John Williamson.

John was a member of the all-conquering Darwen team of the early 1930's. Signed by Joe Smith he won Combination Championship medals in 1930/31 and 1931/32, plus Combination cup-winners medals in the same years. John was born in Fauldhouse (nr. Edinburgh) in 1897, and on leaving school worked as a collier down the pits, whilst playing for the Colliery team he was spotted and signed for Dumbarton then a Scottish first division team. He became a regular in the Dumbarton side and it was during one of their games that George Waddell the famous Preston North End scout in Scotland noticed John and recommended him to the North End. He signed for Preston in 1919 becoming a member of the Preston side that reached the F.A. cup final of 1922, which they lost to Huddersfield Town 1-0, he was involved in the controversial incident that lead to the Terriers penalty, which Photographic records clearly show that the offence was committed outside the penalty area. In 1925 John was transferred to Grimsby town were he spent three seasons, before moving to Lancaster then Darwen. Even though he played at the very top in football both sides of the border, International honours eluded him -- although he was selected for the Scotland squad for the Home International Tournament in 1923 he was not picked for the final team. He left Darwen after five years and retired to become the licensee of a town centre Public house in Preston with his wife, herself a native of Preston.


Acknowledgements for the history in this section are made to :  Darwen RBL -- who originally published this page in 2002