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The tale of the tour lost to WW1: The original Corinthians in 1914
By James Young

 
For many years, Corinthians held their own against the rise of professionalism and effectively became a type of football missionary by taking the game to the four corners of the globe.
Voices of boys were by the riverside Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad-- Wilfred Owen, The War Poems
On June 12, millions of fans sat glued to their TVs as Brazil took on Croatia in the opening game of the World Cup at the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo. It was a compelling match, with Croatia startling the hosts by taking an early lead before a nervy Brazil hauled themselves back into the game, winning 3-1 and setting the scene for an enthralling tournament.
But perhaps an even greater story -- both proud and tragic -- lies behind the origins of the stadium's name. It is well documented that Brazilian giants S.C. Corinthians Paulista were formed after the team's founding members were inspired by the play of legendary English amateur side Corinthians, who toured Brazil in 1910.
Those original Corinthians were formed in 1882 by N.L. Jackson, assistant FA secretary at the time, with the aim of creating a team to beat an all-conquering Scotland side, and as David Goldblatt writes in his global history of football "The Ball is Round," to be "an elite standard bearer for the amateur game" that was then under considerable pressure from the growing strength of the professional clubs.
As Goldblatt explains: "The club had no ground and for much of its existence refused to enter anything as vulgar as the FA Cup. Rather, it issued and responded to challenges. The Corinthians played a self-consciously buccaneering, free-spirited, attacking football that was emblematic of an older, golden era of aristocratic sporting, political and ideological dominance."
But the first Corinthians were more than just an experiment in nostalgia and hankering after a disappearing past.
"I remember how they walked onto the field, spotless in their white shirts and dark shorts. Their hands were in their pockets, sleeves hanging down. Yet there was about them an air of casual grandeur, a haughtiness that was not yet haughty, which seemed intangible. And how they played!" an observer wrote at the time.
For many years, the team held their own against the rise of professionalism. They beat Blackburn Rovers, the leading professional side and FA Cup holders, in 1884, and provided the entire England team that took on Wales in 1894 and 1895. Corinthians inflicted Manchester United's heaviest ever defeat -- 11-3 -- in 1904, and it is claimed the club inspired both Real Madrid and England to adopt those "spotless" white shirts.
But the strength of the professionals could not be held at bay forever, and outmatched at home, Corinthians decided to concentrate on touring.
The club effectively became a type of football missionary and took the game to the four corners of the globe. Corinthians toured South Africa in 1897 and 1903 and also visited Canada and the U.S. The team continued to dazzle on the field; they beat Belgium 12-0, Netherlands 2-0 and New York City 18-0.
But it was in Brazil where Corinthians arguably left their greatest mark by inspiring the creation of one of the country's most famous clubs.
In 1910, the team embarked on a tour of Brazil after an invitation from the man regarded as the founding father of Brazilian football: Charles Miller. Miller had played both for and against Corinthians during his time in England.
Corinthians finished the tour unbeaten and defeated, among others, a Brazilian select side and Miller's Sao Paulo Athletic Club. Watching the latter game were Anselmo Correa, Antonio Pereira, Carlos Silva, Joaquim Ambrosio and Raphael Perrone -- five Sao Paulo industrial workers who would, soon after, meet under a gas lamp in the neighbourhood of Bom Retiro and decide to form S.C. Corinthians Paulista.
It is no small legacy -- in terms of popular support, Corinthians, who claim to have 30 million fans across Brazil, are rivalled only by Flamengo. Twice Club World Cup winners, the club's history is as rich and storied as any in the world, with famous players including Rivellino and Socrates.
 
Today, Brazil's S.C. Corinthians Paulista are one of the best supported teams in the world.
The past is greatly prized in Brazilian football, and the two clubs have remained close. The original Corinthians, in their present day guise of Corinthians-Casuals (in 1939, Corinthians merged with another amateur club, Casuals) played against their Brazilian counterparts in a friendly in Sao Paulo in 1988, with Socrates putting in a 15-minute appearance for the visitors. There was another visit to Brazil in 2001, and the S.C. Corinthians Paulista pennant hangs proudly in the Corinthians clubhouse in Kingston Upon Thames.
The original Corinthians returned to Brazil in 1913, but it was another trip to the country in 1914 that remains perhaps the most poignant episode in the club's history. The 1914 tour is not as well remembered as the 1910 visit, and for good reason -- the Corinthians squad returned to England without kicking a ball. On the way to Brazil, the start of World War I was declared, and the team, many of whom were army officer reservists, headed home to fight for their country.
Sadly, the trip across an Atlantic Ocean bristling with U-boats and torpedo fire was to prove the least hazardous part of the war years for these players. Only one of the 14 players who travelled to Brazil would play for the club again, and in total, Corinthians lost 22 men during the war. The names of the dead are now engraved on a war memorial in the clubhouse.
There was Cuthbert Brisley, at the time considered by many the best centre-forward in Europe. He scored 64 goals in 86 games for the club and had been one of the scorers against the Brazilian select side in 1910. After joining the RAF when war broke out and training as a pilot, he was killed in a training accident on July 30, 1918.
Then there was John Charles Dodsworth Tetley, a cultured defender. Another veteran of the 1910 tour, he managed to play one last time for Corinthians after returning from Brazil, in a charity game against an army team -- a day when weather conditions were so bad the ground became a swamp. He was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele on Oct. 9, 1917. The only belongings he left behind were a damaged watch and cigarette case.
Interestingly, the referee in the game against the army was Charles Wreford Brown, another Corinthians great, who was credited with coining the term "soccer" while he was at Oxford.
The list of the dead goes on. There was defender Frank Noel Tuff, who was injured at the Battle of Gallipoli on Oct. 23, 1915, and died two weeks later. There was Lancelot Andrewes Vidal, who also played on the 1910 team and scored four times against Fluminense. A machine-gun officer, he was killed by a bombshell on the morning of Sept. 25, 1915, while leading an offensive against enemy lines.
One of the greatest Corinthians was Thomas Rowlandson, who made his debut in 1903 and kept goal for the club 150 times, until the summer of 1910. His greatest moment is perhaps standing aside to let the opposition score a penalty in South Africa in 1907, as he refused to accept that intentional foul play could exist in football -- perhaps the best known example of the "Corinthians Spirit" of fair play. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme on Sept. 15, 1916, the same day as the goalkeeper who replaced him on the 1910 tour, Reginald Rodgers.
"I have always thought him the finest type of Englishman I have ever known, and his death was just as fine as his life. He died where, of all places, I think he would have chosen... at the head of his men," a fellow officer wrote. Rowlandson was awarded the military cross in October 1916.
Corinthians-Casuals plan to return to Sao Paulo in January 2015 to play their Brazilian namesakes.
"It means everything to return to Brazil, 100 years after the tour that never happened in 1914. That team contained some of the most outstanding players in the world at the time, and they inspired millions with their wonderful football. We might no longer be the greatest team in the world, but we are proud to keep their traditions alive, and we're delighted S.C. Corinthians Paulista have kept the Corinthian name alive at the top of world football," Corinthians-Casuals director Chris Watney told ESPN FC.
"This will be our tribute to that golden generation, to celebrate the Corinthian family around the world that they inspired all those years ago, before dying tragically, fighting for our freedom, on the battlefields of World War I."
 
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