Everton’s Class of 1939 and the Second World War

27/09/2024  -  3.55

Rob Sawyer

In the 1958 film Dunkirk, starring Richard Attenborough and John Mills, one scene sees a trick question posed about who the reigning Football League champions are. The correct answer given was Everton, although a ball hadn’t been kicked in anger since 1939.

Everton’s four-year and seven-year reigns as defending champions during the First and Second World Wars has long been trivia quiz fodder. These tragic global conflicts resulted in the death and destruction on a hitherto unseen scale. In that context, the impact on the Toffees seems inconsequential but on a sporting level, these two hiatuses robbed the club of the chance to consolidate their success and, perhaps, establish a dynasty as other clubs have done at various times.

The 1915 side, spearheaded by Bobby Parker in attack, fed by Sam Chedgzoy on the wing, was a solid unit. In contrast, the 1938/39 championship-winning team contained the blend of flair and steel, experience and youthful exuberance, to be one of the greatest to grace English stadia. In Broken Dreams: Everton, The War and Goodison’s Lost Generation (published by Toffeeopolis – 2024), I explore how it evolved from relegation fodder to Football League champions within 12 months and the fallout from the conflict which engulfed Europe and beyond. It is approached from a human angle, weaving in the stories of the players and the club officials with what occurred on the pitch. Some featured remain household names to Evertonians and the wider population, but most have faded from the collective consciousness. Nonetheless, all are given equal prominence in the book as they have diverse tales to be told.

Having won the League Championship in 1932 and the FA Cup a year later (Dixie Dean becoming the first to wear a number nine shirt in a major fixture), Everton entered something of a fallow period in the mid-1930s, in spite of continuing to spend big fees to bring in significant talent. Come the spring of 1938, with the fading Dean out of the team and destined for Notts County, the Toffeemen faced likely relegation, but the re-introduction of two veterans in Jock Thomson and Willie Cook steadied the listing ship. 

The end-of-season stay in Scotland for the Empire Exhibition tournament (the Blues lost to Celtic in the final) was credited by several players with bonding the talented but underperforming ensemble into a formidable unit. Ted Sagar - known as The Boss, had won international honours as a goalkeeper and ruled his penalty box. The aforementioned Cook and fellow full-back Norman Greenhalgh would bite at the ankles of opposition inside-forwards and wingers, receiving support from skipper Thomson and the energetic Joe Mercer at wing-half. In the middle, T.G. Jones was fast developing into the classiest centre-half in the land. Blessed with height, composure and a rocket of a right boot, he was soon hailed as the Prince of Centre Halves. Befitting a club dubbed the School of Science, the five-man forward line had a focus on skill rather than brawn. The impish left-sided pair of Wally Boyes and Alex Stevenson, the mercurial Torry Gillick and the tireless Stan Bentham were all of very modest stature - only Tommy Lawton stood tall. The Boltonian centre-forward had been faced with the daunting task of replacing Dean and taken it in his long stride. A superb all-rounder, who had scored 28 league goals in the struggling side in 1937/38, would come to be described as the complete centre-forward.

The Everton FC 1938/39 team (colourised by George Chilvers). Source: Author's Collection

Until the final weeks of the season, this was the side selected every week, barring injuries and international call-ups. Regular 12th man, Gordon Watson, would get a run at left-half as the Blues advanced on the title, while Jimmy Caskie, even smaller than the injured Boyes who he replaced, had a positive impact on the wing in several matches. 

Playing a brand of attacking, interchanging, short-passing football, the Toffees would only come unstuck on some of the quagmire pitches in winter, as they refused to adopt a more rudimentary long-ball game, in contrast to some of their peers. After a small stutter, the title was secured with several matches to play. A post-season tour to Germany had been tentatively arranged - the Blues having visited there in 1932 and 1936. It was one of the first teams to sample the new Olympic Stadium in Berlin as close ties had been forged with Otto Nerz at the German Football Federation. The heightened tensions in Europe in 1939, saw this plan abandoned in favour a matches in Switzerland and Holland.

The Toffees kicked off the 1939/40 season with an unchanged squad and expected to pick up where they had left off. With the exception of Cook and Thomson, most players were entering their prime years and there was well-founded optimism for further improvement and silverware. However, the first three matches – Lawton scored in each one – were played against the backdrop of Europe teetering on the precipice of war. 

