John George Coleman MM (26 October 1881 – 20 November 1940) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

, Woolwich Arsenal, Everton,

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 ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and Tunbridge Wells Rangers. He made a single appearance for the

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

and later in life was a manager in the Netherlands.

Career

Coleman was born in

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of Ket ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and first played for local non-league clubs,

and then

in 1901. He was signed by

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Woolwich Arsenal in the summer of 1902, and immediately became a regular goalscorer for the club. Coleman made his debut against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 6 September 1902, and in his first season was top scorer with 17 goals in 30 matches, as Arsenal finished third. The following season he broke his own record and scored 23 goals in 28 games, which along with strike partner

Tommy Shanks Thomas Shanks (30 March 1880 – 1 March 1919) was an Irish footballer. Career Shanks was born in Wexford and started his playing career with local club Wexford before moving to England to play for Derby West End and then Derby County in 1898. ...

' 25 goals, helped Arsenal to second spot and thus promotion to the First Division. Coleman found 1905–06, his first season at the top, tough going (he only scored five goals), but the following season he scored 15 in 34 matches. Coleman's season was topped with Arsenal reaching 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 ...

semi-finals (which they lost to

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 ...

), and his one and only cap for

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 ...

, against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 16 February 1907. Despite their success on the pitch, Woolwich Arsenal were suffering from financial difficulties, and willingly accepted a bid of £700 for Coleman from Everton in February 1908, near the end of the 1907–08 season. In total, Coleman had played 196 games for Arsenal, scoring 84 goals. Coleman was a regular during the two and a half seasons he spent at

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a football stadium in the Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area 2 miles (3 km) north of Liverpool ...

, helping the Toffees to runners-up spot in 1908–09, and scoring 30 goals in 71 league appearances. While at Everton, he was notable for being one of the few players, along with most of the

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

squad, to maintain their membership of the

Players' Union The Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union (AFPTU), commonly known as the Players' Union, in the United Kingdom was the original association that became the Professional Footballers' Association. Their stated aims were freedom of move ...

(the forerunner of the

Professional Footballers' Association The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members. The aims of ...

), in defiance of

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

rules. After a standoff, the FA backed down. Coleman later had spells at

(1910–11),.

(1911–14), and

(1914–15). With the outbreak of 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 ...

and the suspension of first-class football, Coleman retired from the professional game, although he still played in non-league football, most notably for Tunbridge Wells Rangers, finally retiring in 1921. He subsequently served as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

at Maidstone United. Coleman later moved to the Netherlands, where he managed a number of the clubs to promotion. He died at

St Mary Abbots Hospital St Mary Abbots Hospital was a hospital that operated from 1871 to 1992 at a site on Marloes Road in Kensington, London. History The hospital building, which was designed by Alfred Williams as a workhouse infirmary and built by John T. Chappell, ...

in November 1940, at the age of 59, when he fell through the roof of a

generating station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

Personal life

Coleman served as a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

in the

Middlesex Regiment The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Re ...

during the

and was awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

for bravery in October 1918. On 29 December 1916, Coleman was misreported in the ''

Sporting Chronicle The ''Sporting Chronicle'', known colloquially as ''The Chron'', was a Manchester-based, daily, national horse racing newspaper which operated in Great Britain for 112 years until its closure in 1983 due to unsustainable losses (£5.8 million si ...

'' as having been killed in action.

Honours

As a player

Woolwich Arsenal *

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 ...

second-place promotion: 1903–04

As a manager

SC Enschede *

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse ( en, First Class) started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into eleven divisions, six for Saturday clubs and five for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the s ...

: 1925–26 VV Oldenzaal *

Vierde Klasse The Vierde Klasse ( en, Fourth Class) is the ninth tier of football in the Netherlands and the seventh tier of Dutch amateur football. This is the lowest league in the West II region. The league is divided into 64 divisions, 32 played on Saturday a ...

: 1928–29 DHC Delft *

Tweede Klasse The Tweede Klasse ( en, Second Class) is the seventh tier of football in the Netherlands and the fifth tier of Dutch amateur football. The league is divided into 22 divisions, 10 played on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. Each division consists of 14 t ...

: 1932–33

Sources

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Tim 1881 births 1940 deaths Sportspeople from Kettering English footballers England international footballers Association football forwards Kettering Town F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Everton F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Tunbridge Wells F.C. players English Football League players English Football League representative players British Army personnel of World War I Middlesex Regiment soldiers Recipients of the Military Medal