Joseph Eric Stephenson (17 September 1914 – 8 September 1944) 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 an

inside left 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 ...

at both professional and international levels.

Career

Born in

Bexleyheath Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011. Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

, Stephenson signed for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

in 1933, turned professional in 1934, and made his first-team debut in 1935. Stephenson also earned two international caps 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 ...

in 1938.

War service

After leaving Leeds in 1941 to become a Major in the Gurkha Rifles, Stephenson died in active service in

British Burma British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in September 1944 and is buried at

Taukkyan War Cemetery The Taukkyan War Cemetery ( my, ထောက်ကြံ့ စစ်သင်္ချိုင်း) is a cemetery for Allied soldiers from the British Commonwealth who died in battle in Burma during the Second World War. The cemetery is in th ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. His younger brother Ernest had died in action August 1943, at the age of 27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephenson, Eric 1914 births 1944 deaths English footballers England men's international footballers Leeds United F.C. players English Football League players Indian Army personnel killed in World War II Royal Gurkha Rifles officers Footballers from Bexleyheath Men's association football inside forwards