Walter Freeman (21 January 1884 – 2 December 1971) was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward or

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 scored 21 goals from 58 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 for

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 ...

and Birmingham. He was on the books of

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 ...

without appearing for their first team, and played

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

Lowestoft Town Lowestoft Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. They are currently members of the and play at Crown Meadow. History The club was established in 1887 as Lowestoft F.C. by a merger of East Suf ...

and

Stalybridge Celtic Stalybridge Celtic Football Club is an English football club based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the and play at Bower Fold. The team traditionally plays in a blue and white strip. In 1921 Stalybridge Celtic ...

Personal life

Freeman was born in 1884 in Handsworth, which was then in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. His father, Thomas Holte Freeman, was a jeweller, and his mother, Sarah, was a draper. At the time of the 1891 census, he was the eighth of ten children living in the parental home. The ninth, Bert, became a prolific goalscorer for Woolwich Arsenal, Everton, Burnley and Wigan Borough, and played five times for England. Before taking up football full-time, Freeman had trained and worked as an electrician, and described himself as such when he married Catherine Harriett Whiteman in 1907; by the time of the

1911 Census The United Kingdom Census 1911 of 2 April 1911 was the 12th nationwide census conducted in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The total population of the United Kingdom was approximately 45,221,000, with 36,070,000 recorded in England ...

, the couple had three children. The

1939 Register The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. The Act provided for the es ...

finds Freeman still working as an electrician. He, his wife, and two daughters of working age were living in Moor Park Road, Northfield, Birmingham. Freeman was still resident at that address when he died in December 1971 at the age of 87.

Football career

Freeman attended Gower Street School in

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston wa ...

, whose football team won the district schools' title in both of the two years that Freeman was a member. He played youth football for Aston Manor

's nursery clubbefore signing amateur forms for

. While a Lowestoft player, he represented Suffolk County in a match against Norfolk. After trials with Aston Villa's reserve team, Freeman turned professional in February 1904 with the

Football League 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 ...

club, where his brother Bert was already on the books. Freeman played for the reserves, but never broke through to the first team, and when Bert joined Woolwich Arsenal that November, Freeman followed him to London a few weeks later when he signed for

of the Southern League. He scored 10 goals from 28 matches to help Fulham win the 1906–07 Southern League title, after which they were elected to the Football League Second Division. Freeman made his

debut on the opening day of Fulham's first season at that level, and in the next match, a 1–0 win away to Derby County on 7 September 1907, he scored both his and Fulham's first ever Football League goal. He played five matches in September, and did not return to the league side until January 1909, when a run of seven goals in six matches earned him a regular place in the team until the end of the season. Freeman began the 1909–10 season back in the reserves, scored a hat-trick against

Arsenal Reserves Arsenal Football Club Academy is the youth system of Arsenal Football Club based in Hale End, London, England. It is often referred to as Hale End eponymously by the club, sports media, and fans. The academy teams play in the Professional De ...

in a South-Eastern League match, and was then transferred to another Second Division club, Birmingham, against whom he had scored twice the previous season. He missed only one match of what remained of Birmingham's 1909–10 season, initially playing at centre forward and then switched to inside right, and scored 10 goals, which was enough to make him the club's top scorer. They finished bottom of the table, and had to apply for re-election to the League. With the arrival of forwards including Jack Kidd, Thomas Jones and the prolific Jack Hall, Freeman played little in 1910–11. Ahead of the 1911–12 season, Freeman joined

, newly professional and admitted to the Lancashire Combination Second Division. He helped them win that division, after which he and they spent two seasons in the Central League, although the second half of his 1913–14 season was affected by injury.

Career statistics

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Walter 1884 births 1971 deaths Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Lowestoft Town F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Southern Football League players English Football League players