A special plaque commemorating the vice presidents, members and players of Wycombe Wanderers who fell in World War I will be restored at Adams Park, thanks to the work of a memorabilia working group established by the directors of Frank Adams Legacy Limited (FALL).
FALL own the stadium and a large proportion of the club’s memorabilia, and its working group rediscovered the wooden plaque which was presented to the club in 1920 and displayed in the boardroom at its former Loakes Park home but presumed lost during the move to Adams Park in 1990.
Members of the working group are working to improve the condition of the plaque before installing it in the entrance to the Caledonian Suite at the stadium, in place of a brass version which was produced by Wycombe Wanderers Supporters Trust a decade ago.
The group will celebrate their find with a pitch side photograph with the original plaque ahead of Saturday’s League One game against Leyton Orient – the club’s dedicated remembrance fixture – accompanied by descendants of some of the players whose names are listed on the plaque.
FALL’s working group was established with the aim of collating and recording the hundreds of items of memorabilia which are owned by various organisations including the Ex-Players Association, Official Wycombe Wanderers Supporters Association, the club itself and individuals who have loaned items.
Over the years, the elements of the collection have been exhibited or stored in various places at Adams Park and all parties agreed that it would be sensible to have a central register of the memorabilia showing where everything is.
A team of volunteers with knowledge of the history and importance of items was formed with the task of identifying and recording the various elements of the collection’s location and ownership, all to be recorded on a database and at the same time identifying safe and secure storage areas to keep the items not on display.
The club’s thanks go to the following group of volunteers who met on various occasions to carry out the exercise and have now reached a stage where all memorabilia items have been identified, recorded and secured.
*Martyn Broughton (FALL – coordinator)
*Phil Ball (Archivist and Data Base Manager)
*Trevor Stroud (Club & Trust)
*John Bignell (Ex Players Association)
Karen Adams (FALL and memorabilia owner)
*Alan Cecil (FALL and Trust)
Joe Robson (Supporter with knowledge of general sports memorabilia)
Special thanks should go to Phil Ball who has been the biggest contributor to this effort and has managed to sort (amongst other things) the plethora of programmes that have been collected over the years so that FALL now have a library of programmes arranged season by season dating back to the 1950s and some before.
Now that the working group has completed the first stage of its exercise and identified over 400 pieces on the register, it turns its attention to future projects and has formed a Memorabilia Committee (*as denoted above) representing interested parties to manage all aspects of keeping and growing this important collection of our club’s history, ensuring it is accessible and secure for future generations of Wycombe fans.
Keep an eye out for future news as the committee gets to work.
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More news has come in from relatives of those named on the plaque:
Philip Ball has told us that his great grandad was William Buchanan captain of Wycombe Wanderers around the turn of the century. Here he is holding the trophy in 1901
William had 3 brothers who also played for the Wanderers. George and Charlie Buchanan died in World War One, these are the two mentioned on the memorial plaque above. William Buchanan and the other son Albert had died by 1918.
William had one child – Phil’s grandma.
Albert had 5 daughters whilst Charlie and George had no children.
The name Buchanan survives to this day having been given to Phil’s dad as a middle name, passed onto Phil himself and to his own son Joe.
Charlie Buchanan was the first player ever to be sent off for Wycombe in 1900.
Pete Wrighton-Priest tells us that he is also related to both Charlie and George, (and Bill) Buchanan, by his great grandfather being Albert Buchanan, their brother. He believes Albert also played a couple of games for Wycombe as well. Pete has visited one of his great, great uncle’s grave at Sangatte but cannot remember which one it was.
However he is not related to the G A Priest named on the plaque.
Also named on the plaque is Jim McDermott – cousin of Phil Buchanan Ball’s grandma.
The Parkes family have advised us that Rupert Harrall was a Lance Corporal in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme and subsequently evacuated back to the UK, where he died from his injuries. For these reasons, he is actually buried in High Wycombe Cemetery.
Details about his war grave can be found on the Commonwealth War Graves website here:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2000917/rupert-harrall
Rupert Harrall was great-uncle to long time supporter Deborah Parkes and his name is also included on the large brass plaque outside the main entrance of Wycombe General Hospital. Her father, Reginald Fawkes, was a life-long WWFC supporter and when he was christened, he was given the middle name of “Rupert” in honour of his uncle who had died during WW1.
Viscount Wendover was a Vice President of the club and we have been sent this interesting article about him: https://www.galaxypix.com/Sally/warmemorials/Tellthemofus/Tellthemmap/ViscountWendover2.html#:~:text=LIEUTENANT%20ROYAL%20HORSE%20GUARDS,the%20Second%20Battle%20of%20Ypres.
He was apparently the eldest (and only) son of the then Lord Carrington (the majority land owner in Wycombe), with the now Wycombe Abbey School being the family home. He was a lieutenant wounded at the 2nd Battle of Ypres (infamous for being the first use of chemical weapons) in 1915. Like Rupert Harrell he was evacuated and subsequently died, being buried in Moulsoe (near Milton Keynes). Sadly he died with all his titles (he was the last Viscount Wendover).
It looks like a few of those named on the plaque are buried in High Wycombe Cemetery including A Saunders and G A Priest: https://archive.cloud.cwgc.org/archive/doc/doc5702717.JPG
Amongst those pictured here is Ian Monk (left of back row) whose great uncle is mentioned on the plaque – Rupert Harrall. He was badly injured in France in WW1, shipped back to Wycombe, but died of his wounds.He is buried in Wycombe Cemetery.
