1910s

The Hammers began the 1910/11 season in the Southern League First Division – the same division we had competed in since being promoted as Second Division champions in 1898/99.

A record of 12 wins and just one defeat from 19 home league games helped West Ham finish fifth in the 20-team table.

Wapping-born inside forward Danny Shea (pictured, top) continued his prolific scoring form, netting 25 goals in 35 Southern League games, including four in a 6-0 demolition of Southend United at Roots Hall on New Year's Eve 1910.

Shea also scored three goals in the FA Cup as West Ham shocked Football League First Division teams Nottingham Forest, Preston North End and Manchester United on the way to the quarter-finals.

The third-round upset of Manchester United was played in front of a capacity 27,000 crowd at the Boleyn Ground, with Shea's first-half goal and a late strike from outside left Thomas Caldwell securing a 2-1 victory over opponents who would end the season as Football League champions.

In the quarter-finals, we lost 3-2 at home to another top-flight club, Blackburn Rovers, with 20-year-old inside forward George Butcher scoring both goals in front of another bumper attendance of 20,000.

West Ham's second leading scorer in 1910/11 with 13 goals was Poplar-born centre-forward George Webb. Aged 22, Webb made history when he became the Club's first senior England international when he debuted in a British Home Championship tie with Wales at The Den on 13 March 1911, scoring the second goal in a 3-0 win.

Webb started England's next match, a 1-1 draw with Scotland at Goodison Park which secured the Home Championship, but that was his second and final senior cap.

An amateur player for club and country, Webb also scored seven goals in five caps for England Amateurs between April 1910 and October 1911.

After finishing fifth in 1910/11, West Ham United's Southern League First Division form took a dip the following season as Syd King's side finished 13th out of 20.

Danny Shea added another 24 league goals to his tally to finish as leading scorer for the fourth season in a row.

Shea and centre forward William Kennedy both scored hat-tricks in a 7-4 home win over Brentford on 21 October 1911, with Fred Harrison scoring the Hammers' other goal.

Having signed from Fulham in April 1911, inside-left Harrison established himself in the team, replacing George Butcher and later the injured George Webb, and provided able support in attack with 13 Southern League goals and three in the FA Cup.

Some of West Ham's best form was saved for the FA Cup, where Football League Second Division side Gainsborough Trinity and First Division team Middlesbrough were both beaten.

Harrison and Webb scored in a 2-1 home win over Gainsborough in January 1912. Harrison then found the net again in a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park before netting the winner in the replay at the Boleyn Ground on 8 February.

In the third round, Butcher scored in a 1-1 home draw with fellow Southern Leaguers Swindon Town, but the Robins won the replay 4-0 at the County Ground.

An even bigger disappointment followed on 9 March 1912, when West Ham crossed the River Thames to face rivals Millwall at The Den in the Southern League and lost 5-1 in front of a 28,400-strong crowd.

Harrison and Shea bounced back to score twice each in a 6-2 home win over Bristol Rovers two weeks later. The latter hit another hat-trick and Harrison another goal in a 4-0 victory over Norwich City at the Boleyn Ground on 5 April and, by the season's end, the pair had shared 40 of West Ham's 70 goals between them.

Unfortunately, a leaky defence which saw the Irons concede 69 Southern League goals and 77 in total ultimately put paid to hopes of challenging for the Southern League title and taking the FA Cup run deeper.

After an underwhelming 1911/12 season, Syd King's West Ham United roared back into form in the Southern League First Division in 1912/13. The Hammers finished third, just two points behind champions Plymouth Argyle.

The title race mathematically went down to the final day of the season on 26 April 1913, albeit West Ham's inferior goal average meant they were highly unlikely to overtake Plymouth or second-place Swindon Town, even with an emphatic victory over Portsmouth.

As it was, Plymouth scored two second-half goals to defeat Northampton Town to take the title, and second-place Swindon's 2-0 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion was not enough to see the Robins drop below West Ham in the table.

