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My Cousin George.
My father was born in 1877, the youngest of eight children. The
next youngest in the family was his sister Jinny; christened, but never
referred to as Mary Jane. She married George Collin and in the fullness
of time, along came George junior: born at Oxhill on 13th September
1905. The photograph below, which I estimate was taken in 1907 or 1908,
shows all three of them. Yes! My cousin George is that little thing
dressed like a girl! That’s the way all boys were dressed then.
Need I say more?
I never really knew George, he was almost 18 years older than I was, so
by the time I was of an age to remember anything, he had long since left
the family home to ply his trade. Any knowledge that I had of George
came from my father who often reminisced that whenever he visited them,
at their home in South Moor, he saw George kicking a football. As a
small child he apparently would spend hours kicking a ball up the stairs
and waiting to control the awkward bounces that would result. In those
days people didn’t have fitted beige carpets.
George eventually progressed from the stairs to playing at junior level
for West Stanley and West Ham United in 1922. At senior level George’s
first club was Arsenal which he joined in February 1924.After failing to
agree terms with Arsenal, he followed his manager, Leslie Knighton, to
Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic in August 1925. Here he broke a leg
and returned to play for West Stanley in the North Eastern League in
August 1927. In November of the same year he signed for Derby County,
where he made 309 league and 25 FA Cup appearances before signing for
Sunderland in June 1936. Here he made31 league appearances, 1 FA Cup
appearance and 1 Charity
Shield appearance before leaving to join Port Vale in June 1938. He made
only 1 appearance for Port Vale before leaving to become manager of
Burton Town in August 1939.
George died on 1st February 1989 in Derby.
I can find no information on his time at West Ham United and there is
very little information to be found on his Arsenal career, other than
the fact that he joined the club in February 1924 and is listed as one
of their former players. Arsenal state that he did not play for their
first team, but say he may have played for the youth or reserve team.
The situation regarding Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic; later to
become AFC Bournemouth, is even worse in respect of information that can
be gleaned from the internet. There are no references to players of that
era and all that I have so far established is that the team were playing
in the 3rd Division South.
During his time at Derby, George was an established first team regular,
averaging 36 appearances per season over 9 seasons. This coincided with
Derby having one of their most stable periods. Between 1927/8 and 1935/6
they finished 4th, 6th, 2nd, 6th, 15th, 7th, 4th, 6th and 2nd in the
First Division. His performances for the team have earned him an entry
in the top 100 players of “Derby, The Complete history” in which he is
referred to as being one of the rocks of the team. Another reference to
him in the same book describes him as safe yet unspectacular and on his
debut, one critic wrote; “Derby have found a class back. He is cool and
discriminate”.
Probably the most controversial incident in his career occurred when
Derby travelled to Germany at the end of the 1933-34 season, to play a
series of friendly matches against the top German teams. George was vice
captain and the regular captain, Cooper, was called away on England
duty. Just as the England team were obliged to do in Berlin, four years
later, the Derby players were ordered to give the Nazi salute before
each game. Not long before he died, George recalled that they told the
manager, that they objected to doing it. Their complaint was referred up
through the directors to the British Ambassador, who said that they
must; so they did, except for the goalkeeper, Jack Kirby, who kept his
arms down and turned away from the dignitaries.
George made his first team debut for Sunderland against Sheffield
Wednesday on 29th August 1936. As summarised above he made 31 league, 1
FA Cup and 1 Charity Shield appearance for Sunderland. Unfortunately,
having only 1 cup appearance did not make him eligible for a cup
winner’s medal. His last league appearance for The Lads was against
Liverpool on 17th August 1937. As well as the famous cup win of that
season, The Lads finished in a creditable eighth position in the top
division and beat Arsenal 2-1 to win the Charity Shield. For those of
you who bought “Sunderland, The Complete Record”, there are two
photographs that include George. On page 38 is the cup winning squad and
on page 465, the 1935/6 Championship winning team. As George did not
feature during the 1935/6 season, I can only assume that this was the
taken prior to the commencement of the following season.
Jean Burrell
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