Object June 2010

"International" football at the end of the Great War

The Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust has put on show a torn poster that shows how football was popular even in war. The display is in the “Object of the Month” case at The Oxfordshire Museum.

Mike Cross, a volunteer with the Trust’s Research Centre in Woodstock, found the poster in a box and was puzzled by the name M.....EROUX.  Following other clues, it turned out that the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars were based near Liege in the immediate aftermath of World War I and had challenged the town of Micheroux to a football match.

Mike has also tracked down a group photograph of Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars players from 1916, and is sure that some of them would have played for the regiment against Micheroux.

Micheroux still has a football club – they have been offered a return match, but have not yet replied.

Also on show are a football from that time, and a replica of a mascot that the QOOH team had.