In recent seasons the Irons had been over-reliant on 5'7 tall inside-right Danny Shea to score a large proportion of the goals, but this situation changed when the prolific marksman was transferred to reigning Football League First Division champions Blackburn Rovers for a reported record £2,000 fee on 11 January 1913. Shea refused to complete the deal until Rovers found him a job in Lancashire, and only signed once employment as a clerk had been sourced.

By the time of his departure at the age of 24, Shea had plundered 111 goals in 179 games for the Club, seemingly leaving a big hole in the Hammers' attack.

However, the Hammers had brought back former forward George Hilsdon from Chelsea in the summer of 1912 and the ex-England international proved his quality with 17 goals, including 13 in the Southern League.

Aged 27 at the start of the campaign, Hilsdon had departed for Chelsea at the age of 20 and become the first player to score 100 goals for the west London club. Nicknamed 'Gatling Gun' for the power and accuracy of his shooting, the Bromley-by-Bow striker scored 14 goals in just eight caps for England between 1907-09.

Hilsdon's goals helped the Hammers upset Football League First Division club West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup first round. He scored both in a 2-2 replay draw at the Boleyn Ground, then two more in a 3-0 second-replay victory at his old home ground at Stamford Bridge.

West Ham's third goal in that win over West Brom was scored by Plaistow-born inside forward Bertie Denyer, who had joined from local club Ilford in 1911.

Four years earlier, in April 1907, just four days after his 14th birthday, Denyer started England Schoolboys' first-ever international, a 3-1 win over Wales in Walsall.

Denyer was 19 when he debuted for West Ham in a 4-0 home win over Exeter City on the opening day of the Southern League season on 2 September 1912. He played 33 times in total that season, scoring 13 goals.

Another attacker who debuted that season was an 18-year-old centre-forward named Syd Puddefoot, who started the 2-1 home Southern League win over Norwich City on 1 March 1913. His time would come.

Two days after the Southern League season had ended, on Monday 28 April 1913. West Ham welcomed local rivals Clapton Orient - then a Football League Second Division club - to the Boleyn Ground for a charity match to raise money for the sixth annual fundraising match for West Ham Hospital. Mayor of West Ham William Spittle ceremonially kicked-off the game, which Orient won 4-3.

West Ham United moved to bolster their attacking options in May 1913, signing Lincolnshire-born forward Dick Leafe from Football League First Division club Sheffield United. Leafe, 21, had scored 15 goals for the Blades in 1911/12, but featured less often in 1912/13 leading to his transfer to East London.

After debuting in a 1-1 opening-day Southern League First Division draw at Millwall - in which George Hilsdon scored West Ham's goal - Leafe made a superb home debut against Swindon Town on 6 September 1913, scoring both goals in a 3-2 defeat witnessed by a crowd of 25,000.

The match is even more notable for marking the opening of a new Grand Stand at the Boleyn Ground. Signed off in March 1913, the new concrete based structure is 330 feet long and 25 feet deep and held 7,000 supporters in five seating sections, each of which was accessible with a separate staircase, and a terrace at the front. Underneath, the stand held dressing rooms, training facilities, a directors lounge and the tunnel. Construction work was completed in less than six months, enabling the stand to be open for the Swindon fixture.

West Ham's early-season form picked up somewhat with wins over Bristol Rovers, Merthyr Town and Southampton, but ultimately the Irons were an inconsistent team.

A title challenge never materialised and the Hammers ultimately ended the Southern League season in sixth place, eight points behind champions Swindon and runners-up Crystal Palace.

Some of West Ham's best performances were again saved for the FA Cup. In the first round, 19-year-old Syd Puddefoot scored five goals in an 8-1 first-round thrashing of Midland League club Chesterfield at the Boleyn Ground on 10 January 1914.

Three weeks later, Southern League rivals Crystal Palace visited the Boleyn Ground in the second round. An 18,000-strong crowd were present to see 20-year-old inside right Dan Bailey score both goals in a 2-0 win.

The third round saw West Ham drawn at home with Football League First Division Liverpool. Puddefoot scored in a 1-1 draw at the Boleyn Ground to force a replay at Anfield. The teenager found the net again there, but Liverpool ran out 5-1 winners in front of 45,000 fans and would go on to reach the final, where they lost by a single goal to Burnley.

