This card gave us a few clues - "United", which celebrates the teamwork involved with creating a garden from worse than scratch - "Outside", which shows that this is an outdoor activity - and "West Ham", which is not just a London club, but a thriving community vegetable garden, in West Ham Park, which is always looking for volunteers, if you live in the area.
So here is William Frank Edwards, who was born on the 24th of October, 1895, in Builth, Wales. His first team was Knighton Town, right on the border between Wales and England, and they were only eight years old when he was born. There seems to be no record of when he joined them, only of when he left, in 1912, to join Shrewsbury Town.
Whenthe First World War broke out, he did not join immediately, like many footballers, but we know that his job was as a driver, so it is possible that this was a chauffeur to someone important, or as a delivery man for a company whose men were exempt from War Service. However in July 1915 he did enlist, as an air mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps. This must have been in the London area, as there are records that he still played football, as a guest player, in other words someone who was stationed near a club and could be called in at short notice.
After the war, he seems to have stayed in London, for in 1919 he was signed by Fulham, one of the teams he had guested for. That seems not to have lasted very long, as he joined Newport County in 1920, leaving them for West Ham United in 1923, as shown on our card, and he played for them for three years, before going back to Newport County for one year.
He ended his career at Hereford United, where he seemed to settle down, he ran a public house there and represented his newly adopted county at bowling, with great success.
And he died in June 1952, aged just fifty-six.
If you look closely at the back of this card it says "Lilywhite Print" beneath the box with the maker`s name in it. Lilywhite Ltd. were actually postcard manufacturers, and the company was founded by Arthur Frederick Sergeant in 1909. They specialised in real photographic cards, and it is possible that the picture on this card is also available as a picture postcard, especially as Lilywhite used a numbering system which was also prefixed by letters.
Unfortunately there are very few records as the Halifax works were consumed by fire in 1931, so much so that Arthur Sergeant was pretty much forced to get a job at his rival, Raphael Tuck. However, just before the start of the Second World War he was sufficiently back on his feet to buy out Francis Frith and Sons.
It does not appear that we have used any of these sets before, but there are three of them, listed in our original World Tobacco Issues Index as:
- SERIES F.A. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96) ... P18-24
- SERIES F.B. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96) ... P18-25
- SERIES F.C. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96). Nos F.C.52-53 seen with base cut off, caption and number overprinted in red at top of back ... P18-26
This is pretty much repeated in our updated version, but there is a change and a deletion, so that reads
- SERIES F.A. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96) ... P246-330
- SERIES F.B. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96) No.5 omits the prefix "F.B" ... P246-340
- SERIES F.C. 1/96. FOOTBALLERS. Sm. Back 8. (96). ... P246-350