The Bristol Rovers History Group. |
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John Angus. 1939-40.
Born, 12.3.1909, Amble. Died, August 1965, Whipton, Devon. Career: Amble Welfare; September 1928 Wolverhampton Wanderers; 1929 Wath Athletic; 1929 Scunthorpe and Lindsey United; May 1930 Exeter City [249,1]; July 1948 Sidmouth; July 1949 Exmouth (player-coach). A full-back who played just once for Rovers during the unofficial 1939-40 season, Jack Angus enjoyed a highly productive career at Exeter both sides of World War Two, playing in thirteen Football League fixtures against Rovers in the eight seasons prior to the outbreak of war. Unable to make the first-team at Scunthorpe, he first appeared in the Grecians’ side for the 2-1 victory at Norwich City in December 1930 and he scored in the 2-2 draw at Reading in March 1932, before making his final appearance for Exeter at Newport County in September 1947. He was in the Grecians’ side which defeated Torquay United 1-0 in May 1934 to win the Division Three (South) Cup Final and received a joint benefit match with Richard “Digger” Ebdon in March 1948. Player-coach at Exmouth after his fortieth birthday, Angus worked for British Rail. |
Colin Binham. 1945-46.
Born, Cardiff, Having married Margaret O’Neill in Plymouth in the spring of 1945, Colin Binham represented Rovers twice in the 1945-46 wartime season. A former Welsh schoolboy international, he had served in the Royal Air Force and played as an amateur in the 3-0 victory over Torquay United in September 1945, as well as the 2-1 home victopry over Exeter City five days later. He and Margaret lived in Birmingham for many years. |
(Lew) Llewelyn Booth. 1939-40.
Born, 28.2.1912, Merthyr Tydfil. Died, 1984, Swansea. Career: Aberaman; Merthyr Town; August 1934 Swansea Town [1,0]; June 1935 Aberaman; August 1935 Bangor City; 12.11.36 Bristol City (£350) [65,22]; March 1947 Haverfordwest County. A prolific goal-scorer at Bangor, Lew Booth made his Bristol City début in a 3-1 victory over Newport County in November 1936 and appeared regularly at Ashton Gate. He scored against Millwall in the semi-final of the 1938 Third Division (South) Cup Final, but missed the two-legged final, and later scored six times in seventeen wartime games with City. The Robins missed out on promotion to Division Two by just one point in the spring of 1938. The following campaign, he played against Rovers for the only time in his career, scoring as the two Bristol sides fought out a 1-1 draw in February 1939. He switched allegiances to Eastville to appear in one game for Rovers in the 1939-40 wartime season and lived in Bristol until his death. His career had initially started with an appearance for Swansea in a 4-1 defeat at Fulham in Division Two in December 1934. The son of Llewellyn Booth (1886-1951) and Mary-Jane Bryant (1888-1949), he married Margaret Hughes in 1932 and had a son, Tom. |
R Caldwell. 1939-40.
Born, 22.6.1909, South Kirkby. Died, 1974, Peterborough. Career: South Kirkby Colliery; August 1933 Doncaster Rovers [3,0]; May 1936 Bristol City [39,3]; 1939 Bristol Rovers. Prominent at left-half in the 1-1 draw before a crowd of 6,627 at Southampton in April 1940 and at right-half when Rovers and Cardiff City drew 3-3 two months later, Bob Caldwell scored three goals in 21 appearances for Rovers in the 1939-40 wartime season. He was impressive in the 2-2 draw at Swansea Town that January, when “the accurate half-back play of the Rovers was one of the best features of the game”. He had played for Bristol City against Rovers in Division Three (South) in both September 1936 and October 1938, having scored against Queen’s Park Rangers on his August 1936 début, and later appeared in three Doncaster away defeats in January 1936, 3-0 losses at Sheffield United and Charlton and a 5-1 thumping at Bury. |
Robert Clarke. 1945-46.