Puddefoot ended the season with 16 goals in 20 appearances, while Leafe led the way with 21 goals, Bailey added nine, outside left Jack Casey scored seven and Hilsdon six.

While West Ham United did not know it at the time, the 1914/15 season would turn out to be the Hammers' last as a Southern League club.

The outbreak of what became the First World War at the end of July 1914 threatened the season, but it was decided to continue with the Football League and Southern League football 'to keep up as cheerful a tone as possible', albeit with professional players on reduced wages.

With football given the go-ahead to continue, forwards Dick Leafe and Syd Puddefoot led the way again, sharing 34 of West Ham's 62 goals in the Southern League First Division and FA Cup. Puddefoot scored 18, all of them in the league, while Leafe netted 13 in the league and three of the Irons' four goals in the FA Cup.

Despite West Ham's relatively low scoring output, a much improved defensive record saw Syd King's side finish fourth in the table, having conceded just 47 goals in 38 league matches.

The goalkeeping duties were shared by two Josephs - Hughes and Webster. Hughes had signed from Essex club South Weald in 1911 and played over 100 times for the Hammers. Webster was more experienced when he signed from Southern League rivals Watford in 1914, having played nearly 150 games for the Hornets. Hughes started 21 Southern League games to Webster's 17, while Hughes kept goal in West Ham's two FA Cup ties.

Speaking of those FA Cup ties, West Ham were drawn to host Football League First Division side Newcastle United in the first round on 9 January 1915. Leafe scored both goals in a 2-2 draw, and found the net again in the replay at St James' Park, where Jack Casey opened the scoring for the Irons but Newcastle ran out 3-2 winners.

Unfortunately, the escalation of the war in Europe meant the Football League, Southern League and FA Cup were all suspended in July 1915, initially for the 1915/16 season. However, friendly matches were permitted for the purpose of raising funds and morale.

Sadly, the first of nine former West Ham players to die in the war was killed in December 1914. Frederick 'Frank' Costello had signed on 1 March 1909 from Southampton in an exchange deal that saw Jack Foster join the south coast club.

Costello made his debut at the Boleyn Ground against Kent side New Brompton (now Gillingham) in a 1-0 defeat on 6 March 1909. Two days later, he scored his first goal against Swindon Town. Birmingham-born Costello’s stay in east London did not last long, as he moved to Bolton Wanderers three months, 12 appearances and three goals, later.

He joined his home regiment, the Royal Warwickshire, with whom he saw action in northern France at the Battle of Le Cateau. On 19 December 1914, 32-year-old Costello was killed in action. Sadly, he has no grave but is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, in Hainaut, Belgium, alongside 11,385 others.

When West Ham United's Directors met for the Club's Annual Meeting at East Ham Town Hall on Monday 14 June 1915, the report delivered by Chairman William White and Vice-Chairman Lazzeluer Johnson revealed the situation the country, and football, found itself as war raged in Europe.

With so many young men enlisting to fight for their country, crowds at the Boleyn Ground had dropped by a third in the 1914/15 season. Despite the reduction in gate receipts, the Club had made sure that its professional players were paid their in full throughout, and those same players had made contributions to the National Relief Fund to support soldiers' families and civilians facing distress.

Two months later, on Tuesday 10 August 1915, Arsenal Chairman - and Mayor of Fulham - Henry Norris chaired a meeting at Winchester House in Old Broad Street in the City of London. There, representatives from 12 clubs agreed to form a London Football Combination. Players would not be paid to play, and a percentage of gate receipts from each match would be donated to charity.

West Ham would be one of the dozen clubs to take part when the new competition kicked-off on Saturday 4 September, alongside Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Clapton Orient, Croydon Common, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and Watford.

With the war meaning the future was uncertain, the 1915/16 London Football Combination season initially ran only only until January 1916, with clubs facing one another home and away, making for a 22-game campaign.

Similar regional Combination leagues were set up in Lancashire, the Midlands and South, enabling clubs across the country to continue playing and entertaining the public.

