Jack Leslie statue fund

A fundraising campaign is underway to raise £100,000 for a stone-based statue to honour a footballer who was denied the chance to play for England in 1925 because he was black.

The venture has got the backing of the FA, whose chairman Greg Clarke said: “Stories like this are incredibly sad. Discrimination in the game, in any form or from any time period, is unacceptable.

“We must always remember pioneers like Jack Leslie and be thankful that football is in a very different place today”.

Jack was a forward known for his ‘skill and complexion’ who scored 137 goals in 401 matches for Plymouth Argyle whom he served for 14 years from 1921 to 1935, helping the club win the Division 3 (S) title, gain promotion, tour South American and serve as team captain.

A footballing rarity, a black player, whose father was Jamaican, Jack was born in Canning Town, London on 17th July 1901. He played for Barking Town until moving to Plymouth where he became an outstanding striker.

Jack’s form earned him an England call-up for the international match against Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast in some 95 years ago, in October 1925. There were celebrations aplenty in the Leslie family and indeed, throughout the West Country, but all that joy and happiness was squashed when suddenly Jack was replaced in the team by Aston Villa’s Billy Walker.

There was no real explanation given as to why Jack did not win a cap, but if the truth be known his name disappeared from the team sheet because F.A. officials discovered he was black! So as it was, England’s first black player would not be Jack Leslie of Plymouth Argyle, and 53 years would pass before a black footballer did gain a full cap. He was fullback Viv Anderson, then of Nottingham Forest, who played against Czechoslovakia at Wembley in November 1978.

After a eye injury ended his career in May 1935, Jack ventured over the border into Cornwall to run a pub. He then returned to his East London roots to work as a boilermaker and soon after WW2, he gained a job as ground-assistant and boot boy at West Ham when Ron Greenwood was manager. He remained at Upton Park until 1982, having mixed with so many great players, and had cleaned the boots of England’s 1966 World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst.

He died in London on November 25, 1988 at the age of 87.