Allen Foster

Allen Foster
Personal information
Full name Allen Foster[1]
Date of birth 1887
Place of birth Rawmarsh, England
Date of death 8 August 1916 (aged 28–29)[2]
Playing position Inside left
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Parkgate Athletic
Rotherham Town
1909–1911 Bristol City 13 (1)
1911–1916 Reading 146 (67)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Allen Foster (c. 1887 – 8 August 1916) was an English professional football inside left, who made over 140 appearances in the Southern League for Reading.[3] He also played in the Football League for Bristol City.[1]

Career

Foster was born in Rawmarsh, Yorkshire and began his career in non-league football with Parkgate Athletic and Rotherham Town.[1] He moved to First Division club Bristol City in 1909, but made just 13 appearances, scoring one goal.[1] Foster's prolific scoring for the Bristol City reserve team in the Great Western Suburban League prompted newly promoted Southern League First Division club Reading to sign him for a £75 fee in August 1911.[4] A successful player with Reading, he was remembered for his hat-trick scored against Italian giants AC Milan in the Biscuitmen's 5–0 victory on 13 May 1914.[5] The result prompted the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera to report that "without doubt, Reading FC are the finest foreign team seen in Italy".[6] Foster finished his professional career with Reading with 73 goals.[7]

Personal life

Foster was married and while a footballer with Parkgate Athletic,[8] he worked in the fitter's room at a colliery.[4] In 1914, during the early months of the First World War, Foster enlisted as a private in the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.[9] On 8 August 1916, he went over the top with the battalion at Guillemont, during the Battle of Delville Wood and was shot in the thigh, abdomen and arm.[3] Foster was recovered from no man's land and was transported to a hospital in Corbie, where he died of his wounds.[3] He was buried in Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension.[2]

Honours

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Joyce, Michael (2012). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: Tony Brown. p. 102. ISBN 190589161X.
  2. 1 2 "Casualty details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "Reading FC Remembering Allen Foster, 100 years on". Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 Riddoch, Kemp & Holmes 2008, p. 139-140.
  5. ↑ "Allen Foster". www.readingfc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "One Day In History". www.readingfc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "Top Scorers". www.royalsrecord.co.uk. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "Allen Foster | Service Record | Football and the First World War". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Riddoch, Andrew; Kemp, John; Holmes, Richard (20 November 2008). When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War (1st ed.). Sparkford: Haynes Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 9781844256563.
  10. ↑ Low, Jonathan (8 April 2017). "STAR induct 13 new names into Reading FC's Hall of Fame". getreading. Retrieved 28 November 2017.


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