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Post by Avinalaff on Aug 30, 2014 10:39:11 GMT
Opportunity to pay respects to a gallant Goodison soldier
Everton will make the short trip to Lille in the Europa League on Thursday October 23rd – just a fortnight before the Rembrance Sunday services.
Fans planning to make the trip to France – in the year that the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War is being commemorated – may wish to know that former Everton player Wilf Toman is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave cemetery about 30 minutes away from Lille.
Toman was laod to rest in a place called Erquinghem-Lys.
The nearest station to Erquinghem-Lys is Armentieres which is a short 20 minutes train ride from Lille Flanders station.
Toman was a striker who played for the Blues in two spells, scoring 10 goals in 29 appearances.
Everton signed him from Burnley in 1898 where he remained until 1900, before he was enticed to the south coast to join Southampton.
According to a history of The Saints, Toman was “rather prone to accidents but was a game player who often turned out despite his injuries.”
Playing alongside former Evertonians Edgar Chadwick and Alf Milward, Toman helped Southampton reclaim the Southern League title before returning to Everton at the end of the season.
He scored in his first match back with the Blues before sustaining a serious injury in his second game which effectively ended his career.
On the outbreak of War he enlisted in Liverpool’s King’s Regiment and was killed at the Western Front on 2 May 1917.
Source: Echo
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