John William Charles (9 September 1944 – 17 August 2002) was an English
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 ...
who played for
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
as a
defender. Nicknamed ″Charlo″, Charles was the first black player to represent England at Under-18 and any level within the National team. Charles was the first black player to play for a
first division West Ham United side when he made his debut in 1963.
Early life
Charles was born in Ordnance Road,
Canning Town. The family later moved to Ronald Avenue and he attended
Pretoria School. He was the second youngest of nine children. His younger brother
Clive also played for West Ham and went on to coach the
US National Soccer Team. His mother, who was white, came from
Silvertown
Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, hundred of Becontree, and the historic county ...
and his father was a merchant seaman from
Grenada.
Football career
Playing for local side, West Ham boys, Charles was spotted by former West Ham United goalkeeper and scout,
Ernie Gregory who recommended him to chief scout
Wally St Pier. Charles signed as a youth player in 1959 and signed professionally, aged 17 in 1963.
[ He captained West Ham's Youth Cup winning side of 1963; the first black player to lead a first-class side to a major trophy.][ Charles made his debut for the first team in May 1963 against ]Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
. Injury prevented Charles from being part of the West Ham teams which won the 1964 FA Cup Final
The 1964 FA Cup Final was the 83rd final of the FA Cup. It took place on 2 May 1964 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between West Ham United and Preston North End.
West Ham, captained by Bobby Moore and managed by Ron Greenwood, won the mat ...
and the 1965 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final
The 1965 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match between West Ham United of England and 1860 Munich of West Germany. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 19 May 1965. It was the final match of the 1964–65 European Cup ...
. Nevertheless, playing most of his games alongside Bobby Moore, he made 142 appearances for West Ham in all competitions scoring two goals; one a League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
game against Grimsby Town
Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...
, the other the single West Ham goal in a famous Manchester United 6–1 victory at Upton Park in which Manchester United won the 1966-67 Football League trophy. From the autumn of 1969 until spring 1970 injury restricted Charles to only five games. He left West Ham in the summer of 1971. He was offered a move to Orient then managed by former West Ham player, Jimmy Bloomfield, but because of a recurring hamstring
In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury.
In quadrupe ...
problem he retired from football aged only 26 to run the family's market greengrocer's stall.[
]
Illness and death
Charles admitted to being part of a strong drinking culture which existed at West Ham in the 1960s which gave rise to their slogan ″Win, Draw or Lose, we're on the booze″. By his own admission he was a borderline alcoholic when he finished playing football.[ However at the end of his footballing career his business prospects looked good; Charles earned £65 per week as a footballer with West Ham but on his first week on the greengrocer's stall he earned £200 and he opened several grocer's stalls in ]Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.[ In the 1990s, as people started to use major supermarkets more and more his business began to fail. Charles drifted into alcoholism and had mental health problems. In 2001, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on 17 August 2002 aged 57.]
He was survived by his wife, Carol and his three children, sons Keith and Butch and his daughter, Lesley.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, John
1944 births
2002 deaths
Footballers from Canning Town
English footballers
Association football defenders
West Ham United F.C. players
English Football League players
Black British sportsmen
English sportspeople of Grenadian descent
England youth international footballers