1916–17 Chelsea F.C. season

Chelsea
1916–17 season
Chairman	Claude Kirby
Manager	David Calderhead
Stadium	Stamford Bridge
London Combination	3rd
Top goalscorer	League: ; All: Bob Thomson (27)
Biggest win	6–0 v Reading; (14 October 1916)
Biggest defeat	1–4 v Luton Town; (30 December 1916)
Home colours	Away colours
	← 1915–16 1917–18 →

The 1916–17 season was Chelsea Football Club's eleventh year in existence. Due to the ongoing First World War, the Football League and the FA Cup were suspended so the club instead participated in the London Combination, an unofficial regional league mainly comprising teams from London. Results and statistics from these matches are not considered official. Chelsea finished 3rd in the league.^[1]

Bob Whiting, a goalkeeper who played for Chelsea from 1906 to 1908, was killed in action whilst assaulting a fortified German position at Oppy Wood during the Battle of Arras on 28 April 1917 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.^[2]^[3]^[4] In April 1917, former Chelsea striker George Hilsdon was wounded in a mustard gas attack at Arras, though he survived.^[5]

Notes

^ "England 1916/17". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF). Retrieved 10 January 2022.
^ "Robert (Bob) 'Pom Pom' Whiting". robertpompomwhiting.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
^ "Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
^ "Chelsea in the First World War". chelseafc.com. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
^ "George Hilsdon". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 10 January 2022.

References

Glanvill, Rick (2006). Chelsea FC: The Official Biography – The Definitive Story of the First 100 Years. Headline Book Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7553-1466-2.
Hockings, Ron. 100 Years of The Blues – A Statistical History of Chelsea FC 1905–2006.