George Lee (4 June 1919 – 1 April 1991) was an English footballer who played left wing for York City,

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

And

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

. After retiring from playing he became coach at

and later Norwich City.

Biography

Lee was born in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and attended Knavesmire School. As a teenager he represented York City Schools, Yorkshire County Boys and Acomb F.C., before a trial at

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and a brief spell at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. He signed for his first senior team York City in 1936. He put pen to paper on the stroke of midnight on his seventeenth birthday, seventeen being the youngest age that a player could sign a professional contract at the time. His career at York City blossomed during the war when he was York's leading scorer for four consecutive seasons. In April 1943 Lee became the first player to score 100 goals for York City, reaching the milestone with a converted penalty in a World War II match against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

. In 1946, after serving his country in World War II, Lee was selected to play for England in the European Championships, scoring six goals in 10 appearances.

Nottingham Forest

He signed for

in 1947 for a fee of £7,500 and scored in his debut on 23 August 1947 at home to

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

as Forest won 2–1. He also scored in his last match for the club, also against Bury, on 7 May 1949 in a 1–0 victory. He finished as Forest's top scorer in the 1948–49 season with 10 goals as Forest were 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 on ...

West Bromwich Albion

He moved for £12,000 move to

in 1949. He made his debut for Albion in a 1–0 win against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

on 20 August 1949, the opening day of the 1949–50 season, and scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 defeat away to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 18 February 1950. He became a regular in the no. 11 shirt in his first seven seasons at the club. Lee played in the

1954 FA Cup Final The 1954 FA Cup Final was a football match between West Bromwich Albion and Preston North End, played on 1 May 1954 at the original Wembley Stadium in London. It was the final match of the 1953–54 staging of English football's primary cup com ...

, setting up Ronnie Allen for the opening goal and picking up a winner's medal as the Baggies beat

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

3–2. After scoring 65 goals in 295 appearances for Albion, Lee joined non-league Lockheed Leamington on a free transfer in June 1958, before a short period at

Vauxhall Motors Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...

. After retiring as a player, Lee returned to West Bromwich Albion as a coach/trainer in 1959. He became a coach at Norwich City in 1963, serving the East Anglia club until 1987. Lee died in Norwich in 1991 at the age of 71.

Career statistics

Honours

;West Bromwich Albion *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

(1):

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: Runner-up 1953–54

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, George 1919 births Footballers from York 1991 deaths English men's footballers Men's association football wingers York City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players British military personnel of World War II