William Cunningham (27 October 1894 – 28 June 1934) 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

wing 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 ...

; he made three appearances for

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and also played for

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is a football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secretary before fo ...

Barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

and Mid-Rhondda.

Club career

Blyth Spartans

Cunningham made his name at his local team

who he followed avidly. He was taken on as a defender after being discharged from the army. He was sold to

in May 1920 for £50.

Liverpool

Cunningham made his Liverpool debut in the first division fixture with

Middlesbrough F.C Middlesbrough Football Club ( ) is a professional football club in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium ...

as a left-winger at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

on 12 March 1921 and then figured on the right wing in the penultimate game of the season, away to

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 ...

on 2 May. Both games finished in goalless draws. His third and final appearance for the Reds was as a replacement for left-half

Tom Bromilow Thomas George Bromilow (7 October 1894 – 4 March 1959) was an English international left half footballer who played for Liverpool between 1919 and 1930. He was virtually ever-present during the back-to-back League title triumphs of the early ...

in a home match with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

on 18 March 1922, which Liverpool lost 2-0 in their Championship-winning season. His career at Liverpool, in which he also played for the reserves, was plagued by injury.

Barrow

He scored a penalty for

against

Darlington F.C Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth tier of English football. The club was founded in 1 ...

on a snowy return leg on Boxing Day 1924. Barrow were beaten 5-1.

Mid-Rhondda United

Cunningham joined Mid Rhondda United on 7 October 1924. The club went into financial crisis soon after.

Exeter City

Cunningham Joined Exeter During the summer of 1925. William played for the reserves at Exeter in the Southern and Western leagues in 1925/26, making his debut for City in the final practice game on Wedenesday 26th August 1925, in front of 3500 fans, and his Southern League debut 4 days later at home to Ebbw Vale. He also had a career-ending knee injury and had some of his cartilage removed.

Personal life

Cunningham was born in

Radcliffe, Northumberland Radcliffe is a settlement in the county of Northumberland, England. It is located 1 km south of the town of Amble. Radcliffe was a Coal mining, mining community, once home to over 700 people. A colliery was worked here until 1892, when a ...

to parents William Cunningham Snr and Jane Cunningham

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Jones. He had six siblings one died in infancy. He married Ada Patten in April 1920 and had two children. He started his apprenticeship in Blyth Shipyards before the

Great 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 ...

. William enlisted in the

Royal 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 ...

during the war and later joined the Labour Corps. He received the

British War Medal The British War Medal is a campaign medal of the United Kingdom which was awarded to officers and men of British and Imperial forces for service in the First World War. Two versions of the medal were produced. About 6.5 million were struck in si ...

, the Victory medal and made the rank of Corporal. He returned back to the North East from Exeter at the end of his football career to start work as a miner in 1926. He also played for Alnmouth Cricket Club, was a member of two golf clubs and enjoyed

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

. He died in 1934 while working at Shilbottle Colliery, Northumberland.

Extract from the Hartlepool Daily newspaper

''The first fatal accident at Shilbottle Colliery in ten years, during which time it has lifted 2,000,000 tons of coal, occurred yesterday. The victim was William Cunningham (40), a hewer, of Front Street, Alnmouth, and a former professional footballer, who was killed by a fall of stone''.Hartlepool Northern Daily: 29 June 1934

References

External links

LFC History profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, William 1894 births 1934 deaths People from Alnwick Footballers from Northumberland English miners British coal miners English men's footballers English Football League players Men's association football wing halves Liverpool F.C. players Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Mid Rhondda F.C. players Royal Northumberland Fusiliers soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Accidental deaths in England Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers Industrial accident deaths Military personnel from Northumberland