Pub quiz time: Which season ended with Blackburn Rovers on their lowest points total of all time? If your answer was the relegation years of 2012 (31 points) or 1999 (35), sorry, but you were nowhere close. Pre-World War I saw much shorter seasons where points totals were usually in the 20s, but that's not it either. Some of you may remember the 1965/66 relegation season (20), and you're getting warmer, but not quite. 

The season I'm talking about ended 2nd September 1939 with Blackburn sitting on 1 point after 3 games. The following day, England and France declared war against Germany and the rest of the season was abandoned. 

When I started writing this, I wasn't sure where I headed, just that I found this to be an interesting fact. However, it soon became clear to me what was most important about this.

Families all across Europe and the world were obviously affected by the war, but I'd like to talk specifically about one of those promising young players on the pitch on that final day. That player was Albert Clarke, and he should be treated as a Blackburn Rovers legend. His start in professional football came in a most interesting way. Playing football in the Midland League, he and his amusingly named teammate Melvyn Millington would make the trip to Torquay “trudging some 300 miles”. 

He was successful though, as he became a Torquay reserves player. In an article that spelled both players' names wrong, the Nottingham Evening Post stated “His skill and trickery have so captured the Torquay public that attendances for reserve games have shown a remarkable increase”. He would soon make League appearances for Torquay, scoring 9 times in 12 games, before moving to Birmingham, and finally Blackburn. 

In 38 games for a pre-War Blackburn, Clarke scored 21 goals and helped to get the Rovers promoted back to Division 1. Scoring more than one goal every other game was a promising start to a career that surely could have been something special. Unfortunately, that 2nd September draw against Everton is the last time he would ever play an official league match. 

Signing up for military service, he would see action in what was one of the most important battles in the entire war. Leaving his pregnant wife at home and shipping off to Normandy, he would never meet his unborn daughter. The 6th Airborne Division was dropped into Normandy by glider in the D-Day landings in June of 1944. 

Within minutes of landing, the Division had taken their two objective bridges and dug in to defend. The Devonshire Regiment of which he was a part went on to the Battle of Bréville, which the British Ministry of Defense called “one of the most important battles of the invasion”. It helped to protect the Allied position so that the Germans could not attack the landing beaches. The Germans would never attempt a serious attack on this Division again after the British victory.

Unfortunately, while Albert Clarke was a member of this distinguished Regiment, he would not survive long after the Battle of Bréville. He would never leave France, as he died during active service on 16th June 1944 and was buried there. 

There is a small commune named Ranville, with a population of less than 2,000 people. It was the first French village that was liberated by the D-Day invasions. 

There, in a cemetery devoted to the heroes of that liberation is a grave that reads “MEMORIES ARE LIKE A GOLDEN CHAIN TO BIND US TILL WE MEET AGAIN”. While most who saw him play are gone by now, I hope his memory will forever live on at Ewood Park. 

Thanks for reading. For more Remembrance Day articles on the site, please read this tribute to Eddie Latheron, who was lost in World War One, and a poignant poem 'The Last Whistle Blown'.