A group of Watford supporters are trying to track down former football players and stories from the Second World War 80 years after it began.

Football Remembers WWII has been launched to gather the voices of ex-footballers who served in the war and they are approaching supporters of all Premier League clubs to collect their stories.

One of those looking for players and stories relating to Watford is supporter Pete Bradshaw, who wants to hear about anyone who may have played for the Hornets who also served in the war, or even just watched the sport at the time.

He said: “It’s a project that’s being run by a company called Big Ideas in conjunction with the Premier League. They’ve got in touch with all the clubs in the Premier League to try to put together something reflecting on how football might remember the Second World War.

“Their initial thought is whether there might be any players still alive, it’s unlikely there’ll be many, but they have found some that they’re interviewing.

“After that I think they may well be interested in any stories people might have, maybe fans who went when they were children to games during the war and how football might have been a diversion, it was cheap and accessible entertainment so they might be interested in those stories.”

One former player whose story the project is keen to collect is that of Tony Collins, who played for the Hornets later on in his career and was the first ever black league manager with Rochdale.

Collins was first scouted while on service during the war in Italy and went on to be a scout for Manchester United in later life where he was credited with finding a number of successful United players, including Lee Sharpe.

He is one of just a select few people Bradshaw thinks he will be able to get in touch with for the project, but he admits the chances of finding anyone else are slim.

He said: “We had an inkling that Watford’s oldest surviving player died recently. He was born in 1925 so even he wouldn’t have played in the war, so I doubt we would have anybody, but you never know.”

Anyone who may have any information that may help with this project can get in touch with Virginia Crompton at Big Ideas on virginia.crompton@big-ideas.org