This afternoon, prior to the Barnet game, bantamspast co-curator, David Pendleton, gave an illustrated presentation which outlined some of the many events being held in 2011 - the centenary of City's famous FA Cup win.

A large and enthusiastic crowd listened attentively as he spoke of the importance of the win back in 1911 and how essential it is that it be commemorated.

Briefly, the main features of the celebration are: a book, an exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum and a Spring-Summer visit to the graves and memorials of the nine City players who died in the First World War.

David himself is currently writing the book, Glorious 1911, which will cover not only the cup run itself but also the lead up and aftermath - a period running from 1908 until 1922. He described how people can now become subscribers to the book. This will enable them to buy it at a reduced price of £10 (instead of £12), have their names printed in the book itself and also receive a commemorative 1911-2011 badge. A reminder that the application form to become a subscriber can be downloaded by clicking here.

The exhibition will run from March 19 until June 12 2011. Hopefully, at least 4 of the players' winning medals will be on display, in addition to a large number of artefacts and images.

The club have confirmed that the team will wear a replica 1911 kit for the home cup games next season.

The bantamspast team will also give a series of pre-match presentations to coincide with the anniversary of each game in the cup run. These will include the stories of players and officials along with a description of other events in the Bradford area at the time. We hope to give a real flavour of Bradford life in 1911.

We will give further information about these and other events as it becomes available. Once more we attempted to record the audio of David's presentation. Again, this was not successful but you can view the slides above.

Our event Finding Robert Torrance, held at Bradford Cathedral, which remembered the nine City players killed in the Great War, was a resounding success. A good turn out of people saw the early history of the club explained against the background of the lives of those nine City players. In a dramatic closing sequence, the names and images of the nine players were shown in complete silence. Then a moving rendition of the Last Post was played by Lucie Sanderson. It was a fitting event, coming as it did on Armistice Day, 11 November.

Our thanks to all involved, particularly Glyn Watkins, Mark Neale, Lucie Sanderson and the staff of Bradford Cathedral.

Picture shows Lucie Sanderson, the FA Cup and the 1911 Cup Winning Team.

Andy O’Brien England Shirt

Life long City fan Ben Stainthorpe is emigrating to America next week. We wish him and his family all the best in their new life. We would also like to thank Ben for continuing to loan the museum the match ball from the City v Liverpool match in May 2000; the game that saw City dramatically save their Premiership skins on the last day of the season. Ben has additionally loaned the museum two signs from the old Wembley Stadium. Ben has taken his Andy O’Brien England U-21 shirt to America with him as a reminder of his many happy years supporting, and working for, Bradford City. The shirt was on display in our large spherical case. Many thanks Ben and bon voyage!

City Heroes - Finding Robert Torrance

The museum’s David Pendleton was interviewed today by the BBC regarding our forthcoming event at Bradford Cathedral on 11 November. David talked about the life of that City great Robert Torrance – man-of-the-match in the 1911 FA Cup Final. Of course, Torrance met a terrible end during the Great War when he became one of the nine City players killed in that conflict. We’ll post details of when the interview will be broadcast later.

You can see and hear the story of Robert Torrance, and the eight other players who died in the Great War, at Bradford Cathedral on 11 November 2009 at 7.30pm. Admission is free, however, there will be a collection to cover costs.

The museum’s full size figure of FA Cup legend Jimmy Speirs returned to Valley Parade following a two year loan to the Passchendaele Museum in Belgium. We loaned the figure to help the Museum commemorate the ninetieth anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele in which Speirs was killed along with 300,000 British and Commonwealth troops.

Last week bantamspast’s David Pendleton travelled to Belgium to visit the Passchendaele Museum and bring the figure of Speirs back to Valley Parade in time for the new football season. On Saturday David, along with his daughter Rosie and fellow City fan Glyn Watkins met Frank at the Passchendaele Museum. Frank kindly drove our small party to Dochy Farm New British Cemetery where Jimmy Speirs is buried. We were pleased to note that Jimmy has received a new headstone and for the first time in ninety years his name is now spelt correctly on his grave – it had been spelt Spiers, an error that had been made on Jimmy’s enrolment form when he first joined the army.

