Gerard Columba "Gerry" Bowler (8 June 1919 – 26 March 2006) was a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

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 ...

. He played in the right-back or right-half positions.

Career

Bowler was born in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, Ireland and began his senior footballing career with

Derry City FC Derry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. It plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of league football in the Republic of Ireland, and is the League of Irela ...

immediately prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, having previously turned out for Derry Municipal Training College. On 24 April 1943 he was signed by

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

, in an Irish League record £1,000 deal, where he played 122 first-team games, scoring just once (a penalty against Cliftonville FC in 1946). At Distillery, Bowler played in the 1946

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

final, losing out 3-0 to

Linfield FC Linfield Football Club is a Northern Irish professional football club based in south Belfast which plays in the NIFL Premiership – the highest level of the Northern Ireland Football League. The fourth-oldest club on the island of Ireland, Li ...

, and the same season picked up a Co. Antrim Shield winner's medal (defeating

Bangor FC Bangor Football Club is an intermediate Northern Irish football club playing in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League. The club, founded in 1918, hails from Bangor and plays its home matches at Clandeboye Park. Club colours are gold and royal ...

Reserves 3-0 in a replayed final). In the summer of 1946 Bowler was signed by

Portsmouth FC Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...

(at the time one of the top teams 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 ...

), but made just eight league appearances in three seasons, missing out on a championship medal in 1948-49. Signed by

Hull City A.F.C. Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

for the 1949-50 season, Bowler made 38 Division Two appearances, and was selected to play for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. That season he played in all three games of the

1950 British Home Championship Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe cond ...

. Normally a centre-half, all three of his international appearances were made in unfamiliar positions - two at right-back, and one at right-half. In 1950, Bowler moved on again, signing for Division Three (South),

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

. He helped the club to runners-up position in 1952-53, but in those days that was not good enough for promotion. Although he never added to his collection of international caps, Bowler was a member of the IFA's touring party to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

in the summer of 1953. After 165 league appearances for the Lions, Gerry Bowler was forced to retire due to injury in 1955, although he did continue to turn out as player-manager for his work team, the Crawley-based APV Chemical Company, until the 1962/63 season. Having settled in the south of England, Bowler died in

Redhill, Surrey Redhill () is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of Croydon in Greater London, and is part of the London commuter belt. The ...

in March 2006.

References

External links

Gerry Bowler
Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Transfer Database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowler, Gerry Derry City F.C. players Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Association football defenders Association football midfielders Hull City A.F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Millwall F.C. players Association footballers from Northern Ireland Portsmouth F.C. players Pre-1950 IFA international footballers English Football League players Sportspeople from Derry (city) 2006 deaths 1919 births