Alfred John Keeling (14 December 1920 – 1 December 1942) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Career

Keeling was born in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, and spent his early career with Carlton Street School, Sedbergh and East Bierley. He joined

Bradford Park Avenue Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in , at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The name derived from their former hom ...

in 1936, playing with the reserves before signing a professional contract on 14 December 1937, his seventeenth birthday. Pugh made his debut in the Football League for them on 26 March 1938, and after a brief spell with Portsmouth, he joined

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in May 1939. Pugh's career was interrupted by World War Two, and he played as a war guest for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

, Manchester City and Bradford Park Avenue. Keeling later joined the Royal Air Force and was shot down over the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

on 1 December 1942.

References

1920 births 1942 deaths English men's footballers Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players English Football League players Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Men's association football forwards Military personnel from Bradford Aviators killed by being shot down Footballers from Bradford {{England-footy-forward-1920s-stub