Well done to the West Ham Years team[1]Find out more about the West Ham Years here:https://thewesthamyears.com/ for producing a fantastic tribute to Jack Leslie. Although Jack never played for the Hammers, he was an East End boy and he worked for many years in the boot room at Upton Park and many players who knew him have contributed their memories of Jack. A truly fitting tribute that hopefully will be enjoyed not just by West Ham fans. You can read it by clicking on the link here:
7th October 2022 was a special day, Plymouth Argyle defeated Accrington 3-0 at home to consolidate their place at the top of League One. But it was a special weekend even before the match kicked off. Most Argyle fans would surely agree that the unveiling of a statue to Plymouth hero, Jack Leslie, was of longer lasting significance than the result of a single game. Which was the icing and which was the cake – a 3-0 win or a statue that will stand as a lasting and fitting tribute to someone who was scarcely heard of outside Plymouth until a couple of years ago? We know what we think!
Jack’s story is well known, now – called up to the England squad in 1925 but mysteriously uncalled up just days later when the selectors discovered he was black or, more likely, were heavily leant on by the powers that be who felt a black man could not represent England.
Bill Hern, co-author of Football’s Black Pioneers, attended the unveiling ceremony and it was an emotional day for all those who worked to secure justice for Jack.
It is such a privilege that our names, as authors of Football’s Black Pioneers and supporters of the campaign for the statue, appear on the plinth.
The Jack Leslie Campaign, who worked tirelessly to bring the statue about, have produced a video to celebrate the event:
Copies of the souvenir match day programme are still available but, in that time-honoured phrase, ‘hurry while stocks last’.
The unveiling secured considerable national publicity and the Football Association finally righted a long-standing wrong when they awarded Jack a posthumous cap:
“[Leslie] faced adversity because of the colour of his skin; he was deselected and never played for our country, so we’re delighted to award him with a posthumous honorary cap to recognise his career, his contribution to our game and wider society, and to right this historical wrong.” (FA statement)
It was a privilege to be invited to attend the unveiling of the plaque commemorating Jack Leslie at the site of his childhood home in Gerald Road, Canning Town.
Councillor Terence Paul did the honours and West Ham United TV were on hand to capture the moment:
It was a great pleasure to support Neandra Etienne when she put on an exhibition celebrating some of the black footballers who are strongly connected with the London Borough of Newham. Staged as part of Newham’s Black History Month activity, Neandra worked tirelessly to pull together an exhibition of photos and other artefacts. Hosted by the Canning Gallery (special thanks to Rachel Hollington) the exhibition attracted some high profile visitors as well as three classes of Year 4 children from a local school.
The exhibition has finished now but it seems a shame not to have a permanent record of a small part of what was on display. The main focus of the exhibition was on three of Football’s Black Pioneers.
Walter Tull
That Walter played for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town is well-known, no obvious Newham link there! But before joining Spurs Walter played for top amateur club Clapton.
Clapton FC (now Clapton Community FC) still exist and had kindly shared their Walter Tull banner with Neandra for the exhibition.
Other exhibits included an entire wall of school work about Walter. When we first saw this we assumed it was the work of a whole class but, no, it was the work of one ten year-old girl, Halima.
Immensely impressive!
Neandra had also arranged for author, Phil Vasili, a leading authority on Walter and his family, to give a talk at the launch event.
Phil Vasili, author and historian
Jack Leslie
The second player to feature prominently in the exhibition was Jack Leslie. Eighteen months ago Jack’s story was known to a relatively small number of, mostly, Plymouth Argyle supporters. Thanks to the outstanding work of the Jack Leslie Foundation his story is becoming increasingly mainstream as recent mentions on Coronation Street and the Antiques Road Trip demonstrate!
The exhibition had a plaque on display that is to be put up at the address where Jack was living when he signed for Plymouth Argyle.
Getting permission for a plaque is no easy matter and so Neandra deserves great credit for having brought this about.
Greg Foxsmith and Matt Tiller from The Jack Leslie Campaign played a prominent role and Matt performed his ‘Ballad of Jack Leslie’ live. Although they had worked together on the project this was also the first time Greg and Matt had met Jack’s granddaughters.
Greg Foxsmith
Jack Leslie’s granddaughters
West Ham United did a very nice piece about Jack that was filmed at the exhibition:
John Charles is one of English football’s forgotten heroes – but we are doing all we can to change the ‘forgotten’ bit of that. As son Mitch commented, his dad is becoming ‘the best known unknown player’!
We have documented elsewhere on this site John Charles achievements but they bear repeating:
West Ham’s first black player of the modern era
the first black player to represent West Ham in the Football League
the first black player to represent England at any level
the first black player to score a goal for England
the first black player to captain a team to a major trophy
And that’s just the main ones! Why is his name not known by all football fans?
