Arthur John Weare (21 September 1912 – 1994), commonly known as Jack Weare, was a Welsh 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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

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 ...

for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, West Ham United, and Bristol Rovers.

Career

Born in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, Weare started his career with local side

Lovells Athletic Lovell's Athletic F.C. was the works team for Lovell's sweet factory in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, which played professional football from 1918 until 1969. History Lovell's joined the Western Football League in 1923 and won the title in t ...

. He joined

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

club Wolverhampton Wanderers in May 1933, playing 42 times for ''Wolves'' before joining West Ham United in September 1936. Weare played for West Ham for three seasons, making 35

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 ...

appearances in 1936–37 and 23 in 1937–38, before losing his place to Herman Conway and then

Harry Medhurst Henry Edward Pafford Medhurst (5 February 1916 – April 1984) was a footballer who played for Woking, West Ham United, Chelsea and Brighton as a goalkeeper. Football career Medhurst began his career with Woking. He moved to West Ham in 1938 ...

in 1938–39. After the outbreak of the

Second World War 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 ...

in 1939, Weare played as a guest for

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, Bristol Rovers, Hibernian and St Mirren, where he won the Summer Cup in 1942–43. The club had played a

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

side that included Stanley Matthews and

Tommy Lawton Thomas Lawton (6 October 1919 – 6 November 1996) was an English football player and manager. A strong centre-forward with excellent all-round attacking skills, he was able to head the ball with tremendous power and accuracy. Born in Fa ...

in the semi-final of the competition. During the match, Weare was injured as St Mirren went 2–0 down, and he moved to a position on the left wing, with centre-half Willie Kelly filling in as makeshift goalkeeper. Weare kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

in the final, as the ''Saints'' beat

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

by a single goal. He served with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and, during the conflict, became a qualified PT instructor and rose to the rank of

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

. He spent the latter part of the war in India, where he was reunited with former ''Hammers'' teammate Charlie Walker (who had also played as a guest for St Mirren). Despite Weare being Welsh, the pair were selected to play for England against Scotland at Irwin Stadium in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. Weare signed with Bristol Rovers full-time on the conclusion of hostilities in 1945. He spent six years with ''The Pirates'', making 141 League appearances. He ended his career with

Barry Town Barry Town United Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Y Barri) is a semi-professional association football team based in Barry, Wales. They are known for representing Wales in Europe as winners of the Cymru Premier and Welsh Cup during ...

in 1951, for whom he played five times in the Southern League. Following his retirement from football, he emigrated to South Africa, where he worked for a food processing company in Estcourt. In 1957, he moved to

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

, and worked as a production manager until his retirement in 1987. He was living in the city, by then known as Harare, Zimbabwe, around the time of his death in 1994. His brother,

Len Len or LEN may refer to: People and fictional characters * Len (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lén, a character from Irish mythology * Alex Len (born 1993), Ukrainian basketball player * Mr. Len, American hip hop DJ *Le ...

, was also a footballer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weare, Jack 1912 births 1994 deaths Footballers from Newport, Wales Welsh men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Lovell's Athletic F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players AFC Bournemouth wartime guest players Bristol Rovers F.C. wartime guest players Hibernian F.C. wartime guest players St Mirren F.C. wartime guest players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Barry Town United F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Royal Air Force personnel of World War II