Service Games

Reading footballers’ autobiographies from between the 1940s and 1960s, and their accounts of national service, offers a useful insight into the hard practicalities underpinning national identities.

English footballers Joe Mercer (left) and Don Welsh (right) and Scottish footballer Matt Busby (centre) photographed in uniform at the outset of war in 1939 (Popperfoto/Getty Images).

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This post is part of the ‘Research and Reflections’ occasional series, consisting of pieces based on my ongoing academic research, as well as on my musings on and responses to current affairs and personal developments.