Percival Hall Dawson (born 4 December 1889 – 1974) 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 played as a

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 ...

. He played in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

for Heart of Midlothian and 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 ...

for

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. T ...

, moving between them in 1914 for what is believed to be a record transfer fee at the time.

Career

Dawson was born in

Cullercoats Cullercoats is a coastal settlement in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Historically in Northumberland, it has now been absorbed into the wider Tyneside conurbation, sitting between Tynemouth to the ...

. Early on in his football career, he played for non-league sides Whitley Athletic and

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

before moving to Scottish club Heart of Midlothian in 1911. In 1913, however, Hearts were required to sell Dawson in order to fund improvements to their

Tynecastle Stadium Tynecastle Park is a football stadium in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, which is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Heart of Midlothian (Hearts). It has also hosted Scotland international matches, and been used as a ...

, and he was transferred to

for a fee of £2,500 – a fee which several sources claim was a then world record transfer fee. In his first season with Blackburn, he contributed to the club winning the

English First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

, and helped them to a third-place finish the following season. The outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

brought about an end to professional football in England for four seasons. After serving as a

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

in the

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

during the war, Dawson returned to Blackburn and remained with the club until 1922. He played four matches for Barrow in 1923 before retiring from football.

References

External links

Spartacus Educational Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Percey 1889 births English footballers Footballers from Tyne and Wear People from Cullercoats Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players North Shields F.C. players Scotland wartime international footballers Association football forwards British Army personnel of World War I Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers 1974 deaths Newcastle United F.C. wartime guest players Military personnel from Northumberland