Jackson, N.L. and Sommerville, G.
- the "Gent", who almost stole the Game from the working-man
and the Draper, who snatched it from his grasp?
It looked bad. For the first time in a decade Scotland against England at home was in real trouble. The game was at the second Hampden, now Cathkin Park, in front of some eleven thousand on-lookers and in the 37th minute Tinsley Lindley of Nottingham Forest but also Cambridge University and Corinthians had scored for the visitors. Moreover, the home-team was down to ten, one of its centre-forwards pairing, Joe Lindsay of Dumbarton, had been forced by an injury he was carrying to go off in the 65th minute, leaving the full burden of the central attack with the other, George Sommerville, ex. of Rangers and now of Queen's Park. But in 80th minute, Scotland actually said to be playing the better, the ball emerged from "scrimmage" and Sommerville struck with one of the "daisy-cutters", for which he had become known. The referee that day, in the stand as was the way at that time, was Alexander Hunter from Tiverton in Devon but Secretary of the Welsh FA, with a mother born in Scotland and father, born in Liverpool but a Presbyterian Minister. And the on-field umpires were probably Alexander Stuart, the SFA Vice-President and certainly Nicholas Lane Jackson of Corinthian F.C., Assistant Secretary to the Football Association and no doubt raging. And the reason was that afternoon the England team had included four players, who were former pupils (FPs) of major English public-schools, five from Cambridge University and nine from his own, "elite" club, Corinthians. It should have been the culmination of a project that N.L. Jackson, "Pa" Jackson, had begun in 1882 but that day because of a Scots draper, of whom we have no known photograph or grave, he would see its ultimate failure.
"Pa" Jackson was, shall we say, an interesting man, much lauded, even mythologised in Southern English, football history and, therefore by some in World football. The Northern English view of him is considerably less complimentary. The late and esteemed Sheffield historian of the game, Martin Westby, was scathing and not without reason, whereas the Scottish view can afford to be dismissive and should be just that. The unfolding of the Scottish game never quite allowed for classist gas-lighting to take hold, although some tried.
Jackson was said to have been born in 1849 in Hackney in London, read Hoxton, and grew up in Shoreditch, the son of a mother from Enfield and a father, also N.L., from Devon, who having moved to London was a Cattle Dealer and later a "widowed" publican in Lambeth, although his wife is elsewhere to have survived him. But no matter.
Moreover, Jackson Jnr. would marry young, at nineteen, he recorded too as a publican, his bride, Mary Ann or Marianne, also nineteen already five months pregnant. Thus he at under twenty already had a family, had certainly never been to any form of public-school or university but was clearly ambitious and very capable. At twenty in 1871 he was a Land Steward just outside London in Isleworth. At thirty he was recorded as an Editor, living now in Finchley and then progressively be a Newspaper Proprietor and Journalist, an Author and Journalist and by sixty was living in Buckinghamshire on private means. And in the meantime he had involved himself in football, tennis, golf and curling and in the process transformed himself very much into a "gentleman".
However, as regards the football there are doubts about the truthfulness of his account of his involvement, at least in early part. Westby found little to back up claims of involvement in the pioneer club, Upton Park. He did find them with regard to Finchley F.C. from 1879 as captain and acting Secretary, possibly also having founded it in 1877. Then in early 1879 he served as an umpire with Charles Alcock in a match involving Old Etonians, so presumably Arthur Kinnaird. Thus he now had connections and that would lead to him being elected to the committee of the FA plus being between 1881 and 1883, under Alcock, its Assistant Secretary. And it was at that same time in 1882 that the London Football Association was formed and, by him, albeit by his own account and with others known to have been involved, Corinthian F.C., the Corinthians.
His reason for it would later be clearly stated.
"If founded the Corinthians because I did not like the way Scotland kept beating England in the late 1870s and early 1880s."
although it is not obvious whether it was because he did not like getting beaten, did not like Scots or a combination of both and would later be followed other interesting asides. For example:.
"Amateurs usually supply better backs than professional. They learn to kick cleanly and well at school, and generally show better judgement in placing the ball to their forwards than the professors (Scotch Professors?), who do a lot of vigorous charging and hard wild kicking, but are not a rule finished players."
and the following,
And there were clearly tensions, north-south and others that would soon emerge. He would also write,
"There was a great desire on the part of some individuals in Lancashire to get the headquarters of the Association transferred to Manchester. They (who they, exactly?) knew that Mr Alcock could not act as secretary if this was done, and therefore hoped to acquire the coveted position for one of their leaders. Fortunately, the Midland clubs and those in the far north held aloof from these intrigues, and thus prevented them from being effective."
And in 1884 he would be placed in charge of investigations into Preston North End, as its was accused of "offering financial inducements to attract Scottish players". It was that Scottish thing again with the club, of course, doing exactly as accused, as had been and were many of the clubs from the North and the Midlands. Indeed it and paying to play had not officially been outlawed until 1882 so until then it had been legitimate. However, Preston was as a result disqualified from that year's FA Cup, hard-line anti-professional recommendations were adopted for 1884-5, at which point the Northern clubs rebelled, threatened schism and by March, now with the support of Jackson, ever, it seems, the pragmatist, professionalism was accepted.
