George Kinsey. Rovers first international player.

 ​Were you, for any reason, attempting to picture the stereotypical dapper sporting Victorian hero, the chances are that you would conjure up in your mind an image resembling George Kinsey. Strong, determined and moustachioed, he epitomised, both in his appearance and in his demeanour, all that sportsmanship stood for in the final decade of Queen Victoria’s reign. During his career, he received nineteen medals, including one for winning the FA Cup, appeared in three FA Cup semi-finals, represented two county sides, earned four full caps as a wing-half for England and spent three years as one of Bristol Rovers’ first professional players. By dint of this, he is the only man to have represented Rovers at international level. ​​Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, George Kinsey came from a very humble background. His father, Jabez Kinsey (1836-1912), a brewer's labourer from Wilson,   Leicestershire had married Elizabeth Nixon, later Illseley (1835-1917, who had three sons from a previous relationship), who had married in 1866 in Burton-upon-Trent and their son George was born in that town on 27th  November 1866 (although some  records suggest 30th June 1866) and brought up at 189 Thornley Street, Horninglow alongside three full siblings. The 1891 census shows the young Kinsey as a boarder at 3 Mollett Street, Birmingham, the home of William and Elizabeth Perrott, employed as a brewer's labourer. “A most hard working and conscientious
half-back and, if a trifle slow, retaining all his wonderful tackling powers, perseverance and excellent judgment”, his career began in the Burton area, joining Burton Crusaders from Barton FC in 1883 and having moved across the town to their rival club in 1885, captaining Burton Swifts in their pre- Football League era. Club success meant that he represented Staffordshire, before scoring three goals in seventeen Football Alliance matches for Birmingham St George’s, a club he had joined on 6th September 1890. George Kinsey Rovers’ First International Player It was little surprise that this early success saw larger clubs sniffing around for talent and left-half George Kinsey was signed by Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 1891, making his Football League début the following month in a 5-2 defeat at Sunderland’s Roker Park. He was to score three goals for Wolves in 73 League matches over three golden years, one of these coming in a 10-1 thrashing at the hands of Newton Heath, later Manchester United, in October 1892. Un-deniably, one highlight of his time at Wolves was an appearance in the 1893 FA Cup Final, a 1-0 victory over Everton.
Club captain Harry Allen (1866-95), a fellow England international, scored the only goal, before an official crowd of 45,000 at Fallowfield on 25th March 1893, after an hour of the game, when his long-range shot eluded the Toffees’ keeper Dick Williams
(1866-1939). On a beautiful, sunny and calm afternoon (“weather of a more delightful character could not have been desired”, declared The Scotsman), many more supporters than expected turned up for the match and the fact that the final had been switched from its London base to a Manchester venue simply attracted more; the upshot was that the police could not control the crowd, wingers’ play was impeded by spectators and the goal itself owed a little to the crowd preventing the goalkeeper from seeing the action in front of him clearly. “Kinsey stuck to his work manfully”, reported the Glasgow Herald, and he walked away with a winners’ medal. 
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Club success bred international recognition, and Kinsey won four England caps between 1892 and 1896. These matches for England had included two large victories: a 5-2 success over the Scots at Richmond on April Fools’ Day 1893, in which Kinsey’s aggression and skill was noted in the contemporary press, with Prince Francis, Duke of Teck (1837-1900) and his wife Princess Mary Adelaide (1833-97), along with their daughter May (1867-1953, Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother), who later that year married the future King George V, as guests of honour; and a 9-1 thrashing of Wales in March 1896 at Cardiff Arms Park, in which,
after Kinsey had been forced into one first-minute clearance after a dangerous right-wing run from the legendary Billy Meredith (1874-1958), Kinsey’s Derby County team-mate Steve Bloomer (1874-1938) scored five times. Disappointingly for him, though, a July 1895 transfer led to only four Football League games for Aston Villa during the 1894-95 season. Kinsey had scored at Villa Park when Wolves drew 1-1 there in March 1894, but he was unable to replicate this form for the Villains. Consequently, it is perhaps of little surprise that he moved again on 29th May 1895, joining Derby County. 
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​It was at the Baseball Ground that his career again flourished, playing every minute of the season in 1895-96, 36 League matches without scoring, as Derby were runners-up in the Football League and reached an FA Cup semi-final, which was lost 2-1 to his former club Wolves. This commanding Football League form included an 8-0 mauling of Small Heath, the future Birmingham City, in November 1895. Oddly, though, he dropped a division, joining Notts County on 26th March 1897 and playing in four League games as they secured the Second Division title, before moving into Southern league football to sign for Bristol Rovers on 15th June 1897. George Kinsey at Derby County in 1896. George Kinsey at Eastville Rovers in 1897 standing 3rd from right. Without doubt, George Kinsey was one of the most experienced footballers to grace Eastville in the Southern League era. He played in 92 games, scoring ten times, for Rovers prior to the summer of 1899, 58 matches and five goals in that tally coming in the Birmingham and District League, all of these as captain. Several of his goals came in large victories, namely an 11-3 against Singers of Coventry in December 1897, a 9-1 win against Trowbridge Town in April 1898, the 10-2 success against Hereford Thistle in December 1898 and a 10-0 victory against West Bromwich Albion reserves in March 1899. 
At the tail end of his career, he contrived to score twice in a game, as Rovers inched to a morale-boosting 2-0 home victory over Bristol City in a Western League encounter in October 1899. In addition to this, he captained the Gloucestershire XI which won the South-West Championship of 1897-98. In his final season with Rovers, the club having gained a place in the unofficial third division of English football, he played in five Southern League matches for Rovers in 1899-1900. Kinsey “tackled and placed (the ball) with rare judgment”, proclaimed the Bristol Evening News in October 1899; a commanding captain, “his voice would grace any orchestra”, clamoured The Bristol Magpie in October 1897. Measuring five feet seven-and-a-half inches and weighing eleven stone eight pounds, he “works as hard as anyone”. However, even he was not immune to the occasional error, and he was to miss a penalty in the away game against Bristol St George in March 1899. Granted a testimonial game against a Selected XI in November 1899, he was able to invite several former Villa and Derby team-mates to participate, amongst them the legendary England centre-forward Steve Bloomer. George in the famous Duke of Beaufort racing colours that Bristol Rovers wore from 1897 to 1900. Kinsey captained the Gloucestershire FA XI which won the South-West Championship of 1897-98. Kinsey’s professional career concluded back in Burton with the Swifts, whom he rejoined on 21st September 1900. In eight Second Division matches he scored Swifts’ second goal in a 5-2 defeat at Grimsby Town in February 1901, before joining Burton United as trainer in July 1901 and Burton Early Closers on 17th September 1902, being reinstated there as an amateur in 1904 and finally retiring in 1906. George Kinsey at Bristol Rovers in 1899 A loyal family man, George Kinsey married in 1891 in Burton-upon-Trent to London-born Rosa Elizabeth Butler (1868-1935) and they lived at 20 Park Street, Burton-upon-Trent and later at 25 Uxbridge Street in the same town, with their three surviving daughters, Elizabeth, Ethel and Irene. For many years, George worked as a licenced victualler, running the Three Tuns in Lawrence Hill. 
Following his wife’s death in 1935, he moved in with relatives at 72 Mott Street, Birmingham, and it was there that he died on 13th November 1936, just a fortnight prior to what would have been his seventieth birthday, his burial taking place five days later in Burton-upon-Trent, in a grave which until recent years had become overgrown and unkempt. An era had come to a close, as one of the great figures in Bristol Rovers’ history, the first man to play for Rovers and his country, was laid to rest.