1911 Professional Footballer

[Tom Tom]

Hello,

My great great Uncle is a professional footballer on the 1911 census, and on his marriage certificate in 1912, but I am unable to find anything out about his career or even who he played for.

I have tried googling but have been unable to find anything.

His name is Herbert Willis, born c1886 in Clapton / Hoxton.

In 1911 he is living in Leyton, and he married in Leyton in 1912.

I had thought he might have played for Leyton Orient or West Ham but have been unable to find anything out. I suppose I could email the clubs and ask them?

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of this type of research or had any hints or tips.

Thanks for looking.
Tom

[Merry]

I expect samesizedfeet (Zoe) will know where to look, but she doesn't come on here very often now. Would you like me to email her?

[Merry]

I'm quite surprised to see that in 1911 there were 23 professional footballers living in West Ham district! I wondered if googling some of those with less common surnames might take you somewhere where his surname is also listed? I expect they covered quite a few teams though!


ASHTON, Herbert
BLACKBURN, James Thomas Alfred
BOWER, William
BRIDGEMAN, William W
BUCHAMAN, Robert
COUSINS, Alfred Charles
DIX, Joseph
GEGGUS, John
GOFFIN, Richard
GRUMSTER, Frank
HORN, George
KING, Edward
LAVERY, William
MASSEY, Frederick James
NEWTON, Alfred
PICKETT, Arthur
RYDER, George Fredrick
SHANKS, Thomas
WAGGOTT, D
WALKER, Alfred Samuel
WALTON, John
WHYMAN, Alfred
WILLIS, Herbert

[Tom Tom]

If you don't mind emailing her that would be great Merry, as long as she wouldn't mind looking!

I shall start looking through those names.

:)

Thanks!

[annswabey]

There's this new website

http://www.enfa.co.uk/

[Tom Tom]

Thank you Ann!

He played for Clapton Orient but going to go digging now to see what details I can find.

:)

[Shona]

He played for Clapton Orient in the 1911-1912 season.

Clapton Orient (1) 1 Chelsea (2) 4
Date: Saturday, 28th October 1911

Competition: Football League Division 2

Venue: Millfields Road

Attendance: 25,000

Clapton Orient; Bower, Johnston, Johnson, Hind, Liddell, Willis, Dalrymple, Bevan, Scott, McFadden, Dix

Scorer: McFadden 40

Manager: Billy Holmes

Many Clapton Orient players signed up to the 17th Middlesex Regiment in the First World War - it became known as the Footballer's Batallion. The Leyton Orient supporter's club have a wealth of knowledge about this club during the period in the run up to the First World War and what happened to the players themselves. They are the people that I think you should contact rather than the club itself.

Herbert Willis's name is not on the WW1 Orient memorial, so he either didn't sign up when he was at Orient or, more likely, had moved to another club or left football by then.

Does he always stay in the same area?

[Tom Tom]

Thanks Shona.

May I ask where you got that information from?

:)

[Shona]

Oh - forgot to say that I once wrote a feature about footballers who enlisted in World War One, so have done a bit of research on this. Have been to some of the graves in France, too. The Leyton supporters have made several trips to the battlefields to lay wreaths, etc.

[Shona]

Thanks Shona.

May I ask where you got that information from?

:)

The Clapton Orient v Chelsea match? From a Chelsea fan website. The other info comes from my own notes from research I did when writing about this subject a couple of years ago.

Also, players tended to live in houses rented by the clubs. They were usually close to the football ground and clustered together.

[Merry]

Guess I don't need to contact Zoe now? (she's pretty busy!)

[Tom Tom]

Paid the £5 to that website and found he played Wing Half.

Played 136 Leaugue games between 1908 and 1914 in which he scored 1 goal! :)

Made 5 FA cup appearances.

:)

His last game was 7 February 1914 so looks as though he left just before he would have become a member of the Footballers' Batallion.

[Tom Tom]

Don't think so Merry, especially if she is busy. :)

Thanks for the offer though.

[Merry]

No problem :)

[Tom Tom]

I wonder what he went on to do?

Could buy his sons birth certificate in May 1914.

Certainly got some stuff to look into now though :)

[Shona]

Paid the £5 to that website and found he played Wing Half.

Played 136 Leaugue games between 1908 and 1914 in which he scored 1 goal! :)

Made 5 FA cup appearances.

:)

His last game was 7 February 1914 so looks as though he left just before he would have become a member of the Footballers' Batallion.

I checked the football archive, too. There will be photos of him in his kit somewhere. Perhaps the Leyton supporters could help. Or a local library.

[Tom Tom]

Thanks Shona, I have sent the supporters club an email.

[Shona]

I wonder what he went on to do?

Could buy his sons birth certificate in May 1914.

Certainly got some stuff to look into now though :)

Did he transfer to another club?

[Tom Tom]

Not that I can see on the enfa website.

[Shona]

Not that I can see on the enfa website. Just checked the football archive - just one club.

You lucky thing - wish I'd found a professional footballer in my family!

[Shona]

Another thought, now you know who he played for and when, there is a good chance that his name will appear in local newspapers.

[kiterunner]

Not just in the papers local to his club, because there would also be match reports in the local papers of their opponents! Also in other newspapers not local to either club. If you search on the British Newspaper Archive for Willis and "Clapton Orient" there are loads of matches that come up for those years, though of course not all will be him. I don't think footballers' first names would have been mentioned so much in the papers in those days.

[Shona]

Not just in the papers local to his club, because there would also be match reports in the local papers of their opponents! Also in other newspapers not local to either club. If you search on the British Newspaper Archive for Willis and "Clapton Orient" there are loads of matches that come up for those years, though of course not all will be him. I don't think footballers' first names would have been mentioned so much in the papers in those days.

True - the first reference I found on him was via Chelsea. As he played in the FA cup, then there is probably national newspaper coverage, too.

[Beckworth69]

Hi,
Sorry very late to your post. My great grandad Billy Bower was goalkeeper for Clapham Orient around the same time as your relative.

[Merry]

Welcome to GF, Beckworth69,

I presume your relation is the William Bower I listed in post #3?