Born? Died? A prolific goal-scorer, “Nobby” Clark scored fifteen goals in 22 games for Rovers in the 1945-46 wartime season, including a hat-trick in a 5-4 defeat against Aldershot in September 1945. He had also scored three goals during the abbreviated 1944-45 wartime campaign. After the war, he worked as an inspector in the Drilling and Boring section of Masson Scott Thrissell Engineering on Easton Road, working alongside “Ginger” Roost’s son Geoff. |
Fredrick William Crack. 1939-40.
Born, 12.1.1919, Lincoln. Died, September 2002, North Yorkshire. Career: Lincoln City School Old Boys; 1935 Grimsby Town [29,7]; 1939 Lincoln City School Old Boys; 1946 Grimsby Town (to 1947). A corporal in the Army during World War Two, Crack represented the Northern Command against the Police and Fire Service at Grimsby in February 1944. He played in four games, scoring three goals, in the 1939-40 wartime season, his final game being at outside-right when Rovers drew 1-1 with Southampton in April 1940. Crack had made his Grimsby début in Division One against Manchester City in May 1936 and he scored twice in a 5-1 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday in March 1937. Five feet nine inches tall and weighing eleven stone four pounds, he was in the Mariners’ side which lost 5-0 to Wolves at Old Trafford in an FA Cup semi-final in March 1939, playing seventy minutes at wing-half after Grimsby’s goalkeeper had been stretchered off, but did not reappear in their side after World War Two. An only child of William Crack and Eleanor Herriman, he married Beryl Brown in 1950 and had three daughters, Ann, Caroline and Stephanie. |
Walter Dixon. 1945-?
Born? Died? Five feet eleven inches in height and weighing in at eleven stone eleven pounds, Walter Dixon had appeared in Scottish Junior football prior to serving in the Royal Navy. He played in one game for Rovers in the 1945-46 wartime season, against Cardiff City on Christmas Day 1945. |
Walter Eager. 1944-45.
Born, 1927, Bristol. Died, December, 2013. A son of Walter Charles Eager (1903-82) and Daisy May Weeks (1903-93) of Long Ashton, Walter Eager scored one goal for Rovers in the 1944-45 wartime season and replaced the injured Wilf Whitfield for the Possibles against the Probables in Rovers’ August 1946 pre-season trial match. He married Jean Ewers in 1950 and they had a daughter Christine, and a son Stephen. |
J W Firth. 1945-46.
Born? Died? This player appeared in three games for Rovers in the 1945-46 wartime season. It is possible that he was Joe Firth, born in Glasshoughton on 27th March 1909 and died 1983, who joined Leeds United from Glasshoughton in 1928 [72,25], Southend United in 1935 [33,12], York City in the spring of 1938 [6,1] and Rochdale in 1938 [16,6]. |
Clifford J Gingell.
Born, 1928, Bristol. Died? Cliff Gingell, who played in three games in the 1945-46 wartime season, including the 4-2 home victory against Port Vale in February 1946, when Rovers raced to a 3-0 half-time lead, is believed to be the middle of three children of Robert Gingell and Edith Clark. |
Royston Jennings. 1945-46.
Born, 1927, Bristol. Died? Career: Chipping Sodbury; 18.10.45 Bristol Rovers. Having served in the Army in Vienna, Roy Jennings may have appeared for Rovers at the tail end of the 1945-46 campaign. He is believed to be the elder of two sons of Jesse Jennings (1895-1970) and Elsie Dauncey, who married in Bristol in 1925. |
Clifford George Long. 1945-46.
Born, 5.1.1915, Newport, Monmouthshire. Died, February, 2005, South Gloucestershire. A forward, who played in seven games for Rovers, scoring four goals, in the 1945-46 wartime season after signing from BAC Patchway, Cliff Long was the middle of three children to Theophilus George Long (1879-1935) and Rosina Reakes (1884-1965), a couple from Shepton Mallet who moved to South Wales. Rosina was the eldest child of Mark Reakes (1860-1940) and Matilda Jacobs, whilst Theophilus was the son of William George Long (1841-1904) and Ellen Brimble (1843-1927). Cliff Long married Vera Cook in 1935 and they had two children, Sheila and Douglas, and eight grandchildren. In October 1945 he scored a hat-trick for the reserves against BAC at Southmead. On his first appearance for Rovers’ first-team, against Torquay United in February 1946, he “did quite well [and] distributed the ball cleverly”. |
Percy Maggs. 1939-40.
