Ralph Shields

Ralph Shields (1892 – 21 November 1944) was an English professional football forward who played in the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Exeter City and Brentford.

Ralph Shields
Shields in 1940.
Personal information
Full name Ralph Shields[1]
Date of birth 1892
Place of birth Newbiggin, England
Date of death 21 November 1944 (aged 52)[2]
Place of death Sandakan, Borneo[3]
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1913 Newbiggin Athletic
1913–1914 Choppington Alliance
1913–1914 Newcastle United 0 (0)
1914–1920 Huddersfield Town 45 (21)
1920–1921 Exeter City 19 (4)
1921–1922 Brentford 8 (1)
1922–1926 Sittingbourne
1926–1927 Blyth Spartans
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

As a young man, Shields was a miner, but played football for his local junior club Newbiggin Athletic in the Wansbeck League.[4] In 1913, he was playing for Choppington Alliance when he was spotted by Newcastle United and was transferred to the club for a fee of £40 on 30 October 1913.[4] Shields did not make a senior appearance for Newcastle United and in May 1914, Second Division club Huddersfield Town paid a £100 fee for his signature.[4] The following season, 1914–15, Shields was Huddersfield Town's leading goal scorer, with 16 goals in 29 appearances.[5]

The season after World War I, 1919–20, he was part of the Huddersfield Town team which gained promotion from the Second Division to the First Division, making 13 appearances and scoring 3 goals.[4] In December 1920, Shields was transferred to Third Division club Exeter City in a part-exchange deal for £2,000, plus William Wright.[4] During the remainder of the 1920–21 season, he scored 4 goals in 19 appearances.[1] In August 1921, he was transferred to Third Division South club Brentford and made 9 appearances during the 1921–22 season, scoring one goal.[1][6] This was his last season in the Football League.[1] Shields played for Sittingbourne in the Kent League for a number of seasons, before moving back to the North East to play for Blyth Spartans in the North Eastern League.[1]

Personal life

As with many footballers during World War I, Shields signed up to serve and did so as a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery.[4] In October 1927, Shields and his family emigrated to Australia to build a new life in Concord, New South Wales.[4] On 30 June 1940, 9 months after the outbreak of World War II, he attested in the Australian Army in Paddington and gave a false birth date of 11 September 1900,[7][8] which produced an age just shy of the limit of 40.[9] In 1942, while serving with the Australian Army Service Corps in Malaya, Shields was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and interred as a POW in Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp, North Borneo.[3][10] He died of malnutrition and beriberi on 21 November 1944 and was buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia.[2][10]

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Huddersfield Town 1914–15[5] Second Division 28 16 1 0 29 16
1919–20[4] 13 3 1 1 14 4
1920–21[4] First Division 4 2 — 4 2
Total 45 21 2 1 47 22
Exeter City 1920–21[11] Third Division 19 4 — 19 4
Brentford 1921–22[6] Third Division South 8 1 1 0 9 1
Career total 72 26 3 1 75 27

Honours

Huddersfield Town

References
  1. Joyce, Michael (2012). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: Tony Brown. p. 263. ISBN 190589161X.
  2. "Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  3. "NSW. Paybook photograph, taken on enlistment, of NX57251 Private Ralph Shields, No. 2 Company, Australian Army Service Corps. He was one of over 2000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) held in the ..." Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. Threlfall-Sykes, David. "Huddersfield Town TWO NAMES ADDED TO TOWN'S 'ROLL OF HONOUR'". Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  5. "Huddersfield Town Squad 1914/15". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  6. White, Eric, ed. (1989). 100 Years Of Brentford. Brentford FC. p. 366. ISBN 0951526200.
  7. "Attestation Form". recordsearch.naa.gov.au. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  8. "Service And Casualty Form". recordsearch.naa.gov.au. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  9. "Enlistment standards | The Australian War Memorial". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  10. Ralph Shields on Lives of the First World War
  11. "Shields, Ralph (Robert)". grecianarchive.exeter.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  • 99 Years & Counting – Stats & Stories – Huddersfield Town History
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