You Just Don’t Know

1931 was a hard year for those living in the industrial cities of the United Kingdom. Wages were falling and the effects of the 1929 stock market collapse in the USA had set in motion a time of deep economic gloom which in time became known as the great depression. Novels of the time reflected the hardship many ordinary people were going through. In the USA John Steinbeck was lamenting the conditions of the poor in novels such as Canary Row and the Grapes of Wrath. Closer to home the TB infested slums of Glasgow were depicted in the novel ‘No Mean city’ and gave Glasgow an unsavoury violent reputation which took decades to shake off. Unemployment stood at 20% and poverty was the norm for a considerable section of the working class.

Football offered a reasonably cheap escape from the pressures of life and although Celtic’s average gate was reduced to under 18,000 in 1931-32 season by the hard conditions of the time, supporters were still fanatical about their team. The death of John Thomson in September 1931 was a huge shock to football fans all over Scotland and no blame attached to Rangers young striker, Sam English who was completely blameless in the accidental collision between two committed players.

I have written before about Sam English and recall his sad comment that he was the ‘second unluckiest player in the world,’ and have much sympathy for a young man caught up in some dreadful circumstances. I was surprised to see a book appear under the rather sensationalist title ‘Tortured; The Sam English Story.’ It was trailed in an article in the Evening Times Newspaper which led with the despicable headline ‘Tortured: How Celtic fans travelled to England to taunt ex-Rangers striker Sam English over the death of John Thomson.’ Where do you even begin to discuss the cheap tactic of using the tragedy of Thomson and English to score cheap points and sell a few books? Of course there is no such thing as bad publicity and some tabloid hacks will cynically batter out headlines they know will lead to a fuss but the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers is poisonous enough with adding unverifiable slander to it.

The article opens with the statement…

When Jeff Holmes started the research for his biography of Rangers legend Davie Meiklejohn, the author had, like so many people over the decades, a preconceived idea about who his team mate Sam English had been. I always thought of him as ‘the guy who killed John Thomson’,” he said. ’’ I didn’t know any better. That was really unfair, really incorrect.”

Such a depth of ignorance didn’t bode well for the book he was looking to write about English as anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of Scottish football knows it was a terrible accident.’

As for Celtic supporters travelling to England to abuse English, does the author seriously expect us to believe that in the midst of an economic depression which hit Glasgow hard and the Glasgow Irish even harder, that football supporters were going to somehow check the fixture list of Hartlepool FC or Liverpool in order to travel hundreds of miles, spending money they didn’t have just to shout at Sam English? It truly strains credulity. This was a time when many Celtic fans walked (yes walked) 50 miles from Glasgow to Fife for John Thomson’s funeral because they couldn’t afford the train fare. To paint them as pantomime villains based on fourth hand accounts from almost 90 years ago is appalling journalism which appeals only to that section of the Rangers support which looks to have their naked hatred of all things Celtic bolstered.

No Celtic player or official of the time blamed English, in fact John Thomson’s family explicitly told the press they accepted it as a dreadful accident and wished Sam nothing but good. Willie Maley is often quoted out of context as saying at the inquest, ‘I hope it was an accident,’ but what the grief stricken Celtic boss actually said in response to the question ‘do you think it was an accident? was ‘I hope it was an accident. I cannot form an opinion as to what happened as I did not actually see the accident.’ Perhaps his opening words in that reply could have been more supportive of poor Sam English but Maley never held that English had acted in a malicious manner. In fact he had great sympathy for English and described the incident in his book ‘The Story of Celtic’ (1938) as a ‘fatal accident.’ His book also contains reference to a memorial card he personally issued for John Thomson which states…

  ‘A Tribute from William Maley in proud and loving memory of John Thomson, Goalkeeper of the Celtic Football Club who died from injuries accidently received in saving his goal in a league match between Celtic and Rangers at Ibrox Park.’

Again Maley uses the term ‘accident,’ hardly the actions of a man who blamed Sam English for anything.

The evening Times article carries a photograph of Thomson diving at the ball as English readies himself to shoot. Beneath the picture are the words, ‘Rangers versus Celtic September 1931. The tackle that resulted in the death of Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson; as he dived at the feet of Sam English the strikers steel toe-capped boot smashed into his head causing a fatal injury.’ This is demonstrable nonsense; there is no suggestion that English kicked John. Thomson’s head collided with the Irishman’s knee causing the injuries. Film and photographs verify this but then this sloppy and unprofessional article lacks even rudimentary fact checking.

There is no doubt that in the aftermath of the accident Sam English received verbal abuse from opposition players and a minority of spectators at games in Scotland. This sort of ‘wind up’ has gone on in most sports since their inception although to do it to Sam English in those circumstances was cruel in the extreme. Sam undoubtedly suffered depression and possibly post-traumatic stress about what had occurred on that fateful day at Ibrox in 1931. For fellow professionals who made their living in the tough and often brutal world of 1930s football to use the accidental death of Thomson to try and put English off his game is despicable.

The article also talks about Irish footballer Jimmy Dunne with the following words….

“Sheffield United had an outstanding Irish striker called Jimmy Dunne at that time. He was a staunch Republican and had once served time in his homeland for being a member of the IRA. He was playing in that game. Was he in the dressing room winding his team mates up before the game? You just don’t know. But the death of Thomson followed English.”

Jimmy Dunne was indeed a Republican and a socialist and there is no shame in either of those things although it is another red rag, dog whistle signal to the bigots who read such things. The implication that being a republican meant he would go out of his way to abuse English is as clear as it is unfair. In a game against Germany in 1939 Dunne told his team mates not to copy England’s players who gave the Nazi salute in a previous match with Germany. He is reported to have shouted ‘Remember 1916!’ as the German national anthem began although Dunne was only ten years old when the rising occurred. The most telling statement in the article says; ‘was he (Dunne) in the dressing room winding his team mates up before the game? You just don’t know.’ Therein lies the crux of this book and this poorly constructed article article; You just don’t know. There is so much that we just don’t know about those days and yet that simple fact didn’t stop the ‘journalist’ leading with a lurid headline about Celtic supporters heading to England simply to abuse Sam English without any qualifying statements or evidence to back up such a claim. The burden of proof is on the accuser and there is none to support that implausible supposition.

The death of John Thomson was a real tragedy as was the affect it had on poor Sam English. I don’t doubt there were morons who abused Sam English in the football grounds of Scotland, among the fans of many clubs including Celtic. I don’t doubt there were players who said despicable things to him to try and put him off his game. What I object to is those who attempt to use the tragedy to sell books using the sort of clickbait sensationalist tactics we saw in that amateurish article. Why lead with lurid and unsubstantiated claims when you could lead with statements about English’s undoubted footballing ability or goal scoring prowess?

French philosopher, Voltaire is credited with saying that, ‘history is a bag of tricks we play on the dead.’  If we don’t provide facts and evidence to support them then our so called history becomes just another opinion. The whole framing of the article in the Evening Times dishonours the memory of Sam English and John Thomson. They were two young men caught up in dreadful events and we should never seek to use them as pawns to score cheap points or worse still to make money from a tragedy.

May they both rest in peace.