George Andrew Lake (12 May 1889 – 6 November 1918) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who made one appearance in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for Chelsea as a

left half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Personal life

In 1915, during the second year of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Lake enlisted as a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

in the 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Divisional Cyclist Company. He was later transferred to the Hampshire Regiment (later the

Royal Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The reg ...

) for service overseas, eventually joining the 2nd/4th Battalion of the regiment. Lake died of wounds on 6 November 1918, five days before the armistice with Germany, two days after his battalion's attempt to cross the Sambre–Oise Canal near

Frasnoy Frasnoy () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of the 648 communes of the Nord department of the French Republic. The communes cooperate in t ...

, France. He was buried in Frasnoy Communal Cemetery. Lake was one of the two last English footballers to die in the war, dying on the same day as Edward Thompson. His great-nephew, Paul, would also become a footballer.

Career statistics

References

1889 births 1918 deaths Military personnel from Merseyside People from Eastham, Merseyside Sportspeople from Wirral English men's footballers English Football League players Men's association football wing halves British Army personnel of World War I Army Cyclist Corps soldiers British military personnel killed in World War I Royal Hampshire Regiment soldiers Chelsea F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Footballers from Merseyside {{England-footy-midfielder-1880s-stub