1910-1919

Blue plaque unveiled at Dixie Dean’s primary school in Birkenhead

Blue plaque unveiled at Dixie Dean’s primary school in Birkenhead

Legendary goalscorer's daughter and another Everton striking legend perform unveiling ceremony Everton legend Graeme Sharp, left, together with Barbara Dean, right, daughter of the club's goal-scoring legend Dixie Dean,pictured below the EFC Heritage Society plaque at Portland School in Laird Street, where the football hero first went to school in Birkenhead. Photo by James Maloney The EFC Heritage Society commissioned plaque at Co-Op Portland Academy in Laird Street, where Everton legend Dixie Dean first went to school.  A blue plaque commemorating the site of the school where Everton and England legend Dixie Dean first studied has been unveiled. Dixie's daughter…
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Only Once a Blue -Part 2: Egerton Stewart-Brown

Only Once a Blue -Part 2: Egerton Stewart-Brown

Only Once a Blue. Part 2: Egerton Stewart-Brown When Everton Football Club signed Dominic Calvert-Lewin from Sheffield United, he became their first player to be officially registered with a double-barrelled surname since Benjamin Howard-Baker in 1920. There is, however, another man who played for Everton before official records began who also had a hyphenated surname. He actually made a guest appearance during Everton's days at Anfield. Egerton Stewart-Brown, far left, with Liverpool Ramblers. On the far-right is J Bruce Ismay, the future Chairman of the White Star Shipping Line Egerton Stewart-Brown was born 31 January 1862, in the township of…
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Jack Brearley, a Prisoner at Ruhleben

Jack Brearley, a Prisoner at Ruhleben. Located beneath the dark smoking chimneys of the gigantic Spandau Munitions Factory on the outskirts of Berlin, the harnessed horse racing track at Ruhleben was hurriedly turned in to an internment camp for the 5,000 or so British civilians who found themselves trapped inside Germany due to the outbreak of World War 1. The game of association football was still in its infant stages, and several of the men held captive, former professional football players, had answered an advertisement to come as trainers and help improve the standard of the game on mainland Europe.…
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Harry Grundy An Everton Winger

When Elizabeth Bradley moved to work in Liverpool from Chirk, she caught the eye of William Grundy, then working as a groom. They were married in 1870, at the Welsh Chapel dedicated to St David on Brownlow Hill. The couple settled at 4 Moorside in Neston where the head of the household worked as a Coachman. It was here, on 15 March 1883, that their sixth child Thomas Henry was born. He became known affectionately as Harry. The 1891 census found the family living at 25 Parkgate Road where William had become the clerk at the local parish church of…
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The Good Doctor of Everton

The Good Doctor of Everton

When William Baxter moved to Liverpool from Clitheroe, he opened his own business, as a Chemist and Druggist, at 259 Great Homer Street in Liverpool. Some years later he married a local girl with whom he began to raise a family. James Clement Baxter, the second child to bless this union, was born in 1857. He attended his local school, dedicated to St Frances Xavier, where he proved to be a bright pupil. He quickly moved on to the school's college, run by the Jesuit Order, from where he won a place to study medicine at the King and Queens…
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In Search of George Brewster

When I was asked for assistance by a fellow historian to find out what became of a former captain of Everton, I set off, armed with the information he had supplied, in the direction of Wigan. The last resting place of the man I was to search for was that of George Brewster, and also to find out the year of his death, because it was missing from the records of both Everton FC and the Scottish FA. I had not been aware, as my train drew slowly in to Wigan North West Station, that I had just passed within…
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The Oxford Blues of Everton Football Club

The young football fan who today watches the highly paid Premier League stars of the modern era will find it difficult to visualise the generation of footballers who, long ago, earned a good living outside of the game and played football without reward because they loved to do so. Confined mostly to the south of England, many of them had first become acquainted with the association game at public school and then expanded their knowledge and skills at universities such as Oxford. Here, if noted by the selectors, they could be chosen to represent their university and be awarded an…
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The Life and Times of John Cameron

It had been just four weeks since the first football knockout competition, won the by The Wanderers, had taken place on the Kennington Oval ground in London, when a boy was born on the South West Coast of Scotland. He was destined to make FA Cup history. John Cameron was born on 13 April 1872 in the Newton district of Ayr, where his family, who were in the grocery business, had finally come to settle. The 1881 census recorded the business premises on Waggon Road, where John was by then an eight-year-old scholar. He later attended Ayr Grammar School. In…
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‘Jack O’ Both Sides’ – The Life and Times of Jack Sharp (1878-1938)

‘Jack O’ Both Sides’ – The Life and Times of Jack Sharp (1878-1938)

  Jack Sharp sits in exalted company as one of England’s few dual cricket and football internationals. To Evertonians he is much more than that – an iconic player, captain, FA Cup winner, club director and founder of Liverpool’s best known sports outfitters. Born on 15 February in Everton’s founding year, Jack (christened John) was the youngest child of Charles and Annie Sharp who resided at 8 Eign Street in Hereford. Dorking-born Charles was a butcher with other business interests in the town, whilst Annie hailed from County Meath in Ireland. Jack and elder brother Bertram (Bert) grew up playing…
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George Harrison – Grave Dedication

George Harrison – Grave Dedication

A MOVING tribute was paid to 'one of our own' as representatives of some of Britain's biggest football clubs descended on South Derbyshire. George Harrison was a Church Gresley teenager with a dream of making it to the top when he started playing football for his local team, Gresley Rovers, back in 1910. It was the beginning of stunning career that later saw him win a top flight title with Everton and two caps for England. Amidst it all he was called to fight for his country on the front line during the First World War. THE Everton FC Heritage…
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