Frank then drove us to the Passchendaele Museum, where we were given a guided tour. The museum is well worth a visit and has an impressive reconstruction of a British dug out. We later visited Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest British war cemetery in the world, where we viewed the memorial to that other great FA Cup winner – Robert Torrance. Sadly, he has no known grave and is commemorated on Tyne Cot’s Memorial to the Missing.

Frank gave our party a lift to Kortrijk railway station – sadly as we had the cut-out figure of Speirs booked on a London bound Eurostar that evening, we had to turn down Frank’s offer to watch his beloved Kortrijk play Anderlecht on the opening day of the Belgian football season. We received a few bemused looks as we boarded a Ghent bound train with the large cut-out. After a short stop at Ghent we arrived in good time at Brussels to place the figure on a Eurostar bound for London. We followed two days later and picked Jimmy up from St Pancras. It was quite a challenge to get the cut-out, its base and a large framed photograph from there to King’s Cross. By now the group was down to David and Rosie, so the short distance was a bit of a struggle. However, the helpful National Express staff soon had our items stowed in the guard's van and we were soon heading north. At Leeds it was an easy hop to a Forster Square bound train and bantamspast’s John Ashton met us at the station for the short journey to Valley Parade.

The cut-out figure of Jimmy Speirs will be on display once more when City open their home campaign against Port Vale on Saturday 15 August. Our thanks to Frank at the Passchendaele Museum for his hospitality. The staff of SNCB, Eurostar, National Express East Coast and Northern Trains for their assistance in getting Jimmy Speirs back to Valley Parade in time for the new season. A fuller account of the journey will appear in a forthcoming City Gent.

Just to allay all fears, bantamspast can confirm that the life-sized figure of Jimmy Speirs is now safely back in the museum after its long stay in Belgium. Here it is with fellow traveller, Dave Pendleton, still in its protective wrapping, outside the museum this afternoon. More details of the trip to follow.

The bantamspast research department, in the shape of Chris Ambler, has been busy trying to find out whether the Crystal Palace website claim that our former player Harry Hanger died during the Great War is correct. The facts are inconclusive, but we are inclined to believe that the Harry Hanger who was killed in the conflict wasn’t the player who appeared for City between 1906-09.
City secured the signature of left half Harry Hanger from Kettering on 12 April 1906. The burly 5’ 9” centre half played 79 games for City, scoring 4 goals. In all but one of those games he played at left half (no.6), but did switch to right half for one game. After three years at Valley Parade Harry transferred to Crystal Palace. The Bradford Daily Argus reported on 17 May 1909 that he had signed for Southern League side Crystal Palace. In Terry Frost’s excellent Bradford City, The Complete Record book it states that Harry signed for Northampton, indeed, the Daily Argus had reported on 3 May 1909 that Harry and Frank Whittaker had signed for Northampton, but the report of 17 May appears to supersede the earlier story. Indeed, Harry did play 178 games for Palace, scoring 8 goals.
During the Great War on 19 January 1915 the Bradford Daily Argus reported: ‘H. Hanger, now of Crystal Palace, has enlisted in the Football Battalion.’ The Harry Hanger the Crystal Palace website refers to was killed whilst serving with the Household Cavalry. The British Army WW1 Medal Roll Index Cards show that the Hanger who was in the Household Cavalry enlisted on 6 October 1914. He was born at Market Harborough in Leicestershire, whilst Harry Hanger the footballer was born at Kettering.
So, it appears that the Harry Hanger who was killed whilst serving with the Household Cavalry was not the Harry Hanger who played for City and Palace. Though we are happy to be proved otherwise, for the time being we are not adding Harry to the nine City players killed in the Great War.
Our thanks to Chris Ambler for the hours put in researching the above at Bradford Central Library.

bantamspast reader Bill has written to us recently, claiming to have found another of City's fallen heroes. Harry Hanger played for the club between 1906 and 1909 and was part of the side that won the Second Division Championship in 1908. Shortly after this he was transferred to Crystal Palace where he enjoyed several successful seasons, becoming club captain.
Thanks to an entry in one of the Palace forums, Bill has discovered that Harry enlisted in Northampton in 1915 and was sadly killed in action in Flanders in March 1918.
We are currently checking details in order to confirm that the City and Palace Harry Hangers are the same person. If so, this is a truly remarkable find. Many thanks to Bill for doing the research and bringing it to our attention.