And so it came to pass when the Nazi regime launched an offensive into Poland. War was declared by Britain and France and the football season was abandoned and scrubbed from the record books. Regular FA Cup and Football League fixtures would not return until 1946. The players would have to content themselves with regional league and cup fixtures and representative games for the armed forces and their countries. Alongside players of many other clubs, a sizeable proportion of Everton personnel became Physical Training Instructors with the RAF (Alex Stevenson, T.G. Jones) and Army (Joe Mercer, Tommy Lawton, Willie Cook). Those with engineering skills (including Stan Bentham, Norman Greenhalgh, Torry Gillick, Harry Catterick and Gordon Watson) were retained in civilian war work. Relatively few players served abroad, but Ted Sagar, Alex Stevenson and Billy Cook were exceptions. Virtually all came back unscathed, albeit rusty in football terms, an exception was squad-player George Milligan, who had sustained injuries from tank driving which curtailed his playing days. 

T.G. Jones (Middle) with RAF Colleagues. Source: Courtesy of the T.G. Jones Family

Those stationed or employed in the area would still represent the Blues at the weekend, albeit with minimal preparation. Others would guest for sides up and down the land. Joe Mercer, on one occasion, found himself at the centre of a tug of war between the FA and his club for his services. Everton directors were subsequently censured for their actions.

Tommy Lawton, Joe Mercer, Frank Swift, Matt Busby and Colleagues on Army Football Duty. Source: Courtesy of the Joe Mercer Family

Although Liverpool took a battering in the Blitz, Goodison Park was damaged on just one occasion, a nearby bomb causing damage to the Gwladys Street and Bullens Road stands. This was not reported, in order to maintain morale, and Everton played Chester there just a day later, regardless. Several club employees living in the Walton district ran a rota of night-watchmen, scanning the skies for incendiary bombs being dropped on or near the stadium.

When football got back into gear, the great Everton side of 1939 had been depleted by injury and age. T.G. Jones, who was never the same player after sustaining an ankle injury in a wartime Merseyside derby match, while Joe Mercer was struggling with a debilitating knee compliant picked up on international duty. In time, Mercer was offloaded to Arsenal, following Torry Gillick, Jimmy Caskie (both joining Rangers) and Tommy Lawton out of the exit door (the latter moving to London in a bid to save his troubled marriage). From Chelsea, he shocked the football world by joining Notts County of the Third Division. Later he got into financial difficulty after several failed business ventures but was helped by a testimonial match staged at Goodison Park in 1972. He found happier times in his later years when employed by the Nottingham Daily Post. 

Wally Boyes, Alex Stevenson, Norman Greenhalgh, Stan Bentham and Ted Sagar resumed their Everton careers, but the wrong side of 30, had their best days behind them. Without the funds to make wholesale changes, the Blues would be a shadow of the great side of seven years previously and, within five years the club was having to face relegation for the second time in its illustrious history.

Joe Mercer, who gained legendary status at Manchester City and was caretaker manager for the England team, enjoyed the highest-profile career in football after playing. T.G. Jones combined being a hotelier and then owning a newsagents with playing and managing with some success in North Wales. Gordon Watson and Stan Bentham gave long service as coaches for the Toffees. Tommy Lawton’s managerial career was limited to the lower leagues while some unsuccessful business ventures found him on his uppers by the late 1960s. 

Alex Stevenson, the club’s mirth-maker-in-chief coached Bootle and in his native Ireland before trying his hand at being a landlord, just yards away from Dixie Dean’s pub in Chester. His countryman, Billy Cook, had a nomadic career as a coach in the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Middle East and a tempestuous spell in Peru. Like Stevenson, a number of players became publicans – including Norman Greenhalgh who ran the Winslow in the shadow of Goodison Park. 

Jimmy Cunliffe switched sports to become a professional bowls player. Wally Boyes combined teaching with running a sports shop in Sheffield. The latter would die from a heart condition in 1960, while the last to pass away was T.G. Jones, in 2004. Although bitter about the club’s refusal to transfer him to Arsenal or Manchester United after the war, he spoke with great warmth about arguably the finest team to grace Goodison Park: ‘We were a great side. Believe me when I tell you, there were games when went onto the field and didn’t break sweat – it was that good.’ 

The Book

Broken Dreams: Everton, The War and Goodison's Lost Generation details the story of the great Toffees team which won the League Championship in 1939, only to see war bring things to a shuddering halt.

The first release by the Toffeeopolis imprint, it can be ordered through the Mount Vernon Publishing website - https://www.mountvernonpublishing.com/catalogue/broken-dreams_79/, bookshops and online retailers, including Amazon.

Biography

Rob Sawyer is a fourth generation Evertonian, whose great-grandfather, Bill Sawyer, served the Toffees as club secretary and director. A member of Everton FC Heritage Society since 2013, he is a regular contributor of historical articles to the Society's website and heritage page in the Blues' matchday programme. He also writes for Toffeeweb and has penned biographies of key figures at Goodison Park, including Harry Catterick and T.G. Jones. His most recent book, Broken Dreams (the first as a member of the Toffeeopolis publishing collective), focuses on the impact of the Second World War on the great School of Science team of 1938/39. Rob can be followed on Twitter/X at @robsawyer70.