West Ham began their season at Brentford, losing 2-1 in front of 2,000 spectators. Danny Shea, who had returned to the club from Blackburn Rovers, scored the Hammers' goal.

Shea's partnership with Syd Puddefoot in attack was outstanding, with the pair combining to score 42 goals - Puddefoot 25 and Shea 17.

Hackney-born Arthur Stallard (pictured), who turned 23 in the week the season started, added eleven goals in just 17 appearances. Stallard was tragically killed in action in the Battle of Cambrai in France while serving as a Private in the London Regiment in late 1917, aged just 25. His body was never found.

He was not the first Hammer to die in battle. On 13 October 1915, former striker William Kennedy, who scored ten goals in 23 games between November 1910 and February 1912, died in northern France, aged 24. Kennedy had joined the London Scottish 14th Brigade and has no grave, but is listed on the Loos Memorial, Loos-en-Gohelle in France alongside 20,609 other British and Commonwealth soldiers.

On the pitch, West Ham finished fourth in the 12-team table, collecting 24 points from their 22 matches.

The highlight came on Christmas Day, when Arsenal were humbled 8-2 at the Boleyn Ground, with Puddefoot scoring five goals, Shea one and inside-left Bill Masterman two.

Masterman was a 'guest' player Sheffield United and one of a number who featured occasionally for the Hammers in 1915/16 when their wartime commitments allowed.

With the situation so uncertain, a total of 38 players wore a West Ham shirt that season, with George Butcher, N. Cross, A. Gibbs, Jimmy Harrod, Parker, Alfred Tirrell, Harry Tough and Jack Tresadern appearing just once each.

In early January 1916, arrangements for a second 'Supplementary' competition were confirmed, with 14 clubs split into two groups of seven. The 12 teams who competed in the London Combination were joined by Luton and Reading, with Luton being placed in Group A alongside West Ham, Arsenal, Croydon Common, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers.

However, these arrangements were changed a few days and ultimately West Ham were placed in a group with Brentford, Chelsea, Clapton Orient, Millwall, Reading Tottenham Hotspur and Watford! The eight teams would play each other home and away between 5 February and 6 May.

In between the two seasons, a round of charity matches was played on Saturday 29 January to raise money for the Footballers' Battalion (the 17th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment) Comfort Fund. The Footballers' Battalion had been formed in December 1914 in Fulham and was comprised of players who fought and played matches. It left for the war in November 1915 and, by the end of the conflict, had lost over 1,000 men. In our fundraising match, West Ham played out a goalless draw with Queens Park Rangers.

West Ham began the Supplementary season with a 2-0 home win over Tottenham on Saturday 5 February, with Stallard scoring both goals. The same player then netted a hat-trick in a 4-2 home win over Brentford on 4 March, before Puddefoot hit a treble in a 4-0 victory at reading the following weekend.

Around this time, the Club was rocked by the news that former outside-right Frank Cannon had been killed after receiving shrapnel wounds in his back at Ypres in Flanders on 16 February. Cannon had risen to the rank of Company Sergeant Major in the 13th Essex Regiment - known as the 'West Ham Pals'. He was buried at Potijze Burial Ground Cemetery. Cannon, who had played four games for West Ham in January 1910, was just 27.

On 15 April, the Hammers recorded their biggest win of the season, thumping Reading 7-0, with Puddefoot, Shea and Rangers 'guest' player Andy Cunningham each scoring two goals.

West Ham won nine of their 14 Supplementary competition matches to finish as runners-up, just one point behind Chelsea.

The First World War had raged for two years come the summer of 1916.

With footballers playing as amateurs in the regional Combination tournaments, a proportion gate receipts collected by clubs were given to the Football Association and good causes. At the end of the 1915/16 season, London Combination clubs donated £731 to the Footballers' Battalion Comforts Fund and £840 to local charities.

May 1916 also saw the Government introduce an Entertainments Tax to boost its wartime coffers. At this time, tax on purchases did not exist (Purchase Tax was introduced in 1940, during the Second World War), so the introduction of Entertainments Tax meant ticket prices for supporters were increased.

With no wages to pay, though, West Ham United reported a profit of £715 for the 1915/16 season. Almost all of the Club's £3,782 income came from gate receipts.

