On 19 June 1915, Geraldton’s Thistle and Queen’s Park Rangers teams met for a game of football. The players of both teams wore black armbands. Thistle for Private John Arthur Allen and Rangers for William Vincent Allen. The two brothers served in the 11th Battalion and were with the first landing force at Gallipoli. Tragically they were killed in action on the very same day, 2 May 1915. Two days earlier the Geraldton Guardian reported on the fallen soldier:
A telegram was received by Dean Drayne yesterday conveying the news that Private J. A. Allen had been killed at the Dardanelles. Private Allen, with his brother, Sergt. Vince Allen, volunteered with the first contingent from Geraldton. Deceased, who was about 21 or 22 years of age was engaged on the jetty. He was very popular and was a member of the Thistle Soccer Football Club. His parents, Mr and Mrs W. A. Allen, formerly lived in Francis Street, but returned to England last year, arriving there just before the war broke out. They are now living at No 51. Trigon St. South Lambeth, London, SW, and cable was despatched from Geraldton today informing them of their son’s death.
In another sad footnote, on 21 August 1914 the Geraldton Thistle club had held a send-off at the Club Hotel for John Allen and two other Thistle players, Frederick Guest and William Chapman. The three team mates joined the 11th Battalion, C Company, and landed together at Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April 1915. John Allen’s two team mates survived Gallipoli but, sadly, did not survive the war. William Chapman was killed in a field in Belgium on 30 October 1917 and Frederick Guest met the same fate on 8 August 1918 in a field in France.