George Dilworth McGhee (25 May 1883 – 9 October 1944) was an English

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 ...

in the early 1900s for Doncaster Rovers,

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. By profession, he was a schoolteacher, but during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was dismissed from the army after a court martial.

Football career

McGhee was born in

Egmanton Egmanton is a small village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England, and is located one mile south of Tuxford and one mile north of Laxton. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 286. The name derives from the Old ...

, Nottinghamshire and was at Newark Town before signing for Doncaster Rovers who had just been elected to

Football League Division 2 The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

for their second spell there. He played at inside right, scoring on his debut on 7 January 1905 in a 3–0 victory against Leicester Fosse. Possibly his most notable achievement was scoring against

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 ...

, although Rovers lost 4–1. Doncaster were not re-elected after that season, having had their worst ever season, finishing bottom of the league with just 8 points. McGhee moved to

who were one of the better clubs in Division 2 at the time. After only two appearances, his teaching career took him away from Lincolnshire to

. Some time later, McGhee's footballing skills at Bitterne Guild came to the notice of Southern League Southampton who recruited him on amateur terms in 1908. After a few matches for the reserves, he was given his first-team debut at

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 ...

for the Southern League match against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

on 5 December 1908, which resulted in a 1–1 draw. For the next match,

Frank Costello Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...

took over at centre-forward and it was not until nearly three months later that McGhee was given another opportunity, this time at inside-right. He sustained an injury in the match at Millwall which ended his career in top flight football. McGhee continued to play football as an amateur for various clubs, including

Bitterne Bitterne is an eastern suburb and ward of Southampton, England. Bitterne derives its name not from the similarly named bird, the bittern, but probably from the bend in the River Itchen; the Old English words ''byht'' and ''ærn'' together mean ...

Guild and Southampton Cambridge. In the summer of 1909, he was a member of the "Southampton Pirates" team which toured Europe; also in the side was the Southampton player,

Alec Campbell Alexander William Campbell (26 February 1899 – 16 May 2002) was the final surviving Australian participant of the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War.Shaw, John"Alec Campbell, Last Anzac at Gallipoli, Dies at 103" ''The New York Ti ...

Teaching career

He was a teacher at Ipswich Municipal Secondary School before taking up a post at

King Edward VI School, Southampton King Edward VI School (also known as King Edward's, or KES) is a selective co-educational independent school founded in Southampton, United Kingdom, in 1553. The school was founded at the request of William Capon, who bequeathed money in his ...

for the Christmas 1907 term. At King Edwards, he was a popular teacher who was responsible for sport at the school. In the 1908 school magazine, his contribution to the school was highly praised:

Our success is due chiefly to the very excellent form shown by Mr. McGhee, both with the cricket bat and football. Never has a school had so brilliant a sportsman and popular a master as Mr. McGhee. In football last season he often won games outright by his individual prowess ...

Military career

McGhee continued to teach at King Edwards until the summer of 1915 when the school governors gave him permission to enlist. He joined The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) from the Artists Rifles Officers Training Corps and in January 1916 he was promoted to the rank of

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

. Shortly afterwards, however, he was dismissed from "His Majesty's Service" following a court martial on 6 March 1916.

References

External links

Football career details
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGhee, Georgey 1883 births People from Southwell, Nottinghamshire Footballers from Nottinghamshire 1944 deaths English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Newark Town F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Gainsborough Trinity F.C. players Bitterne Guild F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Southampton Cambridge F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Schoolteachers from Nottinghamshire Sherwood Foresters officers British Army personnel of World War I Artists' Rifles officers British Army personnel who were court-martialled Military personnel from Nottinghamshire