By TIM PURCELL AND MIKE GETHING. Part One AS the 14 year old Nat Lofthouse was enjoying his first taste of competitive football at Castle Hill school the rest of the adult population of Bolton was stealing itself for an altogether different contest: The 1938/39 season had been heralded by the futile hopes of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's 'peace in our times' speech, yet as the winter months passed it became apparent that full-scale war was inevitable.

As the German menace increased in Europe the British government was desperately aware of the need to speed up its own preparations for war. Reacting to the initial half-heated response to the call to arms ministers decided to promote the image of the Territorial Army itself. Although perceived as a reserve force, the Territorials were in fact the nation's heroes because they were all volunteers. With television in its infancy the most effective way to reach the bulk of Britain's male population was via the professional football clubs and the Government enlisted the help of the Football Association in its recruitment drive. Bolton Wanderers manager, Charles Foweraker, was quick to support this initiative, and on April 8, Easter Saturday 1939 the Wanderers captain, Harry Goslin addressed the crowd at Burnden Park prior to the match against Sunderland. As the massed band and drums of the 5th Loyal Battalion marched and counter marched across the pitch Goslin stepped up to a tiny microphone placed before the Centre Stand and the Crown fell silent. Used to taking command on the field of play Harry rapidly claimed authority. Speaking unhesitatingly his voice boomed out across the ground, penetrating every nook and cranny, touching the consciences of each of the 23,000 onlookers as he implored them to support the national cause. From what was heard of the experience at Blackpool on Good Friday and elsewhere throughout the weekend, that at Bolton was to prove the most successful in the country.

On the following Monday afternoon Harry Goslin proved that his actions spoke even more loudly than his confidently delivered words. Career soldier, Sergeant Bill Killan was on duty at the Territorial Army recruitment offices that day, when the entire Bolton Wanderer's first team, led by their captain, Harry Goslin, came to join the 53rd Field Regiment of the Bolton Artillery.

As the new football season got underway in the late summer of 1939 Nat Lofthouse's exploits in schools football were being brought to the attention of the Wanderers scouts. Cllr Cyril Entwhistle, the local mayor and a board member at Burnden Park, arranged for the young Nat to report to Charles Foweraker at the ground on Monday, September 4 to sign schoolboy forms with the club. However, everyday life was completely shattered by the declaration of war on Sunday, September 3. Walking excitedly down Manchester Road on the Monday morning Nat had not paused to consider what immediate effect this would have on the club, and was therefore ill prepared for the scenes of chaos that confronted him as he turned on to the Burnden Park forecourt. Their employment with Bolton Wanderers dramatically terminated the players gathered agitatedly with their families outside the stadium as they awaited military transportation... Nat recognised Harry Goslin, Ray Westwood, (the England international who was his idol), goalkeeper Stan Hanson, and the young mid-fielder Ernie Forrest who had just broken into the first team as Nat hopes to do in the future.

Despite this traumatic introduction to Burnden Park Nat signed his schoolboy forms that morning. As he ambled back towards the town centre he wondered what opportunities, if any, lay ahead of him. Football as a professional sport was over.

The adventures of the Wartime Wanderers were about to begin. They would wear the town crest with honour on many foreign fields over the next six years, not as footballers but as artillerymen fighting shoulder to shoulder with the townsfolk who had faithfully supported them in peacetime.

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