The guy I always stay with when I'm in France has the 1938 programme for England v Germany when the English players gave the Nazi salute. And it's signed by all the players in the English team. His father was one of them.
Wow that really interesting! That programme would be worth a few bob, as it's a very famous/infamous match.The England team were told to give the salute by the FA & Foreign office(appeasement, Czech crisis and all that) and the players weren't too happy about it, particularly the Captain, the great Eddie Hapgood. One player in the squad refused to agree to the salute: Stanley Cullis of Wolves, a terrific player and a highly principled man. As a result, he was left out of the team(a big call too, as Cullis was a mighty centrehalf, who Puskas called " the last of the attacking centre halves"). Anyway England were so fired up, and tonked the jerries 6-3, with Matthews having a blinder and Len Goulden from West Ham scoring with a fabulous volley. All in front of Goebbels and Von Ribbentrop i think... Germany called in some Austrian players(as Adolf had claimed it as "German") and they trained in the Black Forest for about a month beforehand. England turned up about 3 days before the match, after a long, hard season. What's changed...? Which player was your friend's father?
Len Goulden.
I met him about 4 times, with his wife, at his son's place in London. Nice bloke. We talked football, naturally. When the son was in France I house-sat for him and Len would ring me from his house in Plaistow. By then he had dementia, sadly, so the conversations were ah, rather strange. After he died and his wife went into care I was offered the Plaistow house as free accom. But I turned it down. Dodgy neighbourhood.
And yes the programme - along with a load of other England, West Ham, Chelsea parephenalia from the time - will be worth quite a bit. Of course Len's son knows this, and he's leaving the lot to his son, Len's grandson - a Man U fan unfortunately.