In July 1916, the Football League confirmed that a regional competition would be held again in 1916/17, but no cup competitions would take place for the second consecutive season. Interestingly, the Football Association also took the step of controlling the flow of English players to Irish football, where salaries were still being paid.

The London Combination again consisted of 14 clubs, with Croydon Common being replaced by Southampton. Once a Southern League rival of the Hammers, Croydon Common would be wound up in 1917. A 40-match season was planned, with clubs facing each other between two and four times.

On Sunday 20 August, the Club was shocked by the sudden death of Director Henry Mattocks at the age of 57. Mattocks fell ill while at Baldock railway station in Hertfordshire, where he was visiting his sister. As well as being a Director, Mattocks was also President of the Tidal Basin Quoits Club, based in Royal Victoria Dock.

The weekend prior to the season, on 26 August, West Ham hosted the Royal Flying Corps team at the Boleyn Ground. Danny Shea was joined by Everton 'guest' outside-right Sam Chedgzoy in attack, and the latter marked his first appearance with the Irons' consolation goal in a 2-1 defeat.

An article published in The Sportsman newspaper the following Thursday, 31 August, previewed the new London Combination season and provides an incredible insight into the challenges faced by football clubs and managers of the time.

Manager Syd King told the journalist, named ‘Wanderer’, that defender Frank Burton was unavailable as he was being treated for a war wound in France suffered serving with the Royal Fusiliers. By the end of the conflict, Burton had been injured SIX times, but recovered and returned to action in September 1916, then went on to play 64 times after West Ham had been elected to the Football League in 1919.

Two others, outside-right Harry Caton and Scottish inside-left Andy Cunningham, were fighting in France. Another inside-left, Sheffield United ‘guest’ player Bill Masterman, who had scored two goals in an 8-2 win over Arsenal on Christmas Day 1915, had ‘returned to the North’.

While four members of his squad were no longer available, King was able to call upon a number of fresh ‘guest’ players who had played in the Football League First Division before war broke out, before moving down South with their respective services.

From Everton, 1906 FA Cup winner Harry Makepeace was serving as a flight sergeant in the RFC. Makepeace also played cricket for Lancashire and, after the war, played four Test matches for England.

Two other Everton players were joining him in Claret and Blue – defender Jock Maconnachie was a mechanic in the RFC, while striker Chedgzoy was a private in the Scots Guards. The future England international spent the season with West Ham, scoring ten goals in 22 appearances, and returned to score four more in six games in spring 1919.

The article also listed Bolton Wanderers defender Bert Baverstock, a private in the RFC, Oldham Athletic left winger Joe Walters, an air mechanic in the RFC, and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jack Crabtree.

The final ‘guest’ member of King’s squad listed was Bolton’s Wales international goalkeeper Billy Jennings, a corporal in the RFC, who actually never appeared in a game for West Ham. Incredibly, seven years later he was in goal for Bolton when they beat the Hammers 2-0 in the famous ‘White Horse’ 1923 FA Cup final at the newly completed Empire Stadium in Wembley.

It was hoped centre-half William Askew would be available as he had successfully applied to be a conscientious objector to the war and remain in England to ‘do national work’.

The article concluded with a full squad list replete with each player’s military commitment, with winger Herbert Ashton serving in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

Shea, Chedgzoy, Syd Puddefoot and a debutant 24-year-old centre-half named George Kay were all in the team when the Hammers hosted Arsenal on the opening day of the London Combination season on 2 September. Chedgzoy scored, as did another 'guest', Liverpool centre-forward Bob McDougall, in a 2-1 win.

Kay had been born in Manchester and played briefly for Bolton Wanderers before crossing the Irish Sea to join Belfast club Distillery in 1911. There, he won the national Gold Cup and County Antrim Shield, before joining the Royal Artillery and returning to England and joining West Ham. He would later captain the Hammers in the 1923 FA Cup final at Wembley.

A fortnight later, on 16 September, Shea scored four times in a 5-1 home win over Reading, but arguably the standout performance was an 8-1 win at Crystal Palace on 11 November, when Shea scored a hat-trick and Chedgzoy and McDougall each netted twice.

