A RARE FA Cup winner's medal presented nearly 100 years ago to
a tragic Worksop-born Barnsley footballer is expected to fetch
up to £6,000 when it is auctioned later this month.
The 15 carat gold medal was presented to Wilf Bartrop after he
helped Barnsley win the FA Cup at Bramall Lane in Sheffield on
April 24, 1912.
The win was Barnsley's first and only FA Cup victory time in
their 121-year history, and the only time the FA Cup final has
been staged in Sheffield.
The sale of the medal - at Bonhams in Chester on February 27 -
is particularly poignant, because just six years after the
presentation Bartrop was killed, four days before the end of
the First World War.
Wilfred Bartrop was Barnsley's outside right in the 1912 final
which attracted a crowd of 38,555. Barnsley won 1-0 with only
two minutes of extra time remaining.
Bartrop made 160 league appearances and 26 FA Cup appearances
for the Tykes before he was transferred to Liverpool in 1914.
His career was cut short because of the First World War and in
1915 he returned to his native Worksop and worked at a coal
mine.
He then enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery, but was killed
in Belgium on November 7, 1918, just four days before the
Armistice was signed and just 15 days before what would have
been his 31st birthday.
Prof Peter Holland, the 44-year-old Linacre Professor of
Zoology at Oxford University, whose maternal grandfather was
Bartrop's cousin, has written a book - as yet unpublished -
about his famous relative and has visited his grave in
Belgium.
He has also discovered Bartrop may have fibbed about his age.
According to Barnsley FC historian Arthur Bower and official
Football League records, Bartrop was born in 1889, but Prof
Holland says he was actually born two years earlier in 1887.
It is not clear why he wanted to make himself two years
younger.
It is though Patrick Cryne - Barnsley FC's millionaire backer
- may bid for the Bartrop medal and bring it home to South
Yorkshire.
He is already said to own the 1912 medal which belonged to
Bartrop's Barnsley teammate, George Lillycrop
Information Supplied By John Holland
An FA Cup winner's medal presented in Sheffield to a
Barnsley FC player is on its way back to South Yorkshire –
96 years after it was won. The 1912 medal, presented to
Worksop-born Wilf Bartrop, was snapped up at auction by
multi-millionaire Barnsley FC backer Patrick Cryne. The
determined buyer beat off rival bidders – including
Bartrop's relative, Oxford University Professor Peter Holland
– to buy the 15 carat gold medal at Bonhams in Chester.
The medal sold for £14,400 – more than double its expected
selling price.
Barnsley won the FA Cup at Bramall Lane on April 24, 1912,
the only time the Cup Final has been played in Yorkshire.
Bartrop was killed, in 1918, aged 30, four days before the end
of the First World War.
Information taken from Bonhams site
| Sale
15968, Sporting Memorabilia, 27 Feb 2008 CHESTER
|
| Lot No |
Description |
Price |
| 342 |
1912
F.A. Cup Final winners gold medal |
£14,400 |