The exhibition featured a wall devoted to ‘Charlo’ with his brother Clive, who could boast many achievements of his own, particularly after he moved to America, facing him from the wall opposite.
The gallery hosted an event dedicated to Charlo and it was a delight to meet so many of his family (sons, daughter, grandson).
Charlo’s son, Mitch, entertained us with many stories about his father while Bill Hern, co-author of Football’s Black Pioneers, talked about Charlo’s many achievements on the football field.
Mitch Charles
Bill Hern
West Ham legend, Brian Dear also attended. Brian read from Charlo’s funeral eulogy and was visibly moved as he recalled a dear friend and team mate.
Brian Dear reading from John Charles’ book of remembrance
John’s brother, Clive, also had a prominent place in the exhibition. Clive made only fifteen appearances for West Ham but had a successful spell at Cardiff City where he made 92 appearances. He had even more success in America, initially as a player and subsequently as a coach in both the women’s and men’s games. In 1998 he was assistant coach to the USA team at the 1994 World Cup in France.
Clive was one of the three black West Ham players who made history on 1st April 1972 when they played against Tottenham Hotspur, pre-dating West Bromwich Albion’s ‘Three Degrees’ (Laurie Cunningham, Brendon Batson and Cyrille Regis) by several years.
West Ham’s ‘Three Degrees’: Clyde Best (back row), Clive Charles (front row, 3rd from the right) and Ade Coker. Coker scored one of the goals in a 2-0 win
Conclusion
It always seems a pity when an exhibition is taken down at the end of its run, this was a splendid effort by Neandra and we look forward to the unveiling of the Jack Leslie plaque.
Verulamium, a name to conjure with. It was the site of a Roman town in what is present day St Albans. I think I may have been taken there as a child, or perhaps I’m confusing it with Colchester. Anyway, Bill Hern and I definitely appeared on the Verulam Radio sports blog where we had a very enjoyable chat with Tony Rice. Some hosts are just great at putting you at your ease and Tony did that from the start.
We spoke to Tony only a couple of days after the sad news that Tony Collins (the first black player at Watford, among others) had died so, understandably, we spent some time discussing Tony’s amazing career. But as usual we strayed far and wide and in particular we ruminated on the importance of education, something that Tony feels as passionately about as we do.
Bill Hern must feel like a regular now following another appearance on the Hawksbee & Jacobs show on Talksport radio:
You can buy ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ (“an important book” – Paul Hawksbee) from the publishers, Conker Editions, Amazon or, if you prefer, from your favourite local book shop.
Appearing on the Outside Write podcast gave us a rare opportunity to both speak about ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ as the interview was pre-recorded and then edited. Chris Lee has done a great job of stitching our contributions together so that it sounds seamless. You can listen here: https://outsidewrite.co.uk/podcast-black-pioneers-of-the-football-league/
We aren’t sure how we will go down with regular listeners to the podcast as a discussion of first black players in the EFL seems positively mainstream compared to some of the topics discussed, as you will see if you check out the link. If you have time to listen to some of the other interviews you may well be amazed by some of the stories that will definitely broaden your horizons!
Statues are very much in the news at the moment. Should we venerate them, tear them down, board them up to protect them from threats (real or imagined), or shuffle them off to a dusty museum?
But sitting alongside such questions is another one, should we put up new statues and, if so, who should they represent?
If we occupied high office no doubt we would stand up and proclaim “what the people want is…” Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, we don’t occupy high office but we do know that what a growing number of ‘the people’ want, particularly if they live in Plymouth, is a statue commemorating Jack Leslie.
Born in London’s East End to a white mother and black father, Jack was a working class lad who made good as a footballer and had a long and successful career with Plymouth Argyle. So successful that he was called up to join the England squad for an international in Belfast in October 1925. Had he played he would have been the first footballer of colour to win an England cap, beating Viv Anderson to that honour by 53 years. Shamefully he was ‘un-called up’ by the selectors when they realised he was black. In Jack’s own words “They found out I was a darkie and I suppose that was like finding out I was foreign.”
A campaign is afoot to erect a statue in Jack’s honour in Plymouth. Plymouth City Council have already announced their intention to rename a square in the city after Jack (a square currently named after Sir John Hawkins, a ‘privateer’ whose activities included trading in enslaved people). But “what the people want…” is a statue of Jack Leslie.
You may also have heard about the campaign on the Today programme on Radio 4. If you missed it, you can listen to the item here:
If you would like more details of the campaign you can read about it here: https://jackleslie.co.uk/. Why not go further and add your voice to demands for a statue and, as today the campaign launches its crowdfunding appeal, a donation too?
