Saville Tasker

An article in Dore to Door drew attention to the grave of Saville Tasker in Dore churchyard, which has a headstone erected by the Imperial War Graves Commission. Saville was entitled to this because, although he did not die until after the Armistice, he nonetheless died during the designated war years (4th August1914 to 31st August 1921), while still on military service.

Saville was born in Sheffield in 1884, and moved to Totley Brook Road with his parents and siblings some time between 1907 and 1909. In 1911, the family was living at Westbourne on Totley Brook Road, and this was still the family home in January 1915, though later his mother seems to have moved to Nether Edge. In 1911, Saville was working as an assistant to his father, a toy merchant and dealer in smallware (narrow fabric items such as tapes, cords, braids etc) with premises in Orchard Place and Pinstone Street.

At the time of his death on 1st December 1918, Saville was a private, initially in the 1st and then in the 11th Battalion, the Notts and Derby regiment (The Sherwood Foresters) - a service battalion formed in September 1914 specifically for the duration of the war. This Battalion was sent to France in late August 1915, later serving in Italy, and then again in France. Since the publication of the previous article in Dore to Door, Dr Alexander Jackson, Collections Officer for the National Football Museum, has drawn our attention to an obituary in the Football section of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph for 6th December 1918, which states that Saville, who had been educated at Montgomery College, Sheffield, “had served two and a half years on active service in France and Italy, being twice badly wounded.” We do not know when Saville enlisted in the Sherwood Foresters, but he cannot have joined his Battalion abroad before 1916 as, although eligible for the Victory Medal, he was not awarded the 1914/15 Star.

The obituary further states that Saville “passed away suddenly on Sunday morning while on hospital furlough”. His death certificate shows that he died in Sheffield, at 134 Vincent Road. As his mother was apparently living at 30 Briar Road, in Nether Edge, at the time of his death, the significance of the address is not known - we have no information regarding any other occupants of 134 Vincent Road at this time as Saville’s death was reported to the Register Office by the City Coroner. Whoever provided information to the Coroner may not have known Saville well: on his death certificate, his age at death is recorded as 32, whereas in fact he had been born in 1884 and was thus 35, the age recorded on his headstone. An inquest held on 3rd December determined the cause of Saville’s death as double pneumonia; as Alexander Jackson suggests, this may well have been due to the Spanish Flu, which peaked in Britain in the months of October to December 1918.

Unlike most influenza pandemics, it caused the highest mortality in people aged 20-35, and victims often died in less than a week – which corresponds with the description of Saville’s death as sudden. Many of those who caught the Spanish flu developed respiratory problems such as pneumonia, and this was often recorded on the death certificates instead of influenza.

Saville’s obituary also states that “He will be remembered as having played for Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham Town as an amateur.” Alexander Jackson informs us that he was registered as an amateur with Sheffield Wednesday for the 1906/7, 1907/8, and 1908/9 seasons. However, he did not play for their first team. Alexander suggests that he may also be the S. Tasker who is mentioned in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph for 14th March 1907 as playing at Chapeltown in a benefit match between Sheffield Bankers A Team and Chapeltown and District, held to raise funds for a former Bankers player, Mr J. Chambers, who had some months previously sustained a broken leg as a result of which he was still in hospital. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph reports that an S. Tasker of Sheffield Wednesday played for Sheffield Bankers on several occasions between February 1905 and March 1907. In February and March 1905, both S. Tasker and W. Tasker scored for the Sheffield Bankers first team – W. Tasker may have been Saville’s older brother William, although neither brother appears to have been a banker by profession.

Alexander also raises the possibility that Saville is the S. Tasker who played for Rotherham Town in 1907-1909 and, if so, played for them in the FA Cup 3rd Round, at West Ham, before a crowd of 10,000. Alexander says: “At this time, there were two professional clubs in Rotherham, both playing in the Midland League, against the reserve teams of larger clubs like Sheffield Wednesday and United. At this time, it was still not unknown for some middle-class amateur players to be good enough to play alongside professional players, right up to First Division level”. The Sheffield Evening Telegraph of 15th November 1907 notes that S. Tasker played as a forward for Rotherham Town against Grantham Avenue. Alexander also notes that there was an S. Tasker who played for Sheffield Wednesday reserves in the 1914/15 season, but suspects that this is not the same man: “Given his age by then, I wouldn’t have imagined that Wednesday would be still giving time to an older amateur player who hadn’t already been played in a first team game”. Unless the team was depleted as a result of players enlisting in the armed forces.