Roy Kilner - First World War

First World War

The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, while Kilner was playing in that season's Roses Match at Old Trafford. Initially the government requested that cricket should continue, though several cricketers with existing military obligations, including Yorkshire's captain, Sir Archibald White, were called up immediately. As the fighting started, and casualties began to mount, public opinion turned against the continuation of the season, and Yorkshire's match against Sussex at Hove, which concluded on 1 September, proved to be the last County Championship match until 1919. The newspaper Cricket reported "The men's hearts were barely in the game, and the match was given up as a draw at tea." With the suspension of the championship, Kilner and Major Booth enlisted in the army together, joining the Leeds and Bradford "Pals" in the West Yorkshire Regiment. Kilner trained as a mechanic before being stationed at Colsterdale in North Yorkshire as a Corporal. While on leave in November 1914, Kilner married Annie Campbelljohn—the daughter of James Campbelljohn, an engineer—at Wombwell Parish Church; Booth served as best man. While the war was taking place, Annie gave birth to the couple's first child, Roy junior. Kilner was posted with his battalion to Egypt but was forced home with an injury. On recovery, he was sent to fight on the Western Front in France. During the Battle of the Somme, he was wounded shortly before his battalion engaged in the fighting, receiving a shrapnel wound in the wrist; later in the same action, Booth was killed. Kilner recovered in a military hospital near Blackpool before being assigned to Preston Garrison as a mechanic. Before the war ended, Kilner suffered a second loss when his brother Bernard was killed at Ypres in 1917.

Having previously shown his footballing ability for Mitchell Main in the winter of 1912–13, Kilner resumed his career in the sport while posted at Preston during the war. He played as a right-back for Preston North End F.C., a team which won promotion from the Second Division in 1915, but only took their place in the First Division when league football resumed in 1919. Sometimes playing under the name of Smith to avoid detection (although it is not certain why he did so), his first certain appearance for the team was in September 1918. However, it is unclear how often he actually represented the club.