Dozens of players would be called upon throughout the 1916/17 campaign, with 49 appearing for King in total. Despite the high turnover in team selection, West Ham excelled, winning 30 out of 40 matches, losing just five, and scoring 110 goals on the way to winning the London Combination title by seven points ahead of Millwall.

Shea finished the season as leading scorer with 32 goals in as many appearances, while Puddefoot managed 24, McDougall 16 and Chedgzoy ten.

Having won the London Combination for the first time in 1916/17, West Ham United's Directors reported a profit of £628 for the title-winning season, with income from gate money, programmes, rental of bars and Entertainment Tax of £4,642 and total expenditure of £4,014, including £646 on wages and salaries and £974 on match, travelling and players' expenses. No dividend was recommended for shareholders and the report was signed off by secretary Syd King on behalf of the Board.

At this time, due to the ongoing war, players were not permitted to be paid, and the Hammers' expenses were three-times higher than the London Combination's desired average expenses of £8 per match. However, West Ham used a large number of 'guest' players serving in the military, which had reason to 'swell the average considerably'.

The following month, July 1917, the London Football Combination met to discuss the competition for the following season at Winchester House in Old Broad Street. All 14 clubs which had competed in 1916/17 were present.

There, West Ham's representative Albert Davis proposed that, due to the challenges posed by travelling by train in wartime conditions (permits were required to travel) and the difficulty in raising teams, the four clubs from outside London - Luton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Watford - be removed. Despite impassioned speeches, Fulham seconded the proposal and nine of the ten London-based clubs voted in favour, meaning membership was restricted to the ten clubs from the capital - Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Clapton Orient, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. The ten remaining teams would meet each other four times, making for a 36-game season.

An interesting aside is that QPR announced at the same meeting that they would be moving to a new stadium in Loftus Road.

West Ham opened the 1917/18 campaign at home to Fulham on Saturday 1 September in style, winning 6-1. Danny Shea scored four goals and Frank Roberts, a prolific inside forward who had featured for Crewe Alexandra and Bolton Wanderers before the war, got the other two. The next Saturday, Syd Puddefoot grabbed a hat-trick in a 3-0 win at Queens Park Rangers.

The Hammers had started the new season by scoring freely and the floodgates were never closed.

On 13 October, Shea scored four times again, Roberts netted three and Puddefoot one in an 8-3 home win over Brentford. Nine goals were scored in the first half. The Irons went 4-0 up before being pegged back to 4-3. Roberts and Shea made it 6-3 at half-time, then the latter scored two more in the second half to complete the scoring.

Incredibly, in four meetings with Brentford, West Ham scored 24 goals! A 2-3 defeat in west London in December was followed by a 7-2 home win on 2 February 1918 in which Everton guest inside right Billy Kirsopp scored two goals. The Hammers then won 7-3 at Griffin Park on Easter Saturday, with Puddefoot scoring another hat-trick.

A 3-1 win at Arsenal on Easter Monday meant the gap to leaders Chelsea was just a point with one round of fixtures to play. West Ham hosted mid-table Crystal Palace, while Chelsea travelled to bottom side Clapton Orient.

The Hammers rattled in eleven unanswered goals, with Puddefoot scoring a record seven times, but Chelsea's 6-1 win in Homerton denied West Ham a second consecutive London Combination title.

The Irons had scored 103 goals - 21 more than champions Chelsea - but conceded 51.

Puddefoot, who turned 23 in October 1917, enjoyed the most fruitful season of his career, plundering 35 goals in as many London Combination games. The striker scored in 24 of the 35 matches he started. Alongside him, Shea netted 15 goals in 14 games, and Roberts scored 14 in 13.

It had been a thrilling season, but it was not quite over.

While the Combination Proper was done, the clubs continued to play Supplementary matches for another four weeks to raise money for the FA's National Football Fund.

