Card of the Day - 2021-10-23

This man is more often known by his nickname - "Dixie" - but his first name was William, and he also had a middle name of Ralph.

His "Rookie" card is reported to be the 1925 "Adventure and Vanguard Football Photos", issued by D.C. Thomson, but we have to say this may not be correct, for though he was at Everton between 1925 and 1937, he had actually played before, from 1923, for Tranmere Rovers. So it is not impossible that he appears on a card there, even a team squad, simply as "Dean"? So do check your cards and let us know. There might be another rookie card out there to find !  

He reportedly did not want to leave Everton in 1937, but the aftermath of the injuries he sustained in a motorbike crash in 1926 were making top league football rather awkward. He then moved to Notts County, and to the Irish team Sligo, then finally to Hurst, but in the 1939-40 season when everything was forever altered by War.

I cannot find any notice of what he did in the War, so perhaps he was too unfit to serve. However this often resulted in a chance to become Home Guard or ARP.  More research! I do know that he served in spirit, though, for many troops called Dean took his nickname, and carried it with them into battle. 

This set first appears in the anonymous section of the British Trade Index Part I (1962) as

ZB7-10 FOOTBALL FAME SERIES Sm. 69 x 38. A sample back is illustrated at Fig. ZB7-9 (this was W. McGonagle of Celtic) Unnd. (32). Issued in strips of 4 with "The Pilot". Special album issued.

In our revised British Trade Index it is released from its anonymous title, and appears with the other card issues under "Pilot" Magazine, a weekly periodical of the 1930s, issued by Amalgamated Press Ltd of London.

There was also a special album issued, plus The Cartophilic Information Exchange tell us that in the first week you got the first strip of four cards, plus a hundred page book “The Pilot Guide to Better Football”, edited by none other than W. R. “Dixie” Dean, whose picture appears on both this card and the magazine cover.

In our updated British Trade Index, issued in 2006, these cards have been moved from anonymity and “The Pilot Magazine” has its own entry under PIL, where there are four sets listed, starting with PIL-020 “Britain`s Defenders”, and going on through our set, PIL-050 “The King`s Air Force”, and PIL-060 “Wings over the Empire” (It seems odd that this football set was issued, for all the rest are of, or include aviation subjects, which are much more fitting for the magazine title), whilst our album is revealed to be called “The Pilot Album of Football Fame”. Perhaps it was finding this album that was the key to finally linking the cards to "The Pilot" magazine. The album is revealed to have twenty pages and spaces for thirty two cards, trimmed to fit. This explains why some of the cards found today can be a bit out of square, and how the frequent creasing also occurs. They ought to measure 69 x 38 m/m.

By the way there is another page of the Cartophilic Information Exchange to visit, and this actually shows the album along with a checklist and two complete strips of the cards.

Since this we have had correspondence with a collector who says these cards were also issued with "The Magnet, another production of Amalgamated Press. 

Anyway for any of our readers who remembers "The Pilot" as a boy, or anyone who is too young, you can actually view parts of them online at Friardale/Pilot. Thanks to that website, we also have something else to add, for if you look at this edition of the magazine it is dated 5 October, 1935, and this means our date is wrong, because issuing eight strips of cards would only take eight weeks, and eight weeks on from 5 October 1935 would only go to the 23rd of November 1935, not into 1936.