George Robb (1 June 1926 – 25 December 2011) was a footballer who played

outside left 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

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

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Robb represented

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

at the 1952

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. He also had a career as a

schoolteacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. He died on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

2011 following a long-term illness.Obituary - George Robb "THFC Official Website"
, Accessed 26 December 2011

Career

George Robb joined

Finchley F.C. Finchley Football Club was an English football club based in Finchley, Greater London. Established in 1877, the club merged with Wingate to form Wingate & Finchley in 1991. History The club was founded in 1877 by N. L. "Pa" Jackson under ...

straight from Holloway Grammar School at the age of sixteen and played for the team first in 1943 and whilst still in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. In the late 1940s, he was a teacher at St. Mary's C. of E. Primary School in Crouch End, Hornsey. Whilst still an amateur he started playing for Spurs in 1951 but continued to hold his place in the Finchley side. During his time as an amateur he earned seventeen England amateur caps and also played for

at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

held in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

, Finland. He scored a goal in the one game the team played when they lost to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

3–5. Robb retained his amateur status until 1953 when despite earlier interest from Italian club

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

he was persuaded to sign as a professional for

. During his time at Tottenham between 1951 and 1958 he played 200 games and scored 58 goals. Robb scored on his debut on Christmas Day 1951 in a 3-0 win over

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 ...

at The Valley. He made one appearance as a professional at international level for

. This was on 25 November 1953 against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. This was the landmark game in which England lost 3 – 6. Originally

Tom Finney Sir Thomas Finney (5 April 1922 – 14 February 2014) was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of the s ...

was selected at left wing, but due to injury before the game, Robb played in his place. Robb was forced by injury to retire from playing professionally following an injury sustained in a 5-a-side competition in 1958. His main profession was as a teacher even whilst playing football, teaching at Christ's College, Finchley, at the time a State Grammar School, from 1952 until 1964 and then full-time at Ardingly College near Haywards Heath,

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

until he retired in 1986.

Personal life

George Robb was born in

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 1 June 1926. He married his wife Kathleen in 1960. He lived in

Ardingly Ardingly ( ) is an English village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. The village is in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty about south of London and east-north-east of the county town of Chich ...

, near Haywards Heath for 47 years. George suffered from

vascular dementia Vascular dementia (VaD) is dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, typically a series of minor strokes, leading to worsening cognitive abilities, the decline occurring piecemeal. The term refers to a syndrome consisti ...

during the latter years of his life and died on 25 December 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robb, George 1926 births 2011 deaths People educated at Holloway School Footballers from Finsbury Park Deaths from vascular dementia England international footballers English footballers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Great Britain Wingate & Finchley F.C. players Deaths from dementia in England London XI players English Football League players English Football League representative players Association football forwards People from Ardingly Royal Navy personnel of World War II