Dates of death

[Bristol Rovers]

Bristol Rovers' oldest ex-player (and, I believe, the last who played for the club between the wars), Phil Taylor, died last Saturday, aged 95. Several people have asked me who the oldest ex-player is now and I don't know. Ahead of one who is definitely still alive are three potentials. I know this forum is essentially for north of the border, but I also know there are many people here with astonishingly good records, so does anyone know if the following are alive (or alternatively have a date of death)?

Herbert R Winters b Bristol April 1920
Geoffrey A Taylor b Henstead January 1923
Harold L Haddon b Cardiff April 1923

Similarly, does anyone have an accurate date of death for Tony James (Thomas Anthony George James, born 1919), listed on wikipedia as dying in 1981?

Thank you, as always.

[Swanselona]

Harold Haddon.

Born: 8th April 1923, Cardiff
Died: 10th August 2013

I know this as just attended his funeral. Didn't know about his footballing past though, hence I found this page after searching.

[Scottish]

Similarly, does anyone have an accurate date of death for Tony James (Thomas Anthony George James, born 1919), listed on wikipedia as dying in 1981?

Thank you, as always.

Hugman's Players Records 2005 edition has nothing about him dying. If it has been within recent years then it will have been recorded in Soccer History or Rothmans/Sky Sports.

[Scottish]

Harold Haddon.

Born: 8th April 1923, Cardiff
Died: 10th August 2013

I know this as just attended his funeral. Didn't know about his footballing past though, hence I found this page after searching.

Thanks for the information and welcome to the site.

[HibeeJibee]

On the theme of the looming disappearance of men who played between the wars - roughly how many men are alive today who played SFL (or SFL equivalent) football prior to 1946-47? Even for someone to have played as a 16-year-old in spring 1946 would require them to be 83 now so they must be a limited group I suspect.

[Scottish]

Limited, obviously, but perhaps not as small a group as we might think. For a start, anyone born after 1926 won't have been called up for WW2, thus increasing their chances of survival to old age automatically. Secondly, people from this generation lived, on average, longer than the previous one. Didn't the last WW1 survivor die a couple of years ago? In which case we can expect players from 1945-46 or earlier to be alive for around the next 25 years or so. In ever-dwindling numbers, yes, but that's as true for 21st century players as those from any other era.

Former Scotland manager Bobby Brown is 90 and made his debut as a 17-year-old for Queen's Park in 1940. There may be older players still alive and ones whose careers started earlier but I'd suggest he is a good benchmark to take for both age and debut and work back (or forward) from there. It gives six more seasons and seven more years for potential players from those days and that might mount up to a fair few.

[ScottishFA]

Bristol Rovers' oldest ex-player (and, I believe, the last who played for the club between the wars), Phil Taylor, died last Saturday, aged 95. Several people have asked me who the oldest ex-player is now and I don't know. Ahead of one who is definitely still alive are three potentials. I know this forum is essentially for north of the border, but I also know there are many people here with astonishingly good records, so does anyone know if the following are alive (or alternatively have a date of death)?

Herbert R Winters b Bristol April 1920
Geoffrey A Taylor b Henstead January 1923
Harold L Haddon b Cardiff April 1923

Similarly, does anyone have an accurate date of death for Tony James (Thomas Anthony George James, born 1919), listed on wikipedia as dying in 1981?

Thank you, as always.

From ancestry, Thomas Albert George James was born in Pontypridd on 16 September 1919 and died in Thornbury, Avon, Q2 (April-June) 1981.

No Herbert Winters (or Winter) born in Bristol in 1920.

[Bristol Rovers]

Geoffrey Arthur Taylor (b 1923) died in Bundenbach, Germany on 20th July 2007, aged 84.

This means the oldest former Bristol Rovers player for whom I have no date of death is Bert Winters (Herbert Richard Winters), born 14.4.20 Chipping Sodbury. As has been stated here, no one by that name appears on ancestry or other similar sites, with that date of birth. I wonder where the original source of this information came from.

I have today found a record of a Herbert R Winters, born 1920, who died in Lycoming, Pennsylvania on 21st Dec 1992. His date of birth is listed as 14.8.1920. Does anyone know where any researcher might have found the April date? Could it have been confused with August (the only two months beginning with A ...)? How can I find out if the Pennsylvania man was British-born?

Any ideas gratefully received.

[ScottishFA]

That Herbert R Winters was also born in Pennsylvania. Check him out on Family Search, including his war service record: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KMJG-G9X

[Bristol Rovers]

That Herbert R Winters was also born in Pennsylvania. Check him out on Family Search, including his war service record: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KMJG-G9X

Thank you. Wrong man, then. Back to the drawing-board.