him lying stricken on the floor of the pub, adjacent to an empty beer bottle which was used for storing cleaning product. He was rushed immediately to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, but his condition never improved. He died of ammonia poisoning the following Tuesday, at the age of 36. Bullock was reportedly suffering from 'nervous trouble' in the month prior to his death. Perhaps he struggled to come to terms with leaving the sport he had excelled at since an early age. Perhaps the physical and mental scars of war had worn him down, as they had done for many young men. The coroner's report gave a verdict of suicide, but the circumstances of Bullock's death, and his mental state in the lead-up to it, will never be known.
A young Fred Bullock (top row, far left) in his first season at Huddersfield Town, c. 1910.
Images and information sourced from:
Barclay, P. The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman (London: Hachette, 2014)
Binns, G., Huddersfield Town: 75 Years On (Birkby: Woffenden, 1984)
www.englandfootballonline.com
https://huddersfieldtowncollection.wordpress.com
www.iwm.org.uk
