Joe Mercer (footballer, born 1889)

Joseph Powell Mercer (21 July 1889 – 1927) was an English professional footballer who made 150 appearances in the Football League for Nottingham Forest as a centre half.[1][3] He was the father of footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2]

Joe Mercer
Personal information
Full name Joseph Powell Mercer[1]
Date of birth (1889-07-21)21 July 1889[2]
Place of birth Higher Bebington, England[2]
Date of death 1927 (aged 36–37)[2]
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Position(s) Centre half
Youth career
1908–1909 Burnell's Ironworks
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1909–1910 Ellesmere Port
1910– Nottingham Forest 150 (6)
0000–1921 Ellesmere Port
1921–1922 Tranmere Rovers 15 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Personal life

Mercer worked as a bricklayer before and during his professional football career.[2] He married Ethel Breeze in June 1913 and had four children, the oldest being future footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2] On 16 December 1914, four months since the outbreak of the First World War, Mercer enlisted the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on the day the battalion was established.[4] He and was posted to the front on 17 October 1915.[2] At the front, Mercer was promoted to sergeant,[5] sustained wounds to the head, leg and shoulder and was captured by the Germans in Oppy on 28 April 1917.[2][6] He was held in camps at Douai, Bad Langensalza, Giessen and Meschede and returned home in January 1919.[2] In the post-war years, Mercer attempted to resume his football career and worked as a bricklayer before dying in 1927 of health problems caused by gas inhalation in the trenches a decade earlier.[2][7]

Career statistics
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Nottingham Forest 1910–11[8] First Division 13 0 1 0 14 0
1911–12[8] Second Division 36 3 1 0 37 3
1912–13[8] 37 0 2 0 39 0
1913–14[8] 35 2 2 0 37 2
1914–15[8] 29 1 2 0 31 1
Career total 150 6 8 0 158 6

References
  1. Joyce, Michael (2012). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: Tony Brown. p. 202. ISBN 190589161X.
  2. Royden, Mike. "Joe Mercer and the Football Battalion" (PDF). Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  3. "Mercer Joe Nottingham Forest 1914". Vintage Footballers. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  4. "EFL Remembers: Royal British Legion – the story of Joe Mercer". www.efl.com. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  5. Joe Mercer on Lives of the First World War
  6. "The Story of the Footballers' Battalions in the First World War". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  7. Riddoch, Andrew; Kemp, David (2010). When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War. Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset: Haynes Publishing. p. 264. ISBN 978-0857330772.
  8. "The City Ground". www.thecityground.com. Retrieved 14 July 2019.


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