On Saturday 13 April, West Ham welcomed Fulham to the Boleyn Ground and beat the west Londoners 2-0. The following Saturday, 20 April, West Ham travelled to Craven Cottage for a return fixture. The Hammers borrowed a player from Fulham to make up their eleven before drawing 1-1. Puddefoot scored for West Ham, before his former strike partner Shea, now aged 30 and playing as a 'guest' for Fulham since December 1917, equalised in the second half.

The penultimate round of fixtures saw West Ham and Chelsea draw 3-3, before the Blues ran out 4-1 winners in the return match.

On the same day, Saturday 4 May, the Boleyn Ground hosted Tottenham's 3-2 'home' defeat by Fulham. This was because White Hart Lane was closed during the war and taken over by the War Office, meaning Spurs had to host their 'home' games at other venues.

West Ham United’s Directors reported a profit of £880 for the 1917/18 season when they met for their annual general meeting in Castle Street in June 1918.

The Hammers’ gate receipts had risen to £4,797, albeit the Club had to pay £1,265 in the recently introduced Entertainment Tax.

Players were still not being paid salaries due to the ongoing war, but expenses could be paid for travel and meals.

With the Club’s finances in ‘flourishing condition’, according to the London Evening News, West Ham had raised ‘considerable sums’ for charitable causes, as confirmed by Director Lazzeluer Johnson at the AGM.

On Saturday 10 August, West Ham’s commitment to charity saw the Boleyn Ground host a match between RAF Farnborough and Gun Inspection FC (Woolwich) in aid of St Dunstan’s Hospital for Blind Soldiers in Regent’s Park and to provide an ambulance for Manor Park. The Airmen won 8-2.

Then, on Saturday 24 August, at the request of the Directors, the Boleyn Ground played host to another charity match, this time between two teams of ‘Lady Athletes’. The Sterling Telephone and Electric Company from Dagenham defeated the London General Omnibus Company’s Forest Gate Garage 5-0, with funds raised donated to the East Ham and West Ham War Memorial Funds.

In between, the fixture list for the 1918/19 London Combination season was announced, with the same ten clubs involved. Tottenham would continue to play ‘home’ games at Arsenal and Clapton Orient, while Crystal Palace would be moving from Herne Hill Athletics Stadium to Croydon Common Athletic Ground – known as The Nest – in Selhurst.

With prolific Danny Shea no longer at the Club and fellow forward Frank Roberts playing just six times, the goalscoring responsibility fell mainly to Syd Puddefoot. However, when Puddefoot was called up and joined the Royal Fusiliers, he was posted to Bridge of Allan in Scotland and played six matches as a ‘guest’ for Falkirk – the club he would later join for a world-record transfer fee in 1922.

Puddefoot’s enforced absence meant he played just 14 of the Hammers’ 36 London Combination matches, but he still managed 16 goals.

West Ham called on 63 different players during the course of the 1918/19 season, with only full-back Alf Tirrell starting 30 or more games.

No fewer than 40 of the 63 players were ‘guests’, including winger Sam Chedgzoy and inside right Billy Kirsopp (both Everton) and forwards Harold Brittan and George Dodd (both Chelsea). Former favourite George Hilsdon returned for one final appearance at the age of 33, against Queens Park Rangers in February 1919.

The ever-changing lineup unsurprisingly made consistency difficult to come by. When West Ham were good, they could be very good, and a run of eight wins in nine matches between 9 November and Boxing Day 1918 lifted the Irons to third in the table, just four points behind leaders Brentford.

However, that was as good as it got, and West Ham ultimately finished the final season of London Combination football in third, eight points behind the champions, Brentford, and four behind runners-up Arsenal.

The reason for this being the final London Combination season was because the First World War had mercifully ended with the Armistice on 11 November 1918.

With the war over and tens of thousands of men returning home to east London and Essex, crowds also greatly increased, with a season-high 26,000 supporters attending a 3-3 draw with Chelsea in mid-March.

Discussions got underway in December for the recommencement of the Football League and Southern League in 1919/20, with the Football League looking to expand, either by creating a third division by amalgamating with the Southern League, or by adding four new clubs.

On 25 February 1919 West Ham’s Directors made a formal application to join the Football League.