Born, 29.11.1906, Clutton. Died, 19.12.1985, Griffithstown, Monmouthshire. Career: Clutton; Welton Rovers; Bath City; April 1927 Bristol Rovers; May 1928 Aston Villa [12,0]; May 1931 Blackpool [24,0]; June 1932 Torquay United [206,0] (to 1939). An experienced goalkeeper, Percy Maggs played in two games for Rovers in the 1939-40 wartime season, having been on the club’s books more than a decade earlier. A burst of top-flight appearances for Villa in 1930-31 had included a 7-0 victory over Manchester United in December 1930 and a 5-5 draw away to West Ham United the following month. Very tall, he had made his Torquay début in a 3-3 draw with Coventry City at Plainmoor in August 1932 and, as an ever-present in 1932-33, played in both League fixtures that Easter against Rovers. In fact, between April 1933 and January 1938, Maggs played against Rovers in nine separate Football League fixtures. He may be the Percy Maggs who married Emma Gunter in Bristol in 1935. |
John McGahie. 1945-46.
Born? Died? Career: Plymouth Argyle; 1945 Bristol Rovers. Right-half John McGahie played in twelve games, scoring once (Rovers’ second in a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth in December 1945) in the 1945-46 wartime season and also apparently played wartime football with Clapton Orient. He was also possibly on the books of Blackpool. |
John Law McNeil. 194-46.
Born, 1906, Inverkeithing. Died, 2002, Fife. Career: Bo’ness; Musselburgh Bruntonians; 12.9.25 Heart of Midlothian [29,18]; 18.1.27 Raith Rovers (loan) [6,5]; 7.12.28 Portsmouth [12,5]; January 1930 Reading [39,5]; 1931 Airdrieonians (trial); 1931 Shelbourne (trial); 1932 Guildford City; 1933 Inverness Caledonian; August 1934 Plymouth Argyle [138,12]; May 1939 Clapton Orient (free); 1946 Merthyr Tydfil (manager); June 1947 Torquay United (manager); March 1950 Bury (manager, to 29.11.53). Used at the heart of defence or attack, Johnny McNeil appeared in just one game during the 1939-40 wartime season, having also played in Orient’s three games of the season aborted at the onset of World War Two. During a decade of Football League fare, he had never opposed Rovers in the League. However, he returned for one wartime guest appearance for Argyle in January 1940 and this fixture was a 2-0 victory over Rovers at Home Park. A Physical Training instructor in the Royal Air Force during the war, he was Merthyr’s manager when they defeated Rovers in the FA Cup and was subsequently awarded an electric clock when he left Torquay. |
Fredrick Mitchinson. 1939-40.
Born, 20.3.1912, Westerhope, Northumberland. Died, 1994, Torquay. Career: Jarrow; March 1932 Wolverhampton Wanderers; July 1933 Port Vale [49,8]; November 1935 Plymouth Argyle [93,25]; July 1939 Ipwich Town; 26.9.46 Yeovil Town; 22.5.47 Plymouth Argyle (assistant groundsman). Having made his début at Old Trafford seven day earlier, Fred Mitcheson, who had previously been a colliery worker, scored a hat-trick against his future club Plymouth Argyle in a 4-0 victory at The Old Recreation Ground in April 1934. Thereafter played at right-half, he never opposed Rovers in the League whilst with Vale or Argyle before appearing in one game for Rovers in the 1939-40 wartime season and he played in the three games of the aborted 1939-40 campaign for Ipswich, scoring once. He had first appeared for Argyle in a 2-0 defeat at Leicester City in November 1935 and he scored a hat-trick in Plymouth’s 4-3 win at Luton Town in January 1939. Previously a professional sprinter who competed in the annual Powderhall event, Mitcheson scored on his Yeovil début in a 6-0 victory over Millwall reserves, where it was reported that “his footwork is delightful to watch, especially that clever knack of shifting the ball from one foot to the other” (Western Gazette, 27.9.46). After 22 goals in 45 matches for the Glovers in all competitions, he retired from playing in 1947. He might be the Fred Mitcheson who married Edith Higgs in Northumberland in 1939. |
Clifford Ivor Morgan. 1939-40.
