James Boswell (13 March 1922 – 25 May 2010) 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 ...

. He played for Gillingham from 1946 until 1958, making 342 appearances in the

English 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 Engl ...

, and appeared in more

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

matches than any other player in the club's history.

Career

Born in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

, Boswell joined local football club

Chester F.C. Chester Football Club is an association football club based in Chester. They are currently members of and play at the Deva Stadium. The club was founded in 2010 following the liquidation of Chester City. In its inaugural season it competed ...

upon leaving school, initially as an amateur. He remained with the club until 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 ...

, but never made it to the club's

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

. During the war he served with the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

and also made appearances as a guest player for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

during unofficial wartime competitions. He was later posted to

Barton Stacey Barton Stacey is a village and undulating civil parish, which includes the hamlets of Bransbury, Newton Stacey, Drayton and Cocum, in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, centred about south-east of Andover. It is bounded to the n ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, where he helped his unit's football team win a major

Army Football Association The Army Football Association (Army FA) is a county football association affiliated to The Football Association of England, for the administration of football within the British Army in the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Germany. The Army FA is based ...

trophy. Upon leaving the army in 1946 he joined Gillingham, who at the time were playing in the Kent League. Gillingham manager Archie Clark also signed four other players who had served with Boswell at Barton Stacey and played alongside him in the unit football team, namely Jackie Briggs, George Forrester, Hughie Russell and Vic Hole. Boswell missed only two matches during the 1946–47 season as Gillingham won the Kent League championship by a margin of one point. The following season the club played in the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

and Boswell was again a regular as the team finished in second place. In the 1948–49 season Gillingham won the Southern League championship. By the time the club was elected back into the

in 1950 Boswell had played over 100 times, and had become the team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He remained one of the club's most consistent players until 1958, playing over 40 times in each season to take his total number of appearances to more than 500. He also played 36 times in the

, a club record. At the end of the 1957–58 season Boswell, now aged 36, left Gillingham to play for non-league team Gravesend & Northfleet. He later played for

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

and Canterbury City before retiring. In 1964 he returned to Gillingham as team trainer, a position he held for five years. In January 1966 he took over as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

after the resignation of Freddie Cox, and guided the team to two victories before stepping down upon the arrival of new manager

Basil Hayward Carl Basil Hayward (more commonly known as Basil Hayward; 7 April 1928 – 9 December 1989) was an English footballer and manager. He was the younger brother of Doug and Eric Hayward. He scored 55 goals in 349 league games for local league side P ...

. He also had a spell as manager of non-league

Chatham Town Chatham Town Football Club is an English association football club based in Chatham, Kent. It currently plays in the and is nicknamed "The Chats”. Former Premier League club Portsmouth and current Premier League club West Ham United played ...

, and coached the football team of the

Kent Police Kent Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the and approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Kent, a county in the south east of England. History On 14 January 1857, a 222-strong 'Kent County Constabulary' was formed u ...

. In later life he lived in the Lordswood area of

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

, before moving to

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

to be nearer relatives, where he died in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boswell, Jimmy Footballers from Chester 1922 births English men's footballers Gillingham F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. wartime guest players Gillingham F.C. managers Ebbsfleet United F.C. players Canterbury City F.C. players Royal Engineers soldiers British Army personnel of World War II 2010 deaths Tonbridge Angels F.C. players Men's association football wing halves English football managers Kent Football League (1894–1959) players Military personnel from Chester English Football League players