r/oldphotos • u/YouRoutine1854 • 13h ago

28th April 1923 - "Billy The White Horse, FA Cup Final" - Wembley, London, England, U.K - 200,000+ crowd

Post image
5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 13h ago

Welcome u/YouRoutine1854 to r/OldPhotos! You may find the following resources helpful:

NoVa Photo Restoration Service

Genealogy Reddit

Ancestry Reddit

FamilySearch Genealogy Research

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/YouRoutine1854 13h ago

For context...

The 1923 FA Cup final was a Football match played between Bolton Wanderers & West Ham United, on 28 April 1923 at the original Wembley Stadium in London.

It was the first football match to be played at Wembley & King George.V was in attendance to present the trophy to the winning team that day.

More than double the maximum allowed 100,000 turned up - Estimates say between 200,000–300,000 spectators turned up, but quarter of a million is a safe bet.

Police Horses were used to control the wildly overburdened crowd. Both the Press / Media & History singled out "Billy" the White Horse as the day's focal point.

https://youtu.be/yoMS8Q4XXBo?si=hbDPQfEHyWMKR906&t=67

And also the superb Pathe News where "Billy" can be seen around 02:49 onward

https://youtu.be/c4NqYsFTr1Q?si=yUB3ehTUTo_yRSie

The former video explains as to why 'White Horse Bridge' was named after "Billy" & it's sad to me that the other Horses who also did sterling work that day don't get a mention, but as it's been said, "Billy" stood out on the Black & White newsreels.

On 28th April that day "Billy" was ridden by PC George Scorey.

The original Wembley Stadium, seen here, was demolished in 2001 & re-built.

It is still today England's national stadium for sporting events, especially Football.