26th July 1906

Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

Goalkeeper

Henry Cecil Babb was a St Luke's College student who played for Exeter City Reserves in 1928 and later served as a military chaplain. He was a prisoner of war in the Far East.

A former student of Huish's Grammar School in Taunton, he was training at St Luke's College in Exeter when invited to appear in goal for Exeter City reserves against Bristol Rovers in a Southern League fixture on 17 March 1928. After gaining his teaching qualification he taught science in India for a number of years.

Later becoming a military chaplain, he attended Cambridge University to gain theological qualifications and played against Oxford in the Varsity match at Highbury in 1937 around which time he also turned out for Cambridge City. A chaplain to the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, he played for Erith and Belvedere during 1938/39 before a posting to Singapore.

Taken prisoner after fall of Singapore in 1941, he was able to return home to Taunton after the war and subsequently became a lecturer at the Culham teacher training college near Oxford. Awarded the MBE, he died in 1987 aged eighty-one.

Henry's recollections about his military service were recorded in 1975 and can be heard on the Imperial War Museum website.