Born, 26.9.1913, Bristol. Died, 31.7.1975, Bristol. Career: St George School; Bristol Boys’ Brigade; September 1930 Bristol City (professional, June 1931) [245,9] (player-coach, April 1948; chief scout, 1950-75). Celebrated Ashton Gate favourite Cliff Morgan played for Rovers at right-half in one game in the 1939-40 wartime season. A dead-ball expert, he had made his Robins bow in a 2-1 defeat at Spurs in March 1932 and, having suffered relegation to Division Three (South) in 1931-32, was part of the side which missed out on promotion back by one point in the spring of 1938. Sharing responsibilities with Joe Riley, a former Rovers player, he also appeared in the FA Cup-tie with Preston North End in February 1935, which was watched by an Ashton Gate crowd record of 43,335. Overall, he played against Rovers in ten Third Division (South) fixtures, scoring once as City defeated Rovers 4-1 at Ashton Gate in January 1937 and was with City long enough to play in the club League record 9-0 victory over Aldershot in December 1946. Having appeared in all three games of the aborted 1939-40 campaign for City, he also added fifteen goals in 203 wartime matches, bringing his City tally to 36 goals in 537 matches in all and served the club for forty-five years. Scoring the only goal of the game when a benefit match was arranged against Bournemouth in October 1946, he was honoured with another benefit, a friendly against Leicester City in May 1975, by which stage he was seriously ill. |
(Bill) William Owen. 1944-45.
Born, 30.6.1914, Llanfairfechan. Died, 1976, Scilly Isles. Career: Northwich Victoria; 22.6.34 Manchester City [9,3]; 12.3.36 Tranmere Rovers [6,4]; June 1936 Newport County [72,5]; October 1946 Exeter City [20,9]; July 1947 Barry Town; July 1948 Dartmouth United. The player who scored two goals for Rovers in the 1944-45 wartime season was one of two Billy Owens who played for Newport County around this time. His career had begun professionally with Manchester City, for whom he scored twice in a 3-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in Division One in November 1933. A youthful goal-scorer in the north-west, during which time his brace of goals helped Tranmere defeat Southport 5-2 in March 1936, he was converted into a cultured right-half at Somerton Park, playing five times in the League against Rovers for the Ambers and scoring in the 2-2 draw at Newport in May 1938. After wartime service in the United Kingdom, a brief career with Exeter saw him feature in Rovers’ 1-0 victory over the Grecians at Eastville in April 1947; his hat-trick helped defeat Brighton 6-1 at the Goldstone Ground on Christmas Day 1946. His six goals in 21 Southern League matches with Barry Town included a brace in a 4-3 defeat at Guildford City in February 1948. A son of Charles Gilbert Owen (1876-1930) and Priscilla Ann Thomas, who later re-married to John Rowlands, he married Margaret Thomas in 1938 and, after he had worked at Bowaters in Newport Docks, they retired from Caerleon to the Scilly Isles. |
George Edward Henry Skinner.
