Vincent White (footballer)

Vincent Harold White (22 October 1897 – 27 August 1972) was an English professional footballer who played as a wing half in the Football League for Birmingham and Watford.[2]

Vincent White
Personal information
Full name Vincent Harold White
Date of birth (1897-10-22)22 October 1897
Place of birth Walsall, England
Date of death 27 August 1972(1972-08-27) (aged 74)
Place of death Southampton, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Position(s) Wing half
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Erdington
Wednesbury Old Athletic
1921–1923 Birmingham 2 (0)
Ellesmere Port
Redditch Town
1923–1925 Watford 7 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Life and career

White was born in 1897 in Walsall, Staffordshire,[3] the son of Joseph White and his wife Emma. Joseph White worked in the brewery trade: he was steward of Walsall Conservative Club before taking over as manager of the New Inn in 1901, a pub previously held by the Welsh international footballer Caesar Jenkyns,[4] and the 1911 Census finds him living in the Erdington district of Birmingham and employed as a brewer's assistant. The 13-year-old Vincent was an office boy at an electrical engineering company.[5] White enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps and served with the 24th Battalion of the London Regiment during the First World War.[6][3]

He had played football for his battalion team during the war,[3] and once demobilised, played amateur football for Erdington before turning professional, first with Wednesbury Old Athletic and then in 1921 with Birmingham.[1] A defensive wing half whose strength was his tackling,[7] White made his debut in the First Division on 8 April 1922, deputising for Percy Barton in a 2–1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur, and played in the next game, but lost his place once Barton was available for selection again.[8] Despite having played League football, he was selected for and played in a junior international between the Birmingham Association and the Scottish Junior XI at Aberdeen on 22 April.[1][9] He spent time at non-league clubs Ellesmere Port and Redditch Town before joining Watford,[2] for whom he played seven Third Division South matches in the first of two seasons with the club.[3]

White married Lily Laura Edge in 1930.[10] The 1939 Register finds White working as a spray-painting foreman and living in Erdington with Lily and a school-age child.[11] He was resident in the Bassett district of Southampton at the time of his death in the city in 1972 aged 74.[12][3]

References
  1. Elbee (22 April 1922). "Junior internationals". Sports Argus. Birmingham. p. 1.
  2. Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  3. "Players: W" (PDF). Watford Football Club archive 1881–2015. Trefor Jones. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  4. "Walsall pubs" (PDF). Hitchmough's Black County Pubs. pp. 1327, 1332–1333. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  5. "1911 England Census for Vincent Harold White". RG14/18329 – via Ancestry.com.
  6. "UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914–1920 for Vincent Harold White" – via Ancestry.com.
  7. Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
  8. Matthews, p. 164.
  9. "England's uphill fight in junior 'national at Aberdeen". Sunday Post. Glasgow. 23 April 1922. p. 13.
  10. "Vincent H White in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005". Retrieved 30 November 2020 – via Ancestry.com.
  11. "1939 England and Wales Register for Vincent White". QAFH 384/2 – via Ancestry.com.
  12. "Wills and probate 1858–1996: White 1972". UK Probate Service. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
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