Today (11 October) is the anniversary of a game played in 1930 which highlights something about remembrance for me. These days the periods prior to football games when a recently deceased person or a tragedy is remembered tends to be either a minute’s silence or a minute’s applause. The approach varies depending on the deceased, the mood of the time and other factors. Back in 1930 it was normal to be silent for two minutes and this cutting from 1930 shows the footballers of both Manchester City and Portsmouth paying their respects to the victims of an airship disaster.
The crash occurred in France (the airship’s first journey overseas) on 5 October 1930 and 48 of the 54 people on board died. The football match this image was taken at was played on 11 October 1930. It ended in a 3-1 City defeat (Bobby Marshall scored for City).
On the R101 – when I was researching and writing Farewell To Maine Road 20 years ago an elderly man told me how he remembered an airship flying over the ground when he was a young boy. I do know another airship, the R100, travelled over Manchester at times (including in 1930). Maybe some in the crowd at the Portsmouth game remembered seeing the airship R100 fly over the ground earlier that year?
Gary James' Football Archive 