Harry Melbourne Wilcox (17 January 1878 – 21 July 1937) was an English professional

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 scored 66 goals in 174 appearances 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 ...

playing for Small Heath,

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 ...

, Leicester Fosse 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 ...

Playing career

Wilcox was born in Dalston, London. 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 ...

, he began his football career with

Bromsgrove Rovers Bromsgrove Rovers F.C. was a non-League football club from the town of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. The peak of the club's success was in 1993 when Rovers finished runner-up in the Football Conference. They went into administration during the ...

before joining Small Heath in September 1898. He made his debut in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

on 17 September 1898 in a 3–1 win at home to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, and played 17 first-team games over the next two seasons, but never established himself in the side. At the end of the 1899–1900 season he joined

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

of the Southern League, and a season later returned to

with

. His 14 goals made him Preston's leading scorer for 1901–02, and two years later he helped them win the Second Division title. After 42 goals in 99 league games, Wilcox moved back to the Southern League with

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

, where in one season he played 55 games in all competitions and finished as leading league goalscorer with 22. His performances were rewarded with selection for the Southern League's representative team. Two seasons back in the Second Division, with Leicester Fosse and

, preceded the last move of his career, a return to Plymouth, in May 1908. In each of the seven seasons before the

First World War 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 ...

put a stop to competitive football, Wilcox played at least 30 games. He contributed to Plymouth's runners-up spot in the Southern League in the 1911–12 season, and to their going one better the following season. In the latter part of his career he played at centre-half, which at that time was a midfield position. Wilcox made a return to first-team football after the war, playing four times in Plymouth's last Southern League season before their election to the Football League. His last competitive first-team appearance was on 18 October 1919, at the age of 41 years and 9 months, and he finally retired at the end of the 1919–20 season after scoring 41 goals in 325 games in all competitions for the club. Wilcox died in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, Devon, in 1937 at the age of 59.

Honours

with Preston North End *

Football League Second Division 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 ...

winners:

1903–04 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

with Plymouth Argyle * Southern League winners: 1912–13 * Southern League runners-up: 1911–12

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcox, Harry 1878 births 1937 deaths Footballers from the London Borough of Hackney English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Bromsgrove Rovers F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Watford F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players People from Dalston