Clarets FA Cup victory shirt goes on display at National Football Museum

The top, worn in the 1914 final by Burnley winger Edwin Mosscrop, will be featured in a free display called The Greater Game — Football And The First World War.

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Mosscrop’s medal from the 1-0 win over Liverpool at Crystal Palace — the first final to be played in front of a reigning monarch — will also be rehomed at the Manchester museum.

The twice-capped England international, who scored 20 goals in 198 games for the Clarets, went on to serve with the Army in Salonika during the First World War. He returned to Burnley in 1919.

The Southport-born player had appealed as a conscientious objector when conscription was introduced in 1916. But he went on to become a sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Kevin Moore, director of the National Football Museum, said: “We are delighted to be able to exhibit Eddie Mosscrop’s 1914 FA Cup final shirt and medal. His story is typical of the footballers of the day — his career was put on hold while he fought in the war and then restarted on his return from the front.

“His place in history is assured not only by his service in the Armed Forces but also by the fact that he was a player in Burnley’s 1914 FA Cup final victory. This was the last FA Cup final played at Crystal Palace and the first played in front of a reigning monarch.”

King George V attended the game, which Burnley won thanks to a goal from Bert Freeman. Mosscrop went on to lift the First Division title with the Clarets in 1921 — he retired the following year to become a teacher.

Mosscrop’s England caps, which came against Wales and Scotland in 1914, were bought by Burnley FC historian Ray Simpson at auction in 2011.

The National Football Museum said that Mosscrop’s FA Cup final shirt and medal had been donated by a private collector. The First World War exhibition, at the Urbis Building in Cathedral Gardens, Todd Street, opens on December 19.