Articles

There has long been some confusion concerning the outcome of the first competitive game, played by Everton, that was won, eventually, by their opponents Great Lever. Early local historians state that Everton drew the tie, 1-1, and then were decisively beaten, in the replay, by 8 goals to 1, on Stanley Park. However, the record books of the Lancashire FA, held in Leyland, prove that Great Lever did indeed venture in to next round of the competition but the re-play, which was rather acrimonious, took place in their home town of Bolton.   The parishioners of St Bartholomew’s church had formed a football club in 1877 before making their headquarters, one year later, at a local tavern that was called the Old Robin Hood. Here they changed their name to Great Lever and set about constructing a simple enclosure that was adjacent to a notorious local land mark called Wellington Yard, which by its description, appeared to be a Tannery. The club...

1915 was a bittersweet year for Everton FC. The 1914-15 season was played entirely during wartime and was probably the most controversial ever, resulting in divisions within sport that still find echoes today, and yet Everton were able to celebrate their second league title. Before a ball was kicked British forces became locked in a constant struggle alongside the French against a German army that was the best in the world. By the time Everton lifted the trophy in late April the British had suffered appalling losses, with the original expeditionary force all but destroyed; that the war had lasted until the spring of 1915 with no sign of a conclusion was a surprise to almost everyone. Although press censorship kept the home public unaware of the realities of the war, the twists and turns of the 1914-15 season must have diverted them from their anxieties. For Everton fans in the trenches the arrival of the results must have been what...

1916 was dominated by the battle of the Somme which marked the point in WW1 when British and Commonwealth troops started to shoulder a major part of the fighting on the Western Front. The Somme also saw the deaths of five men who had played for three football clubs called Everton. The first day, 1st July 1916 was a disaster, with nearly 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. Among them was 2nd Lt. Malcolm Fraser of the Cameronians who was killed in the afternoon leading a patrol into no man’s land near Ovillers. His commanding officer wrote that his sacrifice meant a planned attack was called off probably saving hundreds of lives. Malcolm Fraser was born in New York State to a Scottish father and an American mother; he was a founder member of the Everton club in Valparaiso in Chile and was at university in Edinburgh when war broke out. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval...

  The people of the Merseyside “turn in on themselves” today as their two vintage football clubs line up to face each other for the 194th time. No other City in England can claim to have staged more local Derby games, at the top level of English football, than Liverpool. The atmosphere will be electric yet when these two deadly rivals first locked horns with each other it was on a football pitch that has long since faded in to local folklore. The date was April 1893 and the occasion was the final of Liverpool Senior Cup which took place, in front of 10,000 people, on the present home of Bootle Cricket Club at Wadham Road. The encounter was settled by a single goal, that was scored, in favour of Liverpool, by Scotsman Tom Wylie who had once played for Everton but, following the acrimonious “split” had chosen to remain at Anfield. His new club nevertheless, were members of the Lancashire League...

  Although destined never to play a Football League match for the club Andrew Gibson played a leading role in the years leading up to Everton becoming founder members of the new organisation. He had been at the club for two seasons when the above picture was taken and he had travelled a somewhat roundabout route to reach to reach the town where he would spend the rest of his days. Andrew Gibson was born,31-1-1864, at number 3 house in the High Main Street of the Ayrshire market town of Dalmellington. His Father and Grandfather, both named Alexander, belonged to the accident order of Fleshers (Qualified Slaughter Men) thus making the family prominent members of the local community. The 1881 census lets us know that Andrew, now 17, has moved to the town of Kilmarnock which was expanding due to the fact that it is now the headquarters of Glasgow and South Western Railway Company. He is living with relatives, at 22, West...

History will be made today when the present Premier League champions take to the field for what is their first ever FA Cup tie at Goodison Park. The visitors were formed in 1884 by a group of young men from a local evangelical chapel who decided to form a football team that they chose to call Leicester Fosse. This suffix was chosen because the old Roman Road, known as the Fosseway, had once passed through the area and a military encampment was “set up” to protect it from attack near to the spot where it forded the River Soar. The group then all agreed to pay nine old pence membership fee and another nine pence was collected to purchase a football. They then played at several different locations before a certain Miss Westland, as local folklore has it, suggested they constructed an enclosure at a site known on Walnut Street which, in turn, became Filbert Street.   Leicester Fosse Football Club...

by Tony Onslow 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 honour that was referred to as a “blue”. Two of these noble amateurs, who earned this distinction, later found themselves wearing the blue jersey of Everton Football Club. The first of them was William Charles Jordan. The son of a brewery owner, he was born on 9th December, 1885 at Oldbury in Warwickshire and attended Kind Edward College in Birmingham...

EVERTON F.C. “GAMBETEANDO.” DIRECTOR BAINBRIDGE'S COMPLETE REVIEW OF THE TOUR IN THE ARGENTINE. July 24 1909. The Liverpool Football Echo WHAT THEY DID & HOW THEY DID IT The following is the exhaustive diary of Mr. E.A.Bainbridge, of the Everton Football Club, who, together with Mr. A.E.Wade, was in charge of the Argentine tour. Mr. Bainbridge writes as follows: - On the 13 th May last, numerous friends and admires assembled at Lime-street Station, Liverpool to wish bon voyage to the Everton football team and officials on their departure by the four p.m. train to play a series of matches in two of the South American Republics. The number of players including the trainer (fourteen) accompanied by Messrs, E.A.Bainbridge and AR Wade directors, were as follows: - C.H. Berry, R. Balmer, J. MaConnachie, D.Rafferty, V. Harris, R. Clifford, H. Adamson, JD Taylor, T. Jones, W. Lacey, BC Freeman, W. White, and H. Mountford, and of course the irrepressible John Elliott, who has served the club...