Allan Melrose Sliman (27 February 1906 – 14 April 1945), sometimes known as Jack Sliman, was a Scottish 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 ...

who made over 370 Football League appearances for

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

as a

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. He also had a spell as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

club

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members of ...

Career

, Sliman began his career with Scottish League Second Division club Arthurlie, before

manager

Alex Raisbeck Alexander Galloway Raisbeck (26 December 1878 – 12 March 1949) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. After playing junior football for Larkhall Thistle, he was signed by Hibernian where he made his professional debut at t ...

paid a £280 fee to bring him to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club in September 1928. After making 136 league appearances for Bristol City, Sliman joined Second Division club Chesterfield for a £1,738 fee on 4 March 1932. He remained at

Saltergate Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club, and was in use from 1871 until the club's relocation in July 2010, a 139-year history that made it one of the oldest football grounds in Englan ...

until October 1938 and was a part of the club's 1935–36

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

title-winning team. Sliman finished his career with Southern League club

during the 1938–39 season and aside from captaining the club, he held the role of

between October 1938 and March 1939.

Personal life

Sliman's younger brother Richard was an amateur footballer. Before and after his professional football career, he worked as a carpenter. In 1943, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Sliman joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and became a flight engineer with No. 75 Squadron. On 14 April 1945, Sliman took part in his first bombing mission, targeting a location southwest of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

. During the return trip to England, Sliman's

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

was attacked by

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a German World War II ''Luftwaffe'' twin-engined multirole combat aircraft. Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works (JFM) designed the plane in the mid-1930s as a so-called '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") that would be too fast ...

s and he was fatally wounded by

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

fire. He died in hospital in Ely and was buried in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

Cemetery.

Honours

;Chesterfield *

Football League Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated t ...

(1): 1935–36 *

Derbyshire Senior Cup The Derbyshire County FA Senior Cup is a local county football cup for teams based in the county of Derbyshire. Founded in 1883-1884, the first competition was won by Staveley, who beat Derby Midland 2-1 in the final. 1885-1886 saw Heeley from Y ...

(2): 1932–33, 1936–37 *Chesterfield Hospital Senior Cup (2): 1935–36, 1936–37 *Mansfield Charity Cup (1): 1936–37

Career statistics

References

1906 births 1945 deaths Scottish footballers English Football League players Arthurlie F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Association football wing halves Scottish Football League players People from Busby, East Renfrewshire Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Southern Football League players Southern Football League managers Chelmsford City F.C. managers Scottish football managers Sportspeople from East Renfrewshire Royal Air Force airmen West Ham United F.C. wartime guest players Scottish military personnel {{Scotland-footy-midfielder-1900s-stub