John 'Jack' Kelly

25/09/2023  -  5.02

Trevor Clydesdale

John ‘Jack’ Kelly was born on the 2nd March 1913, in Hetton-le-hole (England). He would become a professional footballer playing as a centre forward.

Jack started his footballing career in his home village of Hetton-le-Hole, Durham, before joining Durham City. Burnley signed him as an amateur at the age of 17 in 1930, where he helped the reserves reach the East Lancashire Charity Cup Final the day after signing. He went on to lift a cup winner’s medal when Burnley Reserves defeated Blackburn Reserves 3-1 at Turf Moor in April 1931. In April 1933, Jack moved to Newcastle United in a player exchange deal. He never really made the breakthrough with Newcastle and in February 1935, he signed for Leeds United, having scored 22 goals in 27 games for Newcastle United Reserves in the Central League. He scored once for Leeds in ten league games at the tail end of the 1934/5 season. The following season he found the net 15 times in 34 league outings, striking up a great partnership with inside-right George Brown. Jack lost his place in the starting eleven the  following season and spent a couple of years making intermittent starts whilst primarily playing for the reserves in the Central League. In three and a bit seasons he made 64 starts scoring 18 goals. In January 1938, Kelly was transferred to Birmingham City, but the following season he made just 14 appearances, before joining Bury in June 1939.

With the outbreak of war Jack signed up for military service and in September he was picked up by Crewe United. He was posted to Northern Ireland and spent a couple of seasons, 1943/4 and 1944/5 playing for Portadown Reserves in the Intermediate League, as the Portadown senior team had dropped out of the Irish League due to wartime constraints in 1941. In one particular Intermediate League game played in February 1944, Kelly scored a hat-trick for Portadown Reserves as they defeated Glentoran Seconds 7-0 at Shamrock Park. In 1945, he toured India with The Tommy Walker XI playing in 22 of the 46 Tour games, and in October 1945 he scored all the goals in a 4-1 win against a Bombay Services XI. In August 1946, Jack made the move to Lincoln City, where he ended his career.  

Biography

Trevor is currently the Media Officer and Club Historian for Portadown FC. He has been following Portadown FC in the Irish League for over 50 years. In 2004, he was appointed joint programme editor for the Portadown FC Matchday programme, “Ports in Focus”. His main passion in this role was to research and present the history of the club. It was always recorded that the club was founded in 1924, a date which featured on the club badge. From his research however, Trevor unearthed information which confirmed that the club was actually founded in 1887 and featured as a junior club until the Great War. The club badge now bears the date 1887.

Over the past number of years, Trevor has turned his attention to researching players associated with the club that have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service of the nation. In particular, he has presented to the club details of a number of players that were killed in action during the Great War. A particularly pleasing outcome is that the club now holds an annual remembrance service in November to commemorate those fallen heroes.

Trevor’s Second World War research produced information on Joe Rooney, who was signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers while on military service in Northern Ireland. It turned out that Wolves had actually recorded information on the wrong Joe Rooney in their records and as a result the club were able to put the record straight.

Trevor is always on the lookout for new information and in particular, photos of those players that laid down their lives. If anyone can assist with photos or contacts for information, please forward the details to Trevor at t.clydesdale@btinternet.com