Born, 26.6.1917, Belvedere. Died, 30.9.2002, Eastbourne. Career: Callender’s Cable Works; 18.5.37 Tottenham Hotspur (professional, September 1938) [1,0]; August 1937 Northfleet United (loan); July 1947 Gillingham; February 1948 Brighton; April 1948 Finland (national coach); November 1948 Hastings United (player-manager); 1952 Finland Olympic Team (coach); Eastbourne Town (coach); Sussex Football Association (chief coach); 1962 Nigeria (national coach); 1965 Libya (national coach); 1968 Jordan (national coach); 1969 Saudi Arabia (national coach); 1972 Iran (joint national coach); 1976 IBV, Iceland (manager, to 1978). Prior to an extraordinarily eclectic coaching career overseas, inside-forward George Skinner had appeared in one League game, for Spurs against Birmingham City in August 1946. The second of five children to George Skinner and Eleanor Wagner (1885-1973), he married Evelyn Cope in 1941. A product of Spartan League football, he also scored six goals in 26 reserve games at White Hart Lane and three times in fifteen wartime games. In the Royal Artillery, he represented Northern Command and Southern Command and represented Charlton Athletic, Fulham, Hartlepool United, Middlesbrough, Swindon Town, Devizes Town and York City in wartime fare before appearing in two games with Rovers during the 1945-46 wartime campaign. His solitary appearance for Swindon had been at Eastville in October 1945. Qualifying as a full Football Association coach in 1947, Skinner won the Arabian Games with Saudi Arabia and coached six national sides as well as one Olympic squad before leading Westmann Islands-based IBV to become, in 1978, the first Icelandic side to progress to the UEFA Cup proper. He retired in 1978 to Pevensey Bay and, at the time of his death aged eighty-five in an Eastbourne nursing home, had been married for over sixty years to Evelyn Cope, with a daughter Terry, a son Brian, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. |
Francis Leslie Talbot. 1914-1918.
Born, 3.8.1910, Hednesford. Died, 5.12.1983, Alkmaar, The Netherlands. Career: Rugeley Villa; July 1930 Hednesford Town; October 1930 Blackburn Rovers [90,20]; June 1936 Cardiff City [104,21]; June 1939 Walsall [18,5]; 1947 RC Heemstede (manager, 1949); 1961 Be Quick 1887 (manager); 1962 Door Wilskracht Sterk (manager); 17.3.66 Heracles Almelo (manager); 1967 AZ Alkmaar (manager); 6.5.68 Door Wilskracht Sterk (manager); 6.12.69 FC Eindhoven (manager); September 1973 SV Houtigehage (trainer). Five feet eleven inches in height and weighing in at eleven stone seven pounds, Les Talbot represented a number of clubs in wartime football. His League bow had come for Blackburn Rovers against Newcastle United on Easter Saturday 1931 and he hit a hat-trick as Huddersfield Town were defeated 4-2 in Division One in December 1934. As well as Cardiff City, Walsall, Bath City, Bristol City, Blackburn Rovers and Hednesford Town, he played for Rovers in both the first and last World War Two campaigns. Talbot scored after forty and eighty minutes as Rovers, level 2-2 at half-time, drew 3-3 with Cardiff City in June 1940. He was to appear in nineteen games, scoring ten goals, in the 1939-40 wartime season and scored three goals in ten games during the 1945-46 wartime campaign before scoring Walsall’s first goal after World War Two in a 3-1 defeat at Southend in August 1946. Les Talbot had played in five Third Division (South) fixtures against Rovers in Cardiff’s colours, scoring at Eastville in the Bluebirds’ 5-1 defeat in November 1936 and in the 1-1 draw of September 1938, but never opposed Rovers whilst with the Saddlers. He was a strong, constructive forward with a powerful shot, described by a contemporary reporter as having “a distinctive knock-kneed crouching run … his broad, beaming smile brightened up many a dark, wet winter’s day”. After leaving Walsall, he spent many years in Dutch football; he led both Heemstede in 1953 and DWS in 1964 to the Dutch title and lived in The Netherlands, where he died in a nursing home at the age of seventy-three. Les Talbot was the seventh child of a coal hewer Jack Talbot (1875-1951), who had played as a wing-half for Hednesford Town, and his wife Mary Ann Bate (1874-1943) and three uncles, Alfred, Ezekiah and Arthur Talbot (1874-1947, a goalkeeper who later played five League games for Arsenal), had also played for Hednesford. His brother Alec (1902-75) played for Aston Villa with “poise, pluck and shrewdness with an artistic streak to go with his free consistency” (Teddy Bowen), whilst two other brothers, Ray and Horace, also played competitive football. |
Harold Topping.
