John Charles Whitehouse (4 March 1897 – 1 March 1948) 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 played as 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 made more than 400 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 ...

for Birmingham, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday and

Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as Bo ...

Playing career

Whitehouse was born in

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider bu ...

, Staffordshire. He signed for Birmingham from Redditch in 1916, and scored 48 goals in 87 games for the club in three seasons of wartime competition. He was one of many local players given a first team opportunity during the First World War at a younger age than would have been the case if regular players had not been away on military service. He was a combative forward who scored goals for Birmingham at a rate of about one every three games, which helped them win the championship of the Second Division in 1920–21. He moved to Derby County in 1923, and formed a prolific partnership with Harry Storer and Randolph Galloway. He missed the last two games of the 1923–24 season with injury, otherwise he would have been ever-present, and Derby missed promotion to the First Division on goal average by one goal. When two years later Derby were promoted, Whitehouse was equally at home in the top flight, scoring 47 goals in less than three seasons. In a six-year career at Derby he made exactly 200 appearances, scoring 86 goals at a rate of nearly a goal every two games. In February 1929 he moved to Sheffield Wednesday. The club won two successive league championships in 1928–29 and 1929–30, but Whitehouse's contribution was small. He failed to settle, and played only ten games in all. He then spent three seasons with

, playing more than 100 times for the club in the Third Division South. He then moved into

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with Folkestone Town and spent a further year as player-manager of

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane. Worcester City's ...

. He later

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

ed for Derby County. Whitehouse died in 1948 in Halesowen, Worcestershire, at the age of 50.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehouse, Jackie 1897 births Footballers from Smethwick 1948 deaths English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Redditch United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Folkestone F.C. players Worcester City F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Worcester City F.C. managers