For our first card of the week, we chose J. Iremonger of Notts Forest. Not only is this one of the local football teams, but it also has a link with one of the heroes of the area, Robin Hood, who roamed Nottingham Forest, or more correctly, Sherwood Forest, along with his fellow rebels.
However our man, whose "J" stood for James, was not just a footballer, he was a cricketer too, good enough to be voted cricketer of the year in 1903. He played for Nottinghamshire, though he had been born in East Yorkshire, in March 1876. He also coached the Nottinghamshire team from 1921 to 1938. You can see him as a cricketer on more cards than you can as a footballer too - so far we only know of him as a footballer on this card, Taddy`s "Prominent Footballers" (1908) and Wills "Football Series" (1902), whereas he appears as a cricketer in Allen`s "Cricketers" and Sniders and Abrahams "Cricketers in Action" (both 1906), Taddy`s "County Cricketers" (1908), Skylark Flour`s "English Cricket Team" and Wills` "Australian and English Cricketers" (both 1911), Murray`s "Cricketers & Footballers H", F.&.J. Smith`s "Cricketers" and United Tobacco`s "Triangular Test Match Cricketers" (all 1912). He was also immortalised on County Print`s "Cricketers 1906", using a very similar picture to that which appears on the Murray and the Smith set, but it is not the same.
In fact his football career only started playing in 1896, and saw him play for England too.
His brother, Albert was also a footballer, a goalkeeper for Notts County, and also played cricket for Nottinghamshire. You can see him on B.A.T.`s anonymous "Famous Footballers" (1923), Gallaher`s "Famous Footballers" (1925), and Player`s "Footballers, caricatures by RIP" (1926)
And he had another brother, Harry, who was also on the Notts Forest squad.
Our card is one of a large series, so this will be the home page for them all, with links to and from the rest. Sadly Smith`s never had a reference book, though one was later produced by the London Cigarette Card Company. We did plan to have one though, with fellow Glaswegian manufacturer Stephen Mitchell, but it did not come to completion. Therefore all we have is the following, from our original World Tobacco Issues Index :
- FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Nd. ... S84-9
- Size 63 x 36. Brown to dark brown, almost black. Back in brown, without series title, inscribed "Smith`s Cup Tie Cigarettes" ... in packets of 10" (120)
- Size 65-66 x 35-37. Brown to dark brown, almost black. Back in blue, without series title, inscribed "Smith`s Cup Tie Cigarettes"
i) Nos 1/52, excluding 1 and 13 (50). Base of back "10 for 2 1/2d."
ii) Nos 52/104, excluding 53 and 54. (50). Base of back "In packets of 10"
- Size 67 x 35. Dark brown, yellow framelines and caption. Back in blue, with series title (150), Vari-backed 8 wordings, - see C.C.N. Vol 21. page 67.
Group three is quite different, and we featured that as the Card of the Day for the 22nd of February, 2025. The "C.N.N." mentioned above is the "Cigarette Card News", which I may well have. So watch this space.
By the time of our updated World Tobacco Issues Index the group is described as ;
- FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Nd. ... S548-220
- Size 63 x 36. Brown to dark brown, almost black. Back in brown, without series title, inscribed "Smith`s Cup Tie Cigarettes" ... in packets of 10" (120)
- Size 65-66 x 35-37. Brown to dark brown, almost black. Back in blue, without series title, inscribed "Smith`s Cup Tie Cigarettes"
i) Nos 1/52, excluding 1 and 13 (50). Base of back "10 for 2 1/2d."
ii) Nos 52/104, excluding 53 and 54. (50). Base of back "In packets of 10"
- Size 67 x 35. Dark brown, yellow framelines and caption. Back in (a) light (b) dark blue - many different type settings, with series title (150), Vari-backed 8 wordings.