However, by that time he had and would have other problems, both concerning the Corinthians. Eventually it would again be about money. In 1893 questions were being raised about the expenses the club was paying and what difference there was between them and payment for working-days missed or even straight wages with the answer being little or nothing apart from a large measure of entitled hypocrisy. But first there had been the question of the effectiveness over what was effectively a five-year, Lane Jackson-inspired trial of what was at the very least, as quoted, a class-based, elitist philosophy of competence, even innate ability. In other words an upper-class footballer would by genes and nature always be superior.
In 1882 against Scotland, the game that mattered, two Corinthians played, one former pupil and no Oxbridge. In 1883 it was four, three and two, in 1884 three, one and one. And in 1885 the numbers were two, four and four with a net no change as measured by wins even in the home ties. And the result of it all? It was by 1888 the abandonment of the experiment by the look if it entirely.
That year England beat actually Scotland for the first time for a decade but there were special circumstances of Scotland's own making. And it was done with admittedly five Corinthians, but two were Northern invitees, two FPs, no Oxbridge and crucially eight players from outwith the South, including the Scot, John Goodall. Moreover, the following year it seemed the old pattern might be resumed, Scotland winning in London against an England now had two "Scots" in its team, five Corinthians, but notably four in what was obviously a very leaky defence, four FP, all in that same defence and one from Oxbridge, also in the defence. It clearly wasn't working. In fact the next England win would not be until 1891 and with one Corinthian and FP, the goalkeeper, and all the outfield players, including Goodall once more, seasoned professionals from Midland and Northern club. The experiment in neo-applied eugenics was over, even as the process of highly-effective gas-lighting began, continued by Jackson from 1895 from his eventual position of Vice-President of the FA.
So who was this man, who unknowingly was to sink the Jackson-ship. George So(m)merville was born in the Lanarkshire village of Forth in 1863. His father was a thirty-five year old draper, who had been a merchant, a cloth merchant and would become a clothier. In fact George would train as a tailor and become a draper himself but by then the family had move to Uddingston, working and living close to the village-centre and its football ground.
And it was probably with Uddingston F.C., which had in 1882 dropped from senior to junior status, that he, as a teenager and a centre-forward seemingly of the robust variety, began. That was before, according to the inestimable Andy Mitchell in his The Men Who Made Scotland (MWMS), turning out for neighbouring Hamilton Academicals for two seasons from 1883 and then in January 1885, not long after turning twenty-one, being recruited by Rangers. It was in a phase when players were both arriving and leaving that club in steady streams, the better ones going largely to Queen's Park, presumably for better "expenses". Indeed, Sommerville was to prove no different. After a successful ten months at the then Kinning Park, soon noted for both his dribbling and shooting and scoring regularly including against The Spiders, he made exactly that move.
At Hampden he was straight into the first team in a Cup-win over Partick Thistle in October 1885, he aged just twenty-two, in the season where Queen's Park would retake the trophy. In the final he opened the scoring in ten minutes and sealed the game with a third in eighty-fifth minute. That was in February 1886 and just six weeks before he was briefly to swap the hoops for the blue.
Sommerville was to spend three seasons at what is now Cathkin Park, interspersed, according to Mitchell with a period back at Uddingston. In fact it was a new team that in 1887 had reformed as a senior team once more. It is therefore understandable that he chipped in to help. But he returned to Hampden this time to a team, which was beginning to struggle and to comments that in 1886 in the establishment 'Scottish Referee' had remarked on "his superior shooting power" but by 1888 changed to saying the "he was a good man until the laudation spoiled him". It was harsh, quite possibly unjustified, and there were quite possibly reasons.
In 1888 the club neighbouring to Queen's Park, Battlefield, was on the brink of collapse and its foremost player, William Sellar, who also had QP membership, moved across. He had been the Scotland centre-forward before Sommerville in 1885 and the one after him in 1887 and 1888, would eventually win nine caps, seven against England with appearances also in 1891 and 1892, as captain. But he would never score a goal or, apart from 1887, be on the winning side. Then there was also the emergence of Jamie Hamilton. In 1888 he was nineteen and would eventually win three Scotland caps. Moreover, Sellars was a club-able man. On retirement in 1894 he was immediately elected President of Queen's Park and sat on the SFA Council. It would be hardly surprising that Sommerville could have felt both pressured and slighted, with what he may have considered an inferior player or players, certainly at centre-forward, being preferred to him. Perhaps he spoke out-of-turn and, in any case, he had other things going on. His father about to turn sixty-five and there was a business back in Uddingston to take over and the local football club valued him. Thus he returned home, played for his hometown club until 1891, bringing it up once more to a good standard, retired at twenty-eight in 1891, in 1893 in Aberdeen married a girl, Annie Smith, from the city and settled down to the rest of his un-lauded life.
George Sommerville would remain in Uddingston for the rest of his days. By 1901 he was a Traveller, a traveling salesman, with two children, both born locally, in 1911 a Commercial Traveller in Colour Printing, in 1921 a Manufacturer's Agent and on his death in 1929, aged sixty-five, an Advertising Agent, staying at "Cranley", Brooklands Avenue, Uddingston. He would be survived by Annie and "Pa" Jackson. His passing would be in 1937 by which time the era of the footballing amateur and Corinthian in the England team had literally just come to an end, the last being one-cap Bernard Joy just a year earlier in 1936.
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