George Mahon (7 July 18539 December 1908) was a founding father and former chairman of

Everton Football Club Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

Biography

George Mahon was born in

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 populat ...

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 Lancash ...

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, on 7 July 1853. He was baptised at St. Anne Richmond Church of England Liverpool on 14 August 1853. His parents, Robert Mahon and Harriet Bates, were

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. The Mahons came to

from

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

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, where Robert and his father were shoemakers.Biography
The family moved back to

when George was about three years old and they lived in

for nearly a decade. They lived in Wicklow Street then later in Pitt Street (now called Balfe Street). In 1858 Robert was elected to the Office of Beadle of St. Ann's Church, Dawson Street. His election was supported by his brother-in-law, Edward Bates, who was sexton of the church at the time. Robert's duties were to attend to the churchwardens, look after deserted children, provide coffins for the poor and other parochial business.Dublin
/ref>1861 Thom's Dublin Directory
/ref> The Mahons returned to

in the mid 1860s and after initially working as a shoemaker, Robert got a job as a book keeper. His son George went into a similar profession and eventually became a senior partner in Roose, Mahon & Howorth, a leading accountancy firm. In 1875 George Mahon married Margaret Fyfe at St. Peter's Church, Sackville Street, Everton. The marriage record shows that at the time of his marriage George was working as a cashier and living at 108 Field Street in Everton.Liverpool
/ref>
/ref> Although the Mahon family had links to the established church, the family's burial practices and chapel attendance in Liverpool suggest that they were Nonconformists. By 1879 George Mahon was regularly attending the Great Homer Street

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

Chapel in Everton where he provided musical accompaniment to the choir playing an American organ. Mahon delivered a lecture entitled "An Hour with Nature's Little Things" for the Anfield Wesleyan Literary Society in their chapel's lecture hall on 18 March 1887. The lecture was illustrated through the medium of a lantern microscope showing insects and pond life and was much appreciated by a large audience.Death
/ref>

Politics

In 1887 Mahon stood as a candidate in the St. Simon and St. Jude's Ward and was elected to the Walton Local Board. He was later elected chairman of the board. Mahon was a member of Walton Liberal Association and supported the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

's campaign to grant

Home Rule for Ireland The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...

. He reorganized the district body after the defection of

Liberal Unionist The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a politic ...

s who were opposed to Gladstone's proposed solution to the Irish Question.David Kennedy
/ref>

Football

George Mahon was a key figure in the history of a football team formed at another Everton chapel. Reverend Ben Swift Chambers, minister of St. Domingo Methodist New Connexion Chapel, encouraged young members of his congregation to play

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

. Members later took up football to provide a team sport for them to play during winter. Initially formed in 1878 as St. Domingo FC, named after the location of the chapel on the corner of Breckfield Road North and St. Domingo Vale, the football team was renamed Everton in 1879 after the district of Everton. Mahon became involved with the team after watching them play Preston North End in May 1886.The Everton Collection Talks
/ref> Due to the rising rental costs of Everton's then home ground

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 189 ...

, Mahon was key to the decision to move to Mere Green, which later became known as

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, 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 ...

. At a Special General Meeting convened in the college on Shaw Street on 25 January 1892, Mahon talked about the need for a new ground. A heckler shouted, "Yer can't find one!" and Mahon famously responded, "I've got one in my pocket." Mahon became the club's chairman in 1892 and was responsible for overseeing Everton's move from

and the creation of Everton Football Club Company Ltd. He remained a board member after resigning from the post of chairman in 1895 and returned as chairman before retiring from the position in May 1908.EFC Company Ltd
/ref>

References

George Mahon website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahon, George 1853 births English football chairmen and investors English people of Irish descent Everton F.C. directors and chairmen Businesspeople from Liverpool 1908 deaths 19th-century English businesspeople