Ralph Shields

Ralph Shields (1892 – 21 November 1944) was an English professional football forward who played in the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Exeter City and Brentford.

Football career
As a young man, Shields was a miner but he played for his local junior club Newbiggin Athletic in the Wansbeck League. In 1913, he was playing for Choppington Alliance when he was spotted by Newcastle United and was transferred to them for a fee of £40 on 30 October 1913. Shields never played for the first XI at Newcastle United and in May 1914, Second Division club Huddersfield Town paid a £100 fee for his signature. The following season, 1914–15, Shields was Huddersfield Town's leading goal scorer, with 16 goals in 29 appearances.

The season after World War I, 1919–20, he was part of the Huddersfield Town side which gained promotion from the Second Division to the First Division, appearing 13 times and scoring 3 goals. In December 1920, Shields was transferred to Exeter City in a part-exchange deal for £2,000, plus William Wright. During the remainder of the 1920–21 season, he scored 4 goals in 19 appearances. In August 1921, he was transferred to Brentford to play in the 1921–22 season, appearing in 9 matches and scoring just one goal. This was to be his last season in the Football League. He then appeared for Sittingbourne in the Kent League for a number of seasons before moving back to the North East to play for Blyth Spartans in the North Eastern League.

Personal life
As with many footballers during World War I, Shields signed up to serve and did so as a bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery. In October 1927, Shields and his family emigrated to Australia to build a new life in Concord, New South Wales. In the course of his service with the Australian Army Service Corps in Malaya during World War II, he was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army and transferred to the Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp in North Borneo and interred as a POW. He died on 21 November 1944 and is buried at the Labuan War Cemetery in Malaysia.