Walter Wadsworth @ PlayUpLiverpool.com

9 comments

1. Kjell, there is something I’ve been curious about, and since I keep a separate file on Walter Wadsworth this seems like a good time and place to bring it up. What does the eligibility date suggest? Is it a sort of registration date with the football authorities, which then permits the registering club to sign the player? Also, what authority is this: the Football Association or the Football League? Pardon me if this is too elementary a question, but I’m a little unclear about the process.

   Incidentally, the extended Wadsworth family history website indicates that Walter, the seventh of ten children, was born on 17 November 1890. This is at variance with , which records 7 October 1890 as his birthdate.

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   1. edit: After “with” it should read “lfchistory.net,”

      Reply

   2. Hi Jeff,

      I know it can be confusing, also the terms have changed over the years. I will try to explain. A little while back I visited the archives of the Football League at Deepdale in Preston. Here I went through their so-called Football League Registration ledger books from 1890 to 1915. For a player to represent his club in a Football League match that player needed to be registered with his club, and if he was the player was to be found in these ledgers.

      Now, Liverpool did not play in the Football League for the 1892-93 season so then it was no need to registered their players. Most likely they had to fill out some player registration form for Lancashire League, but this I have not found. When LFC became a member of the Football League in May 1893 they had to register their players in the Football League Registration ledger.

      Starting in 1893-94 these books contained 3 different dates for each player. Date 1) The date the club sent the registration form, Date 2) The date the Football League received the registration form, and Date 3) The date from which the player was eligible to play for his club. A player that signed for LFC, let`s say, on May 3, 1893. The club would then the same day send the registration forms straight to the Football League, so in this example Date 1 is also the same date as when the player actually signed for the club. Players signed during the close season (up until August 24) were all eligible for their new club from September 1. Players signed August 25 or later had one week quarantine before the got eligible to play.

      It was like this until the 1898/1899 season. Then “Date 1” disappeared from the Ledger books, the quarantine was still one week from registration to player being eligible to play. The next change came in 1906/1907 when “Date 2” disappeared from the Ledger books. The columns in the Ledger books from 1906/1907 contain these headers: Col. 1) “No.” (A players unique number in order to track the registration form); Col 2) “No. of form” There were different types of forms a player could sign from another FL club, from a Southern League club, from abroad, and also amateur form etc; Col. 3 “Date eligible” (the date when he was eligible to play for his new club. In most cases I have found the player was signed the day before he was eligible. This is probably down to tele-communication and the development of this; Col. 4 “Status” in contains letters, R for retained from the season before, A for amateur or P for professional; and at the end in Col 5 “Players name.”

      So when for Walter Wadsworth it says, April 13, 1913, it means he was eligible to play for LFC in the Football League from that day onwards. He could of course have played for Liverpool Reserves in another League before that date.

      I am hoping I did not make it more confusing 🙂

      Kjell

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   3. Thanks for the thorough answer, Kjell. That was exactly what I wanted to know.

      So Walter’s formal relationship with the club seems to have begun in April 1912:

      eligible to play Football League games: 13 April 1912;
      signed by LFC: 23 April 1912 (source: lfchistory.net).

      I’m not sure when he played his first game. The _Evening Express_ of 31 May 1912 “reported that a Bootle-born full-back or wing-half, Walter Wadsworth, had . . . signed professionally, having ‘last season assisted Ormskirk with distinction'” (Williams: _Red Men_, page 113). He then seems to have featured regularly for the reserves in the Central League games of the 1912-13 season.

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      1. Hi. I will see if Jonny has his name in any reserve line ups for 1911-12. I am totally blank on the reserves for the 1912-13 season myself. I will keep you updated.

      2. His first match for LFC Reserves was 9 October, 1912.

         Thanks, Jonny.

         Kjell

      3. Thanks Kjell and Jonny. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

         Jeff

2. Regarding Walter’s date of birth. I just sent Jacqueline, his grand-daughter an email and she replied:
   “Arnie, yes, Walter was born on Oct 7 1890.” as well as adding: “Also, it’s probably more accurate to say that Walter was the sixth of nine children because his parents’ first child died shortly after birth. Nine children were born afterwards and all survived.”

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   1. Hi Arnie,

      Thanks for the update. Very much appreciated!

      Kjell

      Reply

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