July 12, 1944
Mr. William McConnell is the new chairman of Liverpool Football Club. The election was unanimous at last evening’s annual directors’ meeting, and, as foreshadowed in the Evening Express, is in keeping with the club’s principle of a change in leadership every three years.
The choice of Mr. McConnell, certainly one of the best-known directors in football, will be exceedingly popular with shareholders, supporters and players alike. Mr. McConnell has a ready wit, business acumen, and an unshakable love of Liverpool There never was a more loyal Reds’ supporter than the man who now takes over the reins so strongly held by Mr. Richard Lawson Martindale during the past three years.
Mr. McConnell – “Mac” to hundreds in football up and down the country, and not forgetting Scotland, Wales and Ireland – is a managing director of Messrs. W.H. McConnell, Ltd., caterers, and is proud of the fact that it was his love of football, and the Liverpool club in particular, that made him a caterer.
Mr. McConnell, at the age of 14, threw up one job to go into catering for the one reason that he was sure of getting Saturday afternoons off so that he could go to Anfield. Thus the important part football plays in the destinies of man.
Since the war Mr. McConnell has been one of the most important factors in feeding the Merseyside dock workers, and is, in fact, chairman of the Mersey Docks Caterers’ Association, having held that office since its formation.
15 years.
It is fifteen years since Mr. McConnell, who comes from a Liverpool South End family of seven brothers – six Liverpudlians and one Evertonian – first joined the Liverpool directorate, filling the vacancy created by the death of Mr. William Robert Williams.
Now Mr. McConnell’s vice chairman will be the son of the man he succeeded, Mr. Stanley Ronald Williams, who is a member of Liverpool City Council and who, like his chairman, is a member of Childwall Golf Club.
Referring back to Mr. McConnell I find that the new chairman is a vice-president of the Bootle J.O.C. League, a member of the Liverpool County Football Association, and has been president of the Aigburth Bowling Club since 1939.
During his directorate career Mr. McConnell has covered thousands of miles seeking talent and there is hardly a ground in the country he has not visited.
One of Mr. McConnell’s last and most profitable journeys just before the war was taking Manager Mr. George Kay to Scotland to sign Billy Liddell. They went by car and actually beat train time. Obviously, they were taking no risks of anyone stepping in before them.
I know that Mr. McConnell will have a keen and willing deputy in Mr. Williams; in fact, under the guidance of these two enthusiasts I can visualise more happy days for Liverpool. I have worked with both in many ways and on various bodies, and am alive to their many attributes.
First ”team”.
One of the items on yesterday’s agenda was the selection of the first “team” for the new season, but this was not in relation to players, but to the directorial team which will conduct the various operational avenues of the club.
This is the unanimous selection:
Finance Committee: Messrs. Stanley Ronald Williams (chairman), Walter Henry Cartwright, William John Harrop, Richard Lawson Martindale and William Harvey Webb.
Grounds Committee: Messrs. George Alfred Richards (chairman), Ralph Knowles Milne and James Troop.
Stores Committee: Messrs. Walter Henry Cartwright (chairman), George Alfred Richards and William Harvey Webb.
The directors extended heartless congratulations to Mr. James Troop on his completing 21 years of continued and grand service as a director of the club, and Mr. Martindale was the recipient of a warm vote of thanks for the service he has rendered the club as chairman from 1941 to 1944 – a most difficult and trying period.
Here’s wishing Mr. McConnell, his colleagues and the club every success under the “new management,” and may it have the pleasure and honour of celebrating the victory season.
(Source: Evening Express: July 13, 1944)
Mr. William McConnell.
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"Play Up, Liverpool" 