So which one is George White? That’s the question that comes to mind whenever I see this fabulous image.
It was taken before a City Reserves game at the Park in October 1911. You can see the beginnings of the Big Bank in the background. City put out a side which included three pros – Fort, Whittaker, and Rigby. And we know the names of four of the amateurs. The groundsman’s the one in the suit.
What makes this photograph significant and indeed poignant is that two of these amateurs, seated on the ground, Edwin Clark (left) and Fred Bailey, were to lose their lives in World War 1. And one of the four unknowns, George White, a sergeant in the Devon Regiment, would be the first City fatality three years later.
If only we could successfully match character traits to looks. We are told in reports of George’s death that he was ‘of splendid physique’, ‘of a happy genial disposition’, and‘bubbling over always with good spirits’. As the Echo’s Rover put it: ‘It seems difficult to believe that we will never again see him racing on to the ground at the last moment (he had a knack of cutting things fine), and bursting into the players’ room with some joke and his infectious laugh.’
So is he standing – third or fourth from the left? Or seated – first or third from the right?
We have an idea. How about you?
Aidan Hamilton and Paul Farley
Exeter City FC Museum Trust