Once a Blue (11)-William Orr, the Boy from Gwladys Street – by Tony Onslow
At the time William Marr Orr made his only Football League appearance for Everton he had just moved to live in a new row of terraced houses that had been constructed by the Walton Local Board. George Goodison, their Civil Engineer, had decided to name the thoroughfare, Gwladys Street.
The parents of William, John, and Jean had married in the Ayrshire town of Kilbirnie where their first child Jessie was born. The head of the family then worked on the Railway as a Fireman but had been promoted to the rank of Engine Driver when they took up residence at 80 Aughton Street in Liverpool. Here their third child William was born in December 1869.
The 1881census finds the family have now moved to 46 Walton Road but the Head of the Household had “passed away” at the time of their move to 10 Gwladys Street somewhere around 1888. William, now working as a Clerk in the Corn Exchange, began his...