George Andrew Bristow (25 June 1933 – 3 January 2010) 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 ...
who played as a
right half
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
in
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...
for
Brentford. He made over 260 appearances in all competitions and was posthumously inducted into the Brentford
Hall of Fame in May 2015.
Career
Brentford
A
right half
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
, Bristow joined
Brentford at a young age and came through the
youth ranks to make his debut at the age of 17 in a 4–0
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 ...
defeat to
Manchester City on 14 October 1950.
During his
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
, Bristow turned down a move to follow former teammate
Peter Broadbent to
First Division club
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
.
After completing his National Service and a period as a
guest with
Dorset League club
Blandford United,
it wasn't until the
1953–54 season that Bristow was able to hold down a regular first team place and he made 27 appearances in a campaign which saw the Bees relegated to the
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 ...
.
In February 1956, Bristow was awarded a
testimonial versus an International Managers XI and was the club's youngest player to be granted the honour.
Bristow's best years at Brentford came in the
1957–58 and
1958–59 seasons and he made over 40 appearances in each.
Injuries took their toll on Bristow and he departed the club at the end of the
1960–61 season, after making 264 appearances for the club and scoring eight goals.
He was posthumously inducted into the Brentford
Hall of Fame in May 2015.
Queens Park Rangers
Bristow and Brentford teammates
Jim Towers
Edwin James Towers (15 April 1933 – 16 September 2010) was an English professional footballer, best remembered for his time as a centre forward in the Football League with Brentford. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer and in 2013 wa ...
and
George Francis joined Brentford's
West London rivals Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
during the 1961 off-season.
He suffered an
achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pele ...
injury during a
pre-season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
match, which ended his professional career.
Bristow failed to appear for the first team and left the club at the end of the
1961–62 Third Division season.
Yiewsley
After his release from Queens Park Rangers, Bristow dropped into
non-League football and joined
Southern League First Division club
Yiewsley
Yiewsley ( ) is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, 2 miles (3 km) south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middl ...
in 1962.
Personal life
Bristow undertook his National Service as a
PT instructor at
Blandford Camp and represented his battalion's football team.
He was married to Maureen and had two daughters.
After his retirement from football, Bristow worked as a
driving instructor
A driving instructor is a person who is hired by a new driver who is learning how to improve their skills - often for an upcoming practical test. Different countries have different rules regarding permits and other regulations. Driving instructors ...
, at
Heathrow Airport and as of April 1995, he had worked as a self-employed
bricklayer for the previous 25 years.
He died in January 2010, after suffering with
Parkinson's
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
and
Alzheimer's diseases.
Career statistics
Honours
*
Brentford Hall of Fame
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristow, George
1933 births
Footballers from Chiswick
English footballers
Brentford F.C. players
English Football League players
2010 deaths
Queens Park Rangers F.C. players
Hillingdon Borough F.C. players
Southern Football League players
Association football wing halves
Blandford United F.C. players
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from dementia in England
Neurological disease deaths in England