and setting the record for a transaction between English clubs. The fee sparked outrage across the country amid a moral debate over the value of a single human being when lives were being lost to war so cheaply.

The cancellation of the league programme meant that the Rams had to wait 5 years to play First Division football again as the outbreak of World War I led to the suspension of the Football League until 1919, when it reconvened. During this five-year break, Derby played one season in the wartime Midlands Section during 1915–16, before closing down for the duration of the war, the majority of the club's players turning out for Notts County. The end of the War in November 1918 came too late to start a propersaw the club top of the league for 15 consecutive weeks from October until February but, instead of reaching out, contrived to lose 3 consecutive home games and 9 of their last 14 fixtures and ended up 6th in the table. McCulloch was, harshly, held up to have been a failure – despite hitting 16 in 31 matches and finishing as the club's joint top scorer alongside Ronnie Dix, with contemporary accounts saying the marauding style that had served him so well at Brentford for a more intricate style.

The War years (1939–1946)

A 1939–40 season did start, but was abandoned after three fixtures, which brought 2 wins and a defeat for Derby. Derby where offered a place in a substitute competition but, mindful of criticism of being unpatriotic after