Rupert Cawthorne (13 April 1879 – 1965) 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 ...

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 ...

or full back. He played 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 ...

for

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

and in

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for clubs including Clitheroe Central and

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east of ...

Life and career

Rupert Cawthorne was born on 13 April 1879 in

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, to Elijah Sylvester Newton Cawthorne, a professional artist and teacher of painting and drawing, and his wife, Louisa ''née'' Price. Cawthorne had four older brothers who all played football in the Clitheroe area, one of whom, Fred, followed in his father's footsteps and became well known locally as a portraitist and particularly as a landscape painter. Cawthorne spent four seasons with local junior club Queen's Park before joining

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

club

for the 1898–99 season. Both club and team were struggling. Over the 34-match season they conceded 141 goals, lost 18 consecutive matches, and were beaten 10–0 on three occasions; it would be their last season in the

. According to the ''

Athletic News The ''Athletic News and Cyclists' Journal'' was a Manchester-based newspaper founded by Edward Hulton in 1875. It was published weekly, covering weekend sports fixtures other than horse racing, which was already covered by the ''Sporting Chronicl ...

'', he made a very promising display on his debut on 25 February 1899, playing at

left back 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 ...

at home to Glossop North End. He played in nine more matches, including Darwen's last at Football League level, in which he and full-back partner

Thomas Woolfall Thomas Woolfall (born 1871, date of death unknown) was an English professional footballer who played as a right-back. References * * 1871 births English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Darwen F.C. players Burnley F ...

were "fast, cool and clever" as Darwen secured a 1–1 draw with

Newton Heath Newton Heath is an area of Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester city centre and with a population of 9,883. Historically part of Lancashire, Newton was formerly a farming area, but adopted the factory system following the Industrial Re ...

soon to rename themselves Manchester United. He enlisted in the

11th Hussars The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 10th Royal Hussars (Pri ...

in 1900; his record describes him as in height, physically well developed, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. The 1901 census finds him stationed in

Canterbury Barracks Howe Barracks was a military installation in Canterbury in Kent. History Permanent barracks were first established in Canterbury when William Baldock initiated construction of "St Gregory’s Barracks", an infantry barracks on Sturry Road, as pa ...

. In October 1902, his father bought him out of the Army for £10. When he returned home, he helped Clitheroe Congregational finish top of the Blackburn and District Sunday School League. The club renamed itself Clitheroe Central and joined the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 it ...

in 1903, and Cawthorne remained a loyal, consistent and popular player. According to a 1906 profile in the '' Lancashire Daily Post'', he "filled the centre half position for a number of years, and plays with skill and judgment, feeding his forwards judiciously, and breaking up the attacks of opposing forwards, who find his play a sturdy stumbling block, for he tackles them fearlessly", and in that position "has few if any superiors in Division II of the Combination." Thirty years later, a retrospective in the ''

Clitheroe Advertiser Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...

'' described him as "one of the best and most versatile of local players ... of the type that we often say are born, not made". At the end of that season, Cawthorne signed for Second Division

. He went straight into their league team at

right half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

with

Jonathan Cretney John Thomas Cretney (1879 – 1956) 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 ...

at centre half, displacing

Fred Barron Fred Barron (born 7 June 1879 – 18 August 1939) was an English professional footballer who played primarily as a wing half. He made exactly 400 Football League appearances in thirteen seasons with Burnley. Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County ...

from the

half-back line In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-back line refers to the positions of the 3 players on the field that occupy the centre half-back and left and right half-back flank positions. Centre half-back The role of the centre half-back ...

right back 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 ...

. After the first match, Cretney and Cawthorne changed places, and Cawthorne continued in his preferred centre-half position until the turn of the year, when he lost his place through injury and, following the arrival of the ageing but still influential former

England international The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

centre half

Alex Leake Alexander Leake (11 July 1871 – 29 March 1938), known as Alex or Alec Leake, was an English professional footballer who won five caps for his country and made 407 appearances in the Football League playing as a half back for Small Heath, As ...

, did not regain it. He was not

retained In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS Firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to em ...

at the end of the season, and returned to Clitheroe Central. By the end of November 1907, his standard had "greatly improved", according to the ''Lancashire Daily Post'', and Burnley re-signed him. He remained on their books for the next two-and-a-half seasons, but appeared only rarely for their first teamthree times in the 1908–09 season and once in 1909–10. Cawthorne left full-time professional football in 1910 for Lancashire Combination club

. He captained the team to victory in the 1911

Lancashire Junior Cup The Lancashire Football Association Challenge Trophy is an English football competition for senior non-league clubs who are members of the Lancashire County Football Association. The trophy was first played for in 1885, when it was known as the ...

and was still with them in the 1912–13 season. He had married Elizabeth Duckett in 1910, and the 1911 Census records him as an employee of

Pearl Assurance Phoenix Group Holdings plc (formerly Pearl Group plc) is a provider of insurance services based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was founded in 1857 a ...

. During the

First World War 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 ...

, he served with the

Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

. By 1939, he was licensee of the Cross Keys

beerhouse A beerhouse was a type of public house created in the United Kingdom by the 1830 Beerhouse Act, legally defined as a place "where beer is sold to be consumed ''on'' the premises". They were also known as 'small' or 'Tom and Jerry' shops Existing pu ...

in Clitheroe, where he lived with Elizabeth and their son Gordon. Cawthorne died at the age of 85 in

Haslingden Haslingden is a town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester. The name means 'valley of the hazels' or 'valley growing with hazels'. At the time of the 2011 census the town (including Helmshore) had a population of 15,96 ...

, Lancashire, in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cawthorne, Rupert 1879 births 1965 deaths People from Clitheroe English footballers Men's association football defenders Darwen F.C. players Clitheroe F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Bacup Borough F.C. players English Football League players 11th Hussars soldiers Royal Northumberland Fusiliers soldiers 19th-century British Army personnel 20th-century British Army personnel Footballers from Lancashire