On 10 March, Football League clubs met in Manchester and ratified the extension from 40 to 44 clubs, with West Ham, Coventry City, Rotherham County and South Shields elected as the four new members of the Second Division. For the record, Port Vale, Rochdale and Southport Vulcan failed to gain election.

In response, three days later the Southern League fined the West Ham £500 for secession, but the decision had been made.

Before the Hammers became a Football League club, however, they played five charity fundraising matches in April and May 1919, drawing with Midland Section clubs Nottingham Forest (0-0) and Notts County (1-1), defeating Arsenal at home (1-0), then losing at Arsenal (2-3) and Millwall (0-4).

The summer of 1919 was one of big changes at West Ham United, on and off the field of play.

On the pitch, the Hammers had resigned from the Southern League after being elected to the Football League and would be starting life in the Second Division.

Off it, some £4,000 had been spent making ‘extensive alterations and improvements’ to the Boleyn Ground, increasing the capacity to 30,000.

On 7 August, The Daily News gave a detailed explanation of the works: ‘The covered stand on the far side of the ground has been carried over the footpath at the back. This gives nine more rows of standing accommodation, and it has necessitated the removal of the roof. This season at least this stand will therefore remain uncovered.

‘The sloping wooden partition round the playing pitch has entirely disappeared and in its place there is now a perpendicular concrete barrier. The northern bank has been increased, while access to the covered terrace in the front of the reserved seats has been improved by the making of a new entrance under the stand’.

Secretary-manager Syd King and the Directors were busy in the transfer market, too, signing a number of players who had ‘guested’ for West Ham during the First World War – goalkeeper Ted Hufton, half-backs George Kay – of whom ‘great things are expected’ – William Johnson and Harry Lane, inside-left James McCrae and inside-right James Moyes.

Outside-lefts Harry Bradshaw and Stephen Smith and right-back Alf Lee were also signed, bolstering a squad that retained the core which had finished third in the London Combination the previous season – centre-forward Syd Puddefoot, full-backs William Cope and Alf Tirrell and inside forward George Butcher. Half-back Jack Tresadern initially refused the maximum wage of £4 per week, but later agreed a contract.

King, according to the Athletic News, was optimistic his squad – which featured just two players aged over 30 – could ‘make a good show’ on their Football League debut – and he was proved right.

The players were put through their paces in a practice match on Saturday 23 August, with Moyes and Puddefoot scoring in a 2-1 win for the ‘Reds’ over the ‘Blues’.

West Ham’s inaugural Second Division campaign kicked-off the following Saturday, 30 August, with the visit of Lincoln City to the Boleyn Ground.

A crowd of 20,000 turned out to see a 1-1 draw. Unsurprisingly, the Hammers did not perform to their potential. Billy Chesser put Lincoln in front from the penalty spot, James Moyes equalised for the hosts, and West Ham had a point on the board.

West Ham traveled to Barnsley for their second match on Monday 1 September and were thumped 7-0. King responded by dropping Tirrell, Lane, Fenwick, Biggin, Morris and Green, and bringing in Johnston, Burton, Tresadern, Butcher, Murray and Palmer for the return fixture at Lincoln. Puddefoot scored twice and Burton and Butcher once each in a 4-1 win.

West Ham’s form continued to be inconsistent, but good enough to sustain a place in the top half of the table for the majority of the season.

The best results were saved for the second half of the campaign.

Dan Bailey’s goal defeated Blackpool in front of 26,000 fans on 17 January, then Puddefoot scored two more in front of a 30,000 capacity crowd in a 2-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur, who would win the title, on 13 March.

Puddefoot, who finished with 21 league goals, got four in a 5-1 home win over Nottingham Forest on 2 April, and two more in a 4-0 thumping of Nottingham Forest eight days later.

Butcher, Puddefoot and Kay all found the net on the final day of the season on 1 May as Stockport County were beaten 3-0, clinching a creditable seventh-place finish.

As soon as the season was over, the Club moved to re-sign Puddefoot for a further season, promising him a £600 benefit to clinch the deal.

Having become a Football League club, West Ham would now seek to establish themselves and challenge for promotion to the First Division.