John Arkison McIlwaine (12 June 1904 – 24 April 1980) was a Scottish
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
centre half
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
for
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
, where he captained the team in the
1929 FA Cup Final
The 1929 FA Cup Final was an association football match between Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth on 27 April 1929 at Wembley Stadium. Bolton won 2–0, with goals by Billy Butler and Harold Blackmore. It marked the 54th final of the Football As ...
, before moving to south coast rivals
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
. He also played for
Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
and
Llanelly
Llanelly ( cy, Llanelli) is the name of a parish and coterminous community in the principal area of Monmouthshire, within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, south-east Wales. It roughly covers the area of the Clydach Gorge. The popula ...
, whom he helped win the
Welsh Football League
The Welsh Football League (also known as the Nathaniel Car Sales Welsh Football League for sponsorship reasons) was a club football league in Wales. For its final season in 2019–20 season it operated at levels 3 and 4 of the Welsh football leagu ...
Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
. At Falkirk, he became one of the outstanding centre-halves in Scottish football and was selected to represent the
Scottish League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional association football, football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers F.C., Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, wh ...
against the Irish League in October 1927 (the SFL won 2–1). He soon became a target for several top English clubs, and in February 1928 it "caused a sensation in the football world" when he chose to join
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
McIlwaine joined Portsmouth for a record transfer fee of £5000 (including a friendly match at
Fratton Park
Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history.
The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...
), replacing
Harry Foxall
Harry Foxall (9 November 1901–1976) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Merthyr Town and Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of P ...
who retired shortly afterwards. He made his debut at home to
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
on 18 February 1928 in a 5–3 defeat (four of Sunderland's goals came from
Dave Halliday
David Halliday (11 December 1901 – 5 January 1970) was a Scottish association football player and manager. He achieved numerous distinctions and high rankings as a prolific goal-scoring forward with six senior clubs; St Mirren, Dundee, Sunder ...
), but retained his place for the remaining games that season as Pompey avoided relegation by one point.
In the 1928–29 season, McIlwaine captained the team and led them to their first
Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...
, beating fellow First Division clubs,
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 ...
and
Aston Villa
Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...
en route. In the final itself, despite dogged defending, Portsmouth were defeated by
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
with two late goals.
The following year, McIlwaine lost his place at centre-half to
Bob Kearney
Robert Henry Kearney (born October 3, 1956), is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, and Seattle Mariners from to .
Major League career
...
, who had been recently recruited from
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
. At the end of the season, he was transferred to
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
for a fee of £2650; in his two and a half seasons at Fratton Park, McIlwaine played 62 games scoring 5 goals.
Southampton
McIlwaine was recruited to Southampton by manager
Arthur Chadwick
Arthur Chadwick (July 1875 – 21 March 1936) was a professional footballer whose playing career as a centre-half included spells at Portsmouth and Southampton, before going on to be manager at Exeter City, Reading and Southampton. He also mad ...
as a replacement for the ageing
Bert Shelley
Frederick Albert "Bert" Shelley (11 August 1899 – 29 December 1971) was an English footballer, who played as a half back for Southampton, for whom he made nearly 450 appearances, before becoming a coach at Southampton. His total of 448 appeara ...
, and made his debut on 30 August 1930, behind his former Portsmouth colleagues
Willie Haines
Wyndham William Pretoria Haines (14 July 1900 – 5 November 1974) was an English footballer who played at centre-forward for south coast rivals, Portsmouth and then Southampton in the 1920s and 1930s.
Club career
Haines was born at Warminster ...
and
Jerry Mackie
James"Jerry'" Mackie (1 January 1894 – 5 January 1959) was a Scottish footballer who played at inside forward for English south coast rivals, Portsmouth and then Southampton in the 1920s and 1930s.
Football career
Mackie was born in Mother ...
, in a 5–0 defeat at Preston. Two games later, McIlwaine was injured and was unable to return until 29 November, when he was played at
centre forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
replacing
Bill Fraser
William Simpson Fraser (5 June 1908 – 9 September 1987) was a Scottish actor who appeared on stage, screen and television for many years. In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play ''W ...
(who had taken over from Haines who was also injured). He scored twice in his first match at No.9 but after six matches (in which he scored five goals) Haines returned and McIlwaine reverted to centre half, replacing Shelley. McIlwaine retained the No.5 shirt for the rest of the season with the "Saints" finishing in mid-table.
Chadwick resigned at the end of the season and was replaced by
George Kay
George Kay (21 September 1891 – 18 April 1954) was an English football player and manager of Luton Town, Southampton and Liverpool.
The highlight of his playing career was when he captained West Ham United in the first FA Cup final to be play ...
. After seven matches of the 1931–32 season, Kay dropped McIlwaine and recalled Shelley. For the remainder of the season, McIlwaine was in and out of the side, occasionally playing at centre forward. At the end of the season, an unhappy McIlwaine refused to sign a new contract and was placed on the transfer list at a fee of £2500. No
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 ...
clubs were interested, but Southampton refused to release his registration. Prevented from moving to another Football League club, McIlwaine moved to Wales in the 1932
close season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
, joining
Llanelly
Llanelly ( cy, Llanelli) is the name of a parish and coterminous community in the principal area of Monmouthshire, within the historic boundaries of Brecknockshire, south-east Wales. It roughly covers the area of the Clydach Gorge. The popula ...
of the
Welsh League
The Welsh League was the first club rugby league competition in Wales.Lush (1998), pg. 19 Its inaugural season was in 1908/09 when four additional teams were formed to join Ebbw Vale RLFC and Merthyr Tydfil RLFC, which allowed a league tournamen ...
.
McIlwaine spent the 1932–33 season at Llanelly, helping the team to win the Welsh League, before returning to Southampton in August 1933. On his return to The Dell, he found that his time in the lower league had not sharpened his game and he spent most of the 1933–34 season in the reserves.
By the start of the following season, his confidence had returned and he reclaimed the centre half shirt from
Arthur Bradford
Arthur Houston Bradford (born November 19, 1969) is an American writer and filmmaker. He has published two books of short stories, ''Dogwalker'' (2001) and ''Turtleface and Beyond'' (2015), and a children's book, ''Benny's Brigade'' (2012). He h ...
in mid-September. He missed only one match from September until the beginning of March, when he was once again used as a makeshift centre forward, replacing Norman Cole. In his eight appearances in the No.9 shirt he scored six goals, only two fewer than Cole had managed all season.
Saints started the 1935–36 season (their fiftieth season since the club's foundation in 1885) with four wins and two draws from their first six matches, but were unable to sustain this form and in the period to the New Year they won only three more matches. One of these was the "
golden jubilee
A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...
" match against
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
on 23 November 1935, when McIlwaine was captain in a 2–0 victory. In June 1936, after another poor season, in which the Saints finished in seventeenth place, nine members of the board resigned and manager
George Kay
George Kay (21 September 1891 – 18 April 1954) was an English football player and manager of Luton Town, Southampton and Liverpool.
The highlight of his playing career was when he captained West Ham United in the first FA Cup final to be play ...
left to take over at
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, taking trainer
Bert Shelley
Frederick Albert "Bert" Shelley (11 August 1899 – 29 December 1971) was an English footballer, who played as a half back for Southampton, for whom he made nearly 450 appearances, before becoming a coach at Southampton. His total of 448 appeara ...
with him. Kay's position as manager was filled by the promotion of
George Goss
George Goss is a former naval officer and football manager, who was manager of Southampton F.C. for the 1936–37 season.
Goss served in the Royal Navy during World War I, and played football for the naval side. On leaving the navy, he joined t ...
, the company secretary, who took charge of the team, with McIlwaine taking on the role of assistant manager.
As well as his duties as assistant manager, McIlwaine continued as team captain and became first-team coach. In the first edition of the Southampton ''Football Echo'' of the 1936–37 season, the sports editor commented on the expansion of McIlwaines's "job description":
"It seems to me to be asking a tremendous lot of one man to be player, captain and assistant manager. That looks to me to be an outsized man's job. He will need all the good wishes possible, and he has mine."
After a year, in which he only made three further appearances, these new duties proved too much and in the summer of 1937, with Goss having handed over to Tom Parker in March, McIlwaine decided to leave.
In his two periods with Southampton, McIlwaine made a total of 121 appearances, scoring 18 goals.
Assistant manager at Grimsby Town
In July 1937, McIlwaine became assistant manager at
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 ...
under their newly appointed manager, the former
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
international defender,
Charlie Spencer
Charles William Spencer (4 December 1899 – 9 February 1953) was an English footballer and manager.
Club career
After service with the Royal Engineers during the First World War, Spencer joined Newcastle United from non-league football in Oct ...
. Grimsby were then playing in the First Division and narrowly avoided relegation at the end of the 1937–38 season.
The following season, Spencer had assembled a fine squad, including former
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
Jimmy Boyd
Jimmy Devon Boyd (January 9, 1939 – March 7, 2009) was an American singer, musician, and actor known for his 1952 recording of the song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".
Early years
Jimmy Boyd was born in 1939 Mississippi into a musical fam ...
(who had won the FA Cup with
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...
in
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
. Grimsby performed far better in the league, finishing in tenth place in the table, whilst in the
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 ...
, they reached the
semi-final
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
against
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 ...
, having defeated fellow First Division team
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
in the previous round. The semi-final was played at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
on 25 March 1939 in front of a crowd of 76,962 spectators; this remains the record attendance at Old Trafford. In the semi-final, Grimsby were no match for Wolves and were "simply swept aside", going down 5–0, although their cause was not helped by having goal-keeper
George Moulson
George Bernard Moulson (6 August 1914 – 11 November 1994) was an Irish professional footballer.
He played three times for the Republic of Ireland national football team and also played at club level for Lincoln City, Grimsby Town
injured early on in the match and having to play with only ten men and an outfield player in goal.
McIlwaine remained at
Blundell Park
Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9, ...
until 1948, when he left the club and opened a
masseur
Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In Eu ...
practice in
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
. He remained in Grimsby for the rest of his life, dying there in April 1980, aged 75.
Honours
Portsmouth
*
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 ...
runners-up:
1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
Llanelly
*
Welsh League
The Welsh League was the first club rugby league competition in Wales.Lush (1998), pg. 19 Its inaugural season was in 1908/09 when four additional teams were formed to join Ebbw Vale RLFC and Merthyr Tydfil RLFC, which allowed a league tournamen ...