Gerard Powys Dewhurst J.P. (14 February 1872 – 29 March 1956; sometimes referred to as Gerald Powys Dewhurst) was an English cotton merchant and banker. He was also an amateur

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 ...

, and earned one international cap for

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 ...

in 1895, playing as an

inside 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 ...

Early and personal life

Born in

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, he was the son of George Bakewell Dewhurst and Frances Ada Dewhurst (née Mann). He grew up at

Oughtrington Hall Oughtrington Hall was a country house located in Oughtrington Lane to the east of the village of Lymm in Cheshire, England. The manor house was rebuilt in about 1810 for Trafford Trafford (''né'' Leigh: a descendant of the ancient Leighs of W ...

Lymm Lymm is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, which incorporates the hamlets of Booths Hill, Broomedge, Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little Heatley, Oughtrington, Reddish, Rushgreen and ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, and was educated at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, ...

, where he was a member of the school football XI in 1889 and 1890, and

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. While at Cambridge, he earned a "

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

" in 1892, 1893 and 1894. In 1897 he married Mary Brougham, by whom he had two sons.

Football career

Dewhurst played for Liverpool Ramblers and the

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

as an amateur, and also played one game for

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 ...

against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

on 24 March 1894. He made 32 appearances for the Corinthians between 1892 and 1895, scoring 18 goals. He earned one cap for

in a

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

on 18 March 1895, whilst registered as a Liverpool Ramblers player. All eleven England players were members of the Corinthian club and were expected to produce an easy victory; in the event, Wales proved stronger than expected and the match ended in a 1–1 draw with

Rupert Sandilands Rupert Renorden Sandilands (7 August 186820 April 1946) was an English international footballer who played as an outside left. Early and personal life Sandilands was born on 7 August 1868 at the vicarage in Denford, near Thrapston in Northampto ...

equalizing shortly after Wales took the lead through Billy Lewis.

Business career

Dewhurst joined his family cotton trading firm, Geo. & R. Dewhurst Ltd. of Manchester, becoming Chairman and Managing Director. He was also Chairman of the Vulcan Insurance Company of Manchester, a director of the London Assurance Corporation and a member of the Manchester Royal Exchange. He later worked as a banker with

Williams Deacon's Bank Williams Deacon's Bank was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1930. It had a large network of branches in the north-west of England. In 1970, it was integrated with Glyn, Mills & Co. and The National Bank (which were part of the same gro ...

, becoming Chairman, and as a director of The

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

. He served as

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

. The

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

named one of its

GCR Class 11F The Great Central Railway Class 11F or Improved Director Class is a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive designed by John G. Robinson for passenger work. The LNER classified them as Class D11 from 1923. They were based on the earlier GCR Class ...

"Improved Director" steam locomotives after him, No. 507 (later L.N.E.R. No. 5507 and B.R. No. 62661).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewhurst, Gerald 1872 births People from Mayfair Footballers from the City of Westminster 1956 deaths People educated at Repton School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge English bankers English businesspeople English men's footballers England men's international footballers Liverpool Ramblers A.F.C. players Corinthian F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players People from Lymm Men's association football forwards