Card of the Day - 2022-04-30

Now this is a bit of a convoluted tale, but the clue was the footballer`s surname, Stephenson. And, of course, we were after his namesake, George Stephenson, the railway pioneer.

Now this did not just give you the railway link, for he remains one of the first names to spring to mind when you think of trains. For it is also said that his thinking inspired American capitalists to plan their towns and infrastructure to include provision for a railroad. After all there had been railways before, but he proved that they could dispense entirely with animal power and his 1825 Stockton and Darlington Railway was the world`s first steam powered passenger railway.

Now our footballer, Clement Stephenson, was an English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town, and won the F.A. Cup three times. I also found out that he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, survived, and went on to manage Huddersfield town, dying in Huddersfield on 24 October 1961. His two brothers also played for Aston Villa. You can read more about him at Football and the First World War  a great website which was set up to record the War Service of so many footballers.

In actual fact Gallaher “Famous Footballers” brown back (G12-51) 15/50 adds to his story by mentioning that he also briefly played for Stourbridge, being loaned there before beginning at Aston Villa in order to complete his development. You can see that card at the New York Public Library. 

Now this card is recorded as having also been issued anonymously, as ZB6-27-1 which is linked to British American Tobacco (1923) 12/50 and you can see that in the same place, but the first thing you notice is that it is a different picture, and not only that, the caption says just “Huddersfield” not “Huddersfield Town”. His green back, hundred card version of Gallaher “Famous Footballers” (G12-50) 68/100 is there too, and he also appears, named as Clem Stephenson, in Hudderfield town strip, on John Player “Footballers 1928” (P72-100.1 : P/100 ~ October 1928) 41/50 

According to the Trading Card Database, several  trade cards also exist of Clement Stephenson. The one which intrigues me is the Lacey 1924 card, which says they make “chewing wax and chewing gum”.

I did a bit of research and came up with something fascinating, that in the middle of the nineteenth century an experiment was made with making a chewing gum out of paraffin wax, and this was very popular, but then faded out, though it is still, intriguingly, used - medicinally to increase salivation when required.