Frederick Charles Keenor (31 July 1894 – 19 October 1972) was a Welsh professional footballer. He began his career at his hometown side Cardiff City after impressing the club's coaching staff in a trial match in 1912 organised by his former schoolteacher. A hard tackling defender, he appeared sporadically for the team in the Southern Football League before his spell at the club was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Keenor served in the 17th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, led by Major Frank Buckley, which became known as the Football Battalion. He fought in the Battle of the Somme, suffering a severe shrapnel wound to his thigh in 1916. He returned to Britain and after a lengthy rehabilitation he ended the war as a physical training instructor, reaching the rank of sergeant. He also appeared as a guest player for Brentford during the war.
Overcoming doubts about the possibility of playing again, Keenor returned to the game with Cardiff as they embarked on the most successful period in their history. They won promotion to the First Division one season after joining the Football League in 1920. Keenor helped the club to the 1925 FA Cup Final, in which Cardiff suffered a 1–0 defeat to Sheffield United. In 1926, he replaced the departing Jimmy Blair as club captain, leading the team to success in the 1927 FA Cup Final later in the season, in which they defeated Arsenal 1–0. Their triumph remains the only time the competition has been won by a team based outside England.
Keenor was released by Cardiff at the end of the 1930–31 season, which saw the club relegated to the Third Division South. During his time at Cardiff, he made more than 500 appearances for the club, winning four Welsh Cup titles, the FA Cup and the FA Charity Shield in a 19-year association with the side. He is regarded as one of the club's all-time greats. A statue of Keenor, lifting the FA Cup, was erected outside Cardiff's new ground, the Cardiff City Stadium, in November 2012 following a public fundraising campaign.
Keenor finished his career with spells at Crewe Alexandra, Oswestry Town and Tunbridge Wells Rangers. During his career, he also attained 32 caps for the Wales national football team. He helped the side win the British Home Championship three times, in 1920, 1924 and 1928, and captained the side on numerous occasions, scoring two goals. Following his death in 1972, the Football Association of Wales secretary Trevor Morris commented, "Fred Keenor will go down as one of the greatest players and greatest characters ever produced by Wales".
Early life Frederick Charles Keenor was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 31 July 1894. He was one of eleven children born to Robert and Mary Keenor. The family lived in a terraced house in Theodora Street in Roath, a working class suburb of Cardiff. His father was a stonemason in the city, working long hours to be able to afford employing Elizabeth Maler, a live-in nanny, to help his wife care for their children. Although they were not regarded as being in poverty, the family lived in cramped conditions; Keenor shared a bedroom with three of his brothers in a house that did not have an inside toilet. Their home did have electricity, which had been introduced in Cardiff fewer than ten years earlier.
Keenor developed a keen interest in football as a child, using tennis balls to play the game in his local streets. Due to the cost of footballs, he and his friends would also use rags tied together to form a ball. He attended Stacey Road Primary School in Adamsdown where he captained the school's football team for several years. He led the side to an undefeated season to win the local schools division in 1908. He was later selected to represent the city of Cardiff's schoolboy team and developed a reputation as a promising footballer. One of his former teachers, Walter Riden, went on to join the board at Cardiff City while Keenor was a player.
Early football career Cardiff City Keenor's former teacher Riden invited him to attend a trial at Cardiff City in 1912 after spotting him playing local amateur football for Cardiff-based side Roath Wednesday. Keenor later said that he "did not think twice about it". He was impressive enough during a trial match to be offered an amateur contract with the club at the age of 17. He joined Cardiff City as the club was looking to establish itself as a professional football team having joined the newly formed Second Division of the Southern Football League two years earlier. The club's amateur side competed in the Western Football League and Keenor appeared several times in games. A loss to Camerton during a Western League fixture left a lasting impression on him after an over-confident Cardiff side suffered an upset, losing 3–1 in a match they were widely expected to win. Keenor often spoke of using the defeat as motivation in later stages of his career, remarking, "In subsequent seasons I always thought of that game when we were supposed to be on a 'good thing'. It has a moral which I pass on to every young footballer".
