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They were the great athletes of their era, excelling at the likes of football, rugby, cricket and tennis. Tragically, however, the talent of some of yesteryear’s top sporting stars was blotted out by conflict . As wars continue to rage across the world, sports stars end up having to leave their passions behind in order to fight for their country. This is no truer than World Wars 1 and 2, which saw millions of people killed whilst trying to fight the enemy and make sure they could live in peace. On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2, Daily Star pays respect to those who gave their lives for our country. Here on Remembrance Sunday (November 9), we look at the toll taken by World War One and World War Two on the world of sport - and pay tribute to those who fell … Around 300 professional footballers lost their lives during World War One. One of those was Donald Simpson who played for Bradford Park Avenue, before serving as a Second Lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Regiment. He won the VC for taking out a machine gun nest during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, but the 25-year-old died attempting a similar act of bravery on 10th July, just one month after getting hitched. Welsh goalie Leigh Roose who played for clubs like Sunderland won the Military Medal and also died on the Somme aged 38. Sandy Turnbull played as a forward for Man City and Man Utd , once scoring 27 goals in 25 goals for the latter. The 32-year-old lance sergeant was killed at the Battle of Arras on 3rd May 1917. There were many World War Two victims from the beautiful game too. These included Arsenal ’s Cyril Tooze, killed by a sniper in 1944 in Italy and stoker Charles Ladd, who had previously played for Luton Town, who died aboard HMS Hood when it was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. England and Liverpool player Tom Cooper, 35, served in the Royal Military Police, but died in a motorbike accident following a collision with a lorry in 1940. Lieutenant Harry Goslin, who had been a defender for Bolton Wanderers served in the Royal Artillery and saw action at Dunkirk before being killed aged 34, in December 1943, by a mortar shell in Italy. One in every six cricketers who went to fight in World War One was killed. Among them was England’s left arm spinner Colin Blythe, 38, who took 100 wickets in 19 Tests. Serving in the Royal Engineers, he was killed by shrapnel from a shell-burst on the 8th November 1917, while working on a railway line during the Battle of Passchendaele. During the Second World War, England cricketer Major Maurice Turnbull, 38, died while serving in the Welsh Guards, felled by a German sniper in Normandy after the D-Day landings. Top bowler Hedley Verity was another casualty. As a captain in the Green Howards, he died after being hit by shrapnel during the invasion of Sicily in 1943. He was also 38. Handsome Kiwi Tony Wilding lifted four successive Wimbledon title trophies between 1910 and 1913 - a feat not repeated until Bjorn Borg. During the war he served on the Western Front in the Royal Naval Armoured Car Division. The 31-year-old was killed on 9th May, 1915, in the Battle of Aubers Ridge when an enemy shell exploded near his dugout. Wilding had been due to marry glamorous US actress Maxine Elliott. England rugby union captain Ronnie Poulton-Palmer was one of over 60 international British rugby players killed in World War One. In his last game before war broke out in 1914, he scored four tries against France. Whilst serving in Belgium with the Royal Berkshire Regiment on 5th May he was killed by a sniper’s bullet. During World War Two ex-England winger Kit Tanner was serving as a Navy chaplain when the 32-year-old perished after rescuing 30 people from the wreckage of HMS Fiji in 1941. Brave Noel Chavasse, who represented Great Britain in the 400m at the 1908 Olympics , won two Victoria Crosses rescuing wounded men from no-man’s land during World War One. A member of the Royal Medical Corps, he died of wounds suffered at Passchendaele in 1917, aged 32. Ex-Olympic gold medal winner Major Reggie Pridmore, 31, of the Royal Field Artillery died serving in Italy in 1918. During the Second World War, rower John Lander won gold in the men’s coxless fours at the 1928 Olympics. He was killed fighting the Japanese at the Battle of Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, aged 34. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .
