Leon Antonin L. Boullemier (1874 – 21 April 1954), also known as Leon or Leo Bullimer, 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 le ...

who made 48 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 ...

playing as a goalkeeper for Lincoln City. He also played in the Southern League for Reading and Brighton United, and went on to

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

at senior level. He acted as scorer for

Northamptonshire County Cricket Club Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northa ...

for more than 50 years.

Early and personal life

Boullemier's parents, ceramic artist Antonin Boullemier, who had trained at the

Sèvres porcelain Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for it ...

factory, Click on 'Lot notes' tab for details. and his wife Léonie Michel, daughter of a physician to Emperor Napoleon III, left France for England during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Antonin took up employment as a painter at Minton's ceramics factory in the city of

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

, Staffordshire, where Boullemier, their third child, and second son, was born. His birth was registered in the third quarter of 1874. His younger brother Lucien played football professionally before making a success in his father's profession. From the late 1890s onwards, Boullemier used an

anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

version of his surname. In his later football career, he was known as Leon Bullimer, and in the context of Northamptonshire cricket, he was Leo Bullimer. His son Leonard, also known as Leo, played Minor Counties cricket for Northamptonshire second eleven. Boullemier died in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

in 1954, at the age of 79.

Football career

Boullemier, who played as a goalkeeper, was on the books of both

and

Burslem Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

but never appeared in the

for either club. He played three times for Stockport County in the Lancashire League in 1895, and joined Football League Second Division club Lincoln City at the end of that year. Boullemier made his Football League debut on 21 December, in a 1–0 home defeat to Liverpool, and was ever-present for the remainder of the 1895–96 season, as Lincoln finished in 13th position in the 16-team division. He played in every match again the following season, as Lincoln finished bottom of the league and were required to apply for re-election. Although their application was successful, Boullemier left the club and signed for Reading of the Southern League. He spent one season with Reading, playing in the Western League as well as the Southern. According to 'H.L.B.' in the ''Sporting Mirror'', "the Reading eleven is a hard-working one, and possesses a powerful defence, with a splendid goalkeeper in Bullimer". A rib injury sustained during a match in March 1898 caused the club to bring in another goalkeeper, in the shape of Leicester Fosse

Arthur Howes Arthur Joseph Christopher Howes (15 July 1950 – 29 November 2004) was a documentary film maker and teacher. Life Howes was born in Gibraltar on 15 July 1950, and moved to London as a teenager. He was married to Amy Hardie and had one son. He ...

, to cover for a few weeks while Boullemier regained his fitness. He spent the 1898–99 season with Brighton United, also a Southern League club, and ended his playing career with Midland League club Northampton Town.

Refereeing career

He went on to become a football

. In 1907, he officiated regularly in the Southern League, and a couple of years later he took an FA Cup first-round tie between West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers. After refereeing a match in Ireland between Linfield and

Belfast Celtic Belfast Celtic Football Club was a football club. Founded in 1891 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club left the league for polit ...

in 1914, Bullimer received a police escort off the field to " scapethe attentions of a rowdy section of the crowd, who did not approve of some of his decisions". His protectors were unable to prevent him from being kicked by a young man who was convicted of assault.

Cricket career

Bullimer was

's official scorer for more than 50 years. When future

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Herbert Chapman was in charge of Northampton Town before the First World War, he occasionally acted as substitute scorer when Bullimer was unavailable. He was active in fund-raising on behalf of the club, its players, and cricketers in general. According to an overview of the club in the 1958 edition of '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', "no reference to Northamptonshire cricket would be complete without mention of Leo Bullimer ...

hose A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called ''pipes'' (the word ''pipe'' usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally '' ...

efforts in raising funds did much to keep Northamptonshire going during some of their worst financial crises." In 1933, he proposed the establishment of a fund to guarantee cricketers a minimum £500 return from their benefit match, so that players were not disadvantaged by having represented a "smaller", financially weaker, club. When England and Northamptonshire opening batsman

Fred Bakewell Alfred Harry "Fred" Bakewell (2 November 1908 – 23 January 1983) was an English cricketer. Playing for Northamptonshire and England, he was an opening batsman who was renowned as one of the most exciting players of his time, largely owing t ...

suffered head injuries and a badly broken arm in a car accident in which a teammate was killed and was unable to resume his career, Bullimer organised financial support for him so that he would not be solely dependent on public assistance.

Career statistics

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boullemier, Leon 1874 births 1954 deaths Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Stoke City F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Reading F.C. players Brighton United F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Western Football League players English football referees Northamptonshire County Cricket Club Cricket scorers