His whole-hearted performances for the amateur side persuaded the club to offer Keenor his first professional contract. Although he was given a wage of 10 shillings per week, he continued to work locally as a labourer. He described his two streams of income as making him "feel like a millionaire". The Cardiff squad was undergoing a significant overhaul under the management team of secretary-manager Fred Stewart and trainer George Latham; all but four of the senior team players they had inherited from previous manager Davy McDougall were released. The pair were impressed by Keenor's performances and handed him first-team opportunities at the end of the 1912–13 season. Keenor featured in two friendly matches, a 9–0 victory over Bridgend YMCA, in which he scored, and a 1–1 draw with Mid Rhondda. The presence of Billy Hardy, Patrick Cassidy and Kidder Harvey, who became known as the "holy three" by fans, restricted his first-team opportunities as the trio ensured the club won promotion to the First Division of the Southern Football League after conceding just 15 goals during the campaign. Keenor was forced to wait until 6 December 1913 to make his competitive debut for the club, playing in a 1–1 draw with Exeter City in the First Division. He endured a difficult start and was described in a local newspaper report as "the weak link in a very strong side". He made just two further appearances for the side during the remainder of the 1913–14 season. He featured in a 2–1 victory over Plymouth Argyle and a 0–0 draw with Millwall.
1914–15 season
The following season, Keenor became much more involved in the first team at Ninian Park, Cardiff's home ground. After missing the opening game of the season, a defeat to Watford, he featured in five consecutive matches to replace an injured Cassidy. His performance during a victory over Brighton & Hove Albion earned glowing reviews in the Athletic News. Cassidy's return from injury saw Keenor drop out of the side. He did not appear for the first team from October 1914 until a match on 2 January 1915. Following this, he featured in 15 of his side's next 18 matches.
During the season, Cardiff came under pressure from local newspapers, most notably the Western Mail, for the club's perceived lack of contributions to the war effort. The Western Mail printed numerous scathing comments focused on association football clubs and even refused to report on Cardiff's matches for a time. The club later countered the paper's actions by accusing it of chasing "cheap popularity". Keenor, himself a patriot, was torn between the two, having finally established himself in the first team after three years at Ninian Park. He eventually enlisted in February 1915, along with teammate Jack Stephenson, trainer George Latham, who had previous military experience having served in the Second Boer War, and two of the club's directors. He joined the 17th Middlesex Battalion, which became known as the Football Battalion due to the many footballers who made up the core of the unit. Led by former England international Frank Buckley, the regiment had been founded by William Joynson-Hicks, 1st Viscount Brentford, in December 1914 in the hope of attracting footballers and fans into enlisting in the armed forces.
Stationed in London with the regiment, an arrangement was made allowing players to return to their clubs for league matches to fulfill their contractual obligations. Keenor travelled by train every weekend to the venue of each Cardiff fixture to keep playing and was listed in the matchday programmes as "Private Keenor" for the remainder of the season. Cardiff finished the season in third place in the First Division. Keenor made 21 appearances in the league during the season, scoring two goals. The effects of the war effort crippled the club's finances. With travel restrictions placed on train services, and local men enlisting en masse, Cardiff's income from attendances dwindled. The situation became so dire that players were told to look for part-time jobs during the summer break in case the club was unable to pay their wages. When they threatened to strike, the club's committee approached Keenor over the possibility of forming a squad from his fellow soldiers of the Football Battalion. With the war escalating, the Football Association officially suspended all its competitions at the end of the 1914–15 season, negating any need for Keenor to raise a team.
First World War
Keenor and his battalion were moved to the country residence of the regiment's founder, William Joynson-Hicks, near Dorking, where they began basic training. Keenor was a notoriously poor shot with a rifle, even being described by the regimental sergeant major as "the worst shot he had ever seen". During their posting, the battalion organised a fixture against Cardiff City on 2 October 1915. Keenor was originally due to play for the army side against his club, but Cardiff manager Fred Stewart asked that he play for his club side. The match ended in a 1–0 victory for the battalion.
One month after the match, on 16 November, Keenor and his battalion began the journey to France to join the front lines. They billeted in the village of Les Ciseaux for one month before moving to the city of Béthune. Most of his posting during his battalion's first months in France involved training and guard duty. On 9 December 1915, they were posted to Annequin near the front line. They were soon moved into the main trenches, which were knee-deep in mud and infested with rats. His battalion remained on duty until 22 December when they were relieved, resting in the nearby village of Beuvry over Christmas. Cardiff City organised regular collections at their wartime fixtures during this period to send parcels to Keenor and Jack Stephenson containing letters from fans and home comforts. The Middlesex Battalion claimed the Divisional Football Cup with relative ease, defeating a team from the 34th Brigade 11–0 in the final on 11 April 1916; each player received a winners' medal made of bronze.
The war soon took its toll on the battalion as they began suffering casualties from the fighting, including Buckley who suffered severe shrapnel injuries. Having returned to the front, the regiment was involved in the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in history, in particularly the Battle of Delville Wood. Keenor later described the scene during what he called a "hellish battle", stating: