George Edward Francis (4 February 1934 – 22 October 2014) 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 ...

, best remembered for his two spells as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. He is a member of the Brentford

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

and is synonymous with

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 ...

– their close friendship and strike partnership saw the pair dubbed 'The Terrible Twins'.

Career

Early years

, Francis began his career as a schoolboy with a team fielded by the

Odeon cinema Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name of ...

in his hometown of

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

. He regularly played against

of the local Gaumont cinema team and the pair would later link up as professionals at

. Francis later represented the Acton, Brentford & Chiswick schools' team.

Brentford

Francis signed for the junior team at

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 Brentford in 1949, after rejecting an offer from

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. He progressed to the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

and signed his first professional contract in January 1953, but had to wait until 1955 to make his first team debut, which came in a

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 on ...

match versus

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

on 19 February. Francis had a dream start, scoring a late equaliser in a 2–2 draw. He made two further appearances in what remained of the 1954–55 season and scored another goal. Francis made a minor breakthrough into the first team during the 1955–56 season, making 18 appearances, scoring eight goals and beginning a strike partnership with friend Jim Towers. He made his full breakthrough in the 1956–57 season and scored 24 goals in 44 appearances. Francis' best season came in 1959–60, when he was an ever-present and scored 31 goals in 48 appearances. A memorable moment in his season was scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 4–2 victory at

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

, home of 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 ...

. At the end of a lean 1960–61 season (in which Francis scored only 10 goals), the abolition of the

maximum wage A maximum wage, also often called a wage ceiling, is a legal limit on how much income an individual can earn. It is a prescribed limitation which can be used to effect change in an economic structure, but its effects are unrelated to those of mini ...

rule saw Francis and Towers depart the Bees. Francis scored 121 goals in 243 appearances over the course of six years in the first team at

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...

Queens Park Rangers

Francis and Towers joined Third Division club Queens Park Rangers in an £8,000 deal in May 1961. Francis failed to last long at Loftus Road and scored three goals in as many appearances before departing in October 1961.

Return to Brentford

Francis returned to Brentford in October 1961 and immediately won his place back in the team, though his 14 league goals couldn't prevent the Bees from suffering relegation to

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. He departed the club at the end of the season, having made 37 appearances and scored 15 goals during his brief return. Across his two spells with Brentford, Francis made 280 appearances, scored 136 goals and was the fourth-quickest player to reach 50 goals in all competitions for the club, behind

Jack Holliday John William Holliday (19 December 1908 – 1987) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Brentford and Middlesbrough. In 2013, Holliday was voted by the Brentford supporters as the club's fourth ...

David McCulloch David McCulloch (5 October 1912 – 21 June 1979) was a Scottish footballer who played for several Scottish and English clubs in the 1930s, most notably Heart of Midlothian, Brentford and Derby County. He also represented Scotland at full inter ...

and

Billy Lane William David Lane (born February 6, 1970 in Miami, Florida) is an American builder of custom motorcycles, owner of Choppers Inc. in Melbourne, Florida, known for his 2009 conviction and imprisonment in Florida for a drunk-driving incident in 2006 ...

. He was inducted into the Brentford

in March 2014.

Gillingham

Francis signed for Fourth Division club Gillingham in August 1962 for a £4,000 fee. He scored 12 goals in 35 league games during the 1962–63 season, but the Gills missed out on promotion with a fifth-place finish. Five months into the season, Francis was joined by his old friend Jim Towers at the club. Though he made only 16 appearances, Francis scored seven goals during the 1963–64 season and scored the winner versus Newport County on the final day, which saw Gillingham clinch the Fourth Division championship. He departed the club at the end of the campaign, having scored 21 goals in 58 games for the Gills.

Non-League football

After his departure from Gillingham, Francis dropped into

non-League football 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 de ...

and closed out his career with spells at Southern League clubs Hastings United, Hillingdon Borough and Stevenage Town.

Personal life

Francis undertook 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 l ...

together with Jim Towers in the

Royal Irish Fusiliers The Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's) was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of the 87th (Prince of Wales's Irish) Regiment of Foot and the 89th (Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot in ...

in Germany. After retiring from football, he became a

black cab A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common si ...

driver and held a season ticket at

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in L ...

. Francis died on 22 October 2014 at

Wexham Park Hospital Wexham Park Hospital is a large NHS hospital in Slough, Berkshire. It has been managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust since 2014. Sir Andrew Morris is the chief executive of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was ...

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

, after a long battle with

bowel cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel m ...

. He was 80 years old.

Career statistics

Honours

Gillingham *

Football League Fourth Division The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

: 1963–64 Individual * Brentford Hall of Fame

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, George 1934 births English footballers Gillingham F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Hastings United F.C. (1948) players Hillingdon Borough F.C. players Southern Football League players Royal Irish Fusiliers soldiers 2014 deaths Deaths from colorectal cancer Stevenage Town F.C. players Association football forwards Deaths from cancer in England 20th-century British Army personnel