Joe Mercer (footballer, born 1889)

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Joe Mercer
Personal information
Full name Joseph Powell Mercer[1]
Date of birth (1889-07-21)21 July 1889[2]
Place of birth Higher Bebington, England[2]
Date of death 1927 (aged 36–37)[2]
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Position(s) Centre half
Youth career
1908–1909 Burnell's Ironworks
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1909–1910 Ellesmere Port
1910– Nottingham Forest 150 (6)
0000–1921 Ellesmere Port
1921–1922 Tranmere Rovers 15 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Joseph Powell Mercer (21 July 1889 – 1927) was an English professional footballer who made 150 appearances in the Football League for Nottingham Forest as a centre half.[1][3] He was the father of footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2]

Personal life[]

Mercer worked as a bricklayer before and during his professional football career.[2] He married Ethel Breeze in June 1913 and had four children, the oldest being future footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2] On 16 December 1914, four months since the outbreak of the First World War, Mercer enlisted in the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on the day the battalion was established.[4] He and was posted to the front on 17 October 1915.[2] At the front, Mercer was promoted to sergeant,[5] sustained wounds to the head, leg and shoulder and was captured by the Germans in Oppy on 28 April 1917.[2][6] He was held in camps at Douai, Bad Langensalza, Giessen and Meschede and returned home in January 1919.[2] In the post-war years, Mercer attempted to resume his football career and continued working as a bricklayer before dying in 1927 of health problems caused by gas inhalation in the trenches a decade earlier.[2][7]

Career statistics[]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Nottingham Forest 1910–11[8] First Division 13 0 1 0 14 0
1911–12[8] Second Division 36 3 1 0 37 3
1912–13[8] 37 0 2 0 39 0
1913–14[8] 35 2 2 0 37 2
1914–15[8] 29 1 2 0 31 1
Career total 150 6 8 0 158 6

References[]

  1. ^ a b Joyce, Michael (2012). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: Tony Brown. p. 202. ISBN 978-1905891610.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Royden, Mike. "Joe Mercer and the Football Battalion" (PDF). Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Mercer Joe Nottingham Forest 1914". Vintage Footballers. Retrieved 25 December 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "EFL Remembers: Royal British Legion – the story of Joe Mercer". www.efl.com. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  5. ^ Joe Mercer on Lives of the First World War
  6. ^ "The Story of the Footballers' Battalions in the First World War". Football and the First World War. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  7. ^ Riddoch, Andrew; Kemp, David (2010). When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War. Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset: Haynes Publishing. p. 264. ISBN 978-0857330772.
  8. ^ a b c d e "The City Ground". www.thecityground.com. Retrieved 14 July 2019.


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