Born, 21.9.1913, Kearsley, Manchester. Died, 21.3.2001, Torquay, Devon. Career: 1932 Horwich RMI; May 1933 Swindon Town; June 1934 Hull City (trial); October 1934 Charlton Athletic (trial); November 1934 Barrow (trial); 1934 Tranmere Rovers (trial); August 1935 Bath City (trial); 27.9.35 Manchester City; 12.5.37 Exeter City [1,0]; 9.7.38 New Brighton; January 1939 Stockport County; July 1939 Bristol Rovers; Nay 1948 Prescot Cables; May 1951 Feyenoord (manager); 1951 PSV Eindhoven (manager); 1952 Norwich City (coach); 1960 Torquay United (coach; May 1965 reserve team coach). Full-back Harry Topping – “he stands no nonsense” - appeared in 28 games for Rovers during the 1945-46 wartime season, whilst working as a Physical Training instructor. “Very dependable” when Rovers drew 2-2 at Swansea Town in January 1940, he was a popular defender at Eastville, standing five feet eight-and-a-quarter inches and weighing eleven stone eleven pounds. He appeared in Exeter’s side against Southend United in April 1938 and for New Brighton in the first five Third Division (North) matches of 1938-39. He was awarded a benefit match by Prescot Cables in April 1951. Harry Topping later managed two of the top sides in the Netherlands before being part of the Norwich City set-up which reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1958-59 as a Third Division side, only losing to Luton Town in a replay. During his time as trainer at Plainmoor, he worked with the future Rovers striker Robin Stubbs and he lived for many years at Woodrow, Asheldon Road, Torquay. Wartime appearances at Stockport County had included a spell in 1941-42 when his full-back partner was his near-namesake Henry Westby Topping (1915-2004), a man who played for New Brighton. To add to this, a third Henry Topping (1908-77) was a left-back for Manchester United and Barnsley. |
A Turner. 1939-40.
Born? Died? This outside-left is known to have played, in Ray Warren’s absence with Wilf Whitfield shifting to the half-back line, in the 3-0 defeat away to Swansea Town in May 1940, which drew a 5,000 crowd to the Vetch Field. An A Turner also played on the left wing for Crewe Alexandra the same season and may be the same player. |
Vivian Williams.
Born? Died? Career: Royal Air Force; December 1945 Bristol Rovers. Inside-right Viv Williams, five feet seven inches in height and eleven stone in weight, scored one goal in the 1944-45 wartime season and played in one further fixture the following campaign, a goalless draw at home to Bristol City in March 1946 in front of a crowd of 25,598, before peace-time football resumed. |
W Woodward. 1939-40.
Born, 2.7.1907, West Auckland, Co Durham. Died, 1975, Durham. Career: Evenwood Town; Chilton Colliery Recreation Athletic; September 1928 Newcastle United; June 1929 West Stanley; October 1930 Crook Town; 1931 Spennymoor United; May 1931 Exeter City [7,2]; July 1932 Bath City; November 1932 Manchester United; June 1933 Tranmere Rovers [102,38]; June 1936 Chesterfield [29,13]; January 1938 Stockport County [7,0]; July 1938 Consett; September 1939 Bristol Rovers (free). When Rovers travelled to play Exeter City at St James’ Park in March 1932, twenty-four-year-old inside-left Bill Woodward scored the only goal of the game to condemn Rovers to defeat. He later enjoyed three prolific seasons at Tranmere, registering a hat-trick against Southport on his club début in August 1933, his fourteen league strikes in 1935-36 including a brace in the extraordinary 13-4 victory over Oldham Athletic at Prenton Park on Boxing Day 1935. Chesterfield scored 84 League goals in Division Two in 1936-37, Woodward contributing a hat-trick in the 7-1 victory over Bradford City on Good Friday 1936. His Stockport début came in a 3-1 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford in January 1938. Woodward was to appear for Rovers in eighteen games, scoring four goals, during the 1939-40 wartime season. He registered a hat-trick after 35, 73 and 81 minutes as Rovers, scoring three times in each half, defeated Swansea Town 6-0 at Eastville in May 1940. He may be the William Woodward who married Lily Wood in West Auckland in 1933. |