Douglas Morgan Hull City 1914-1915
Before the First World War, Hull City reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1915, beating West Bromwich Albion, Northampton Town and Southampton, before eventually going out to Bolton Wanderers in a 4–2 away defeat.
Douglas Morgan played as a back for two seasons before the league was suspended for the war. He made total of 54 league and 6 FA Cup appearances.
Match reports showed Morgan was a popular player. He had Captained his previous club Inverkeithing United, winning the Scottish Junior Cup in 1912. Several of the players from this team turned professional, joining clubs in both the Scottish and English Football Leagues. A match report for Hull City Reserves Vs Rotherham from the Hull Daily Mail gives a flavour of football of the period.
“Hull City had Patterson and Morgan at the back and these were quite strong enough to keep the visitors at bay, saving Bonewell (the Juniors goalie who deputised for Roughley) any difficult shots to deal with.
The sending off the field of Morgan was a blot on the team’s display. Whether the referee was justified in his decision I am not going to discuss here. Certain it is that during the game a certain amount of roughness was shown by both sides and one of two players who were heavily brought down and injured. Melville who played at centre half was kicked in the knee in the early moments of the match did not turn out after half time. Wilde the visiting left back, had to be carried off after J Lyon brought him down. For this offence the referee made a note of the home player’s name. It was in the second half that Morgan tripped Birchell the home centre forward who also had to be carried off. I cannot remember a Hull City player being sent off at home for many years and the incident ruined the game as until the final, the spectators did nothing but barrack the referee and every decision of his was booed and hooted.”
At the outbreak of war, he returned home to Inverkeithing and played a few games for nearby Dunfermline United, before enlisting in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner. His unit the 168th Siege Battery transferred to the Western Front in September 1916 with their four 6” Howitzers. The battery was located at the Ypres Salient, an area of Belgium that was witness to some of the heaviest fighting of the campaign.
On the 31st of December 1916, an enemy shell landed close to the kitchen dug out where Morgan and some of his comrades were celebrating Hogmanay. He was mortally wounded and died aged 26 in the Vlamertinghe Field Dressing Station, he was buried in the nearby Military Cemetery.
He left a wife (Agnes) and two young children. Agnes wrote in remembrance
“Gone and forgotten by some you may be but you will always be dear to me.”
In December 2014 Hull City Academy players visited his grave to pay their own personal tribute as part of the Premier League Christmas Truce Tournament
Former players of the club also died in the Great War- Patrick Lavery, Samuel Lyon, John ‘Jock’ Taylor and Fredrick Charles Clark. John Smith