1926 Milsom, Jack
Bristolian Jack Milson made a number of reserve team appearances for Exeter City in 1926 as a teenager before going on to enjoy a successful professional career with Rochdale, Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City.
Contrary to sources that place his year of birth as 1907, Jack Milsom was born in Speedwell, Bristol in 1909 and came to prominence playing football for Two Mile Hill school and Hopewell Mission. Arriving at Exeter City as a sixteen-year-old trialist he made his debut for the reserves at inside-right against Barry Town in the Southern League on 13 March 1926 and remained with the club for the rest of the 1925/26 season playing in both the Southern and Western leagues.
Described in the press as "the slim youngster from the Bristol district who has been assisting Exeter City Reserves regularly as an amateur" and as "a star footballer in the making", City couldn't hang on to Jack when - upon being offered professional terms in the summer of 1926 by one of his hometown clubs - he signed for Bristol Rovers where he only made reserve team appearances without making the breakthrough into the first-team. Deemed surplus to requirements he moved on to non-league Kettering after a season and back into the Football League with Rochdale in July 1928.
An immediate success in Lancashire, Jack was Rochdale's leading scorer in 1928/29 with 26 goals and - having added another dozen in the opening months of the following campaign (to bring his Rochdale total to 38 league goals from 54 games) - was transferred to First Division Bolton Wanderers for £1,750 in December 1929 where his career would have overlapped with former Grecians Harold Blackmore (who he had played alongside for Exeter's reserves) and Dick Pym.
Still only twenty on his arrival at Burnden Park, Jack made no more than ten appearances during his first eighteen months at his new club but then found his feet (especially after the departure of fellow striker Blackmore to Middlesbrough) to go on to score 142 times in 235 appearances as he became Bolton's leading scorer for four consecutive seasons.
Eventually moving on in 1937, Jack switched to Manchester City in a £4,000 deal where, over the two seasons before the war, he netted on 22 occasions in 33 matches to bring his overall career total to 202 goals from 322 appearances.
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During the war he guested for Bristol City and Fulham before retiring form football in 1943 to run a grocers' shop in Bristol where he died on 13 January 1976.
A benefit game was played for Jack at Eastville, home of Bristol Rovers, in May 1950.
Contrary to sources that place his year of birth as 1907, Jack Milsom was born in Speedwell, Bristol in 1909 and came to prominence playing football for Two Mile Hill school and Hopewell Mission. Arriving at Exeter City as a sixteen-year-old trialist he made his debut for the reserves at inside-right against Barry Town in the Southern League on 13 March 1926 and remained with the club for the rest of the 1925/26 season playing in both the Southern and Western leagues.
Described in the press as "the slim youngster from the Bristol district who has been assisting Exeter City Reserves regularly as an amateur" and as "a star footballer in the making", City couldn't hang on to Jack when - upon being offered professional terms in the summer of 1926 by one of his hometown clubs - he signed for Bristol Rovers where he only made reserve team appearances without making the breakthrough into the first-team. Deemed surplus to requirements he moved on to non-league Kettering after a season and back into the Football League with Rochdale in July 1928.
An immediate success in Lancashire, Jack was Rochdale's leading scorer in 1928/29 with 26 goals and - having added another dozen in the opening months of the following campaign (to bring his Rochdale total to 38 league goals from 54 games) - was transferred to First Division Bolton Wanderers for £1,750 in December 1929 where his career would have overlapped with former Grecians Harold Blackmore (who he had played alongside for Exeter's reserves) and Dick Pym.
Still only twenty on his arrival at Burnden Park, Jack made no more than ten appearances during his first eighteen months at his new club but then found his feet (especially after the departure of fellow striker Blackmore to Middlesbrough) to go on to score 142 times in 235 appearances as he became Bolton's leading scorer for four consecutive seasons.
Eventually moving on in 1937, Jack switched to Manchester City in a £4,000 deal where, over the two seasons before the war, he netted on 22 occasions in 33 matches to bring his overall career total to 202 goals from 322 appearances.
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During the war he guested for Bristol City and Fulham before retiring form football in 1943 to run a grocers' shop in Bristol where he died on 13 January 1976.
A benefit game was played for Jack at Eastville, home of Bristol Rovers, in May 1950.
Birth Date
2nd May 1909
Birthplace
Speedwell, Bristol
Collection
Files
Comments
Alan Freke
Jack Misom was my mother's cousin, and I remember him from the little grocers shop he ran in the 1960s.
He was born in Speedwell, Bristol, on 2nd May 1909, and started playing football at Two Mile Hill School. He died in Bristol on 13th Jan 1976.
The above facts are confirmed in an interview about his footballing career that he gave to the Bristol Evening Post, published on 6th November 1965. An accompanying photograph shows him outside his grocery shop.