Heber Percy Slatter (1887 – 7 May 1918) was an English amateur

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 ...

who played in the Southern League for

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

as a left half. He also played in the Isthmian League for

Oxford City Oxford City Football Club is a semi-professional English association football club based in Marston, Oxford. They currently compete in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, and play their home matches at Marsh Lane. ...

Personal life

Slatter was born in

Earley Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of loca ...

and grew up in

. He attended

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

, and later worked as a

tax collector A tax collector (also called a taxman) is a person who collects unpaid taxes from other people or corporations. The term could also be applied to those who audit tax returns. Tax collectors are often portrayed as being evil, and in the modern wo ...

for Reading Council. He was married with two children. In November 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 ...

, Slatter enlisted as a gunner in the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

. After being posted to the Western Front in 1916, he was promoted to

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

. He was wounded by shellfire at

Foncquevillers Foncquevillers () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography A farming village situated south of Arras, at the junction of the D3, D6 and the D28 roads. Population World War I Foncqu ...

on 3 May 1918 and died of wounds four days later. Slatter was buried in Couin New British Cemetery.

Honours

Reading * Southern League Second Division: 1910–11

References

1887 births 1918 deaths People from Earley Footballers from Berkshire English men's footballers Reading F.C. players British Army personnel of World War I Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers British military personnel killed in World War I {{England-footy-defender-1880s-stub Men's association football wing halves Oxford City F.C. players Isthmian League players People educated at Christ's Hospital Tax collectors Burials at Couin New British Cemetery Military personnel from Berkshire