Category Archives: 1911-12

Valentine Lawrence

Happy Valentine’s Day! Way back in 1911 Manchester City signed a player from Forfar Athletic with the name Valentine. He was born in May 1889, not 14 February as maybe some would expect. He joined City on 5 July 1911 but only made 22 first team appearances in defence before signing for Oldham Athletic on 31 May 1913 (£50 transfer fee). Sadly he only managed one League appearance at Oldham.

A year later he was on his way to Leeds City. War ultimately limited his opportunities and he later played for Southend in 1921 before joining Abertillery in July 1922.

When he signed for City he was expected to be a significant member of the team but it didn’t quite work out like that. His debut was against Oldham on 7 October 1911 and he did play in a goalless Manchester derby. I first wrote about him in The Pride of Manchester, the history of the Manchester derby I co-wrote with Steve Cawley.

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True Blues – Joshua Parlby

Continuing the weekly series of ‘True Blue’ figures associated with the early years of Manchester City, here’s an article on Joshua Parlby who was the visionary who was the main figure behind the creation of Manchester City. He was also a former Stoke footballer and committeeman. As an appetizer for my forthcoming talk (1 March – see below). You can find out why this man was such an important figure in Manchester City history below:

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There will be another ‘True Blue’ featured next Monday. Use the tag ‘True Blues’ to find other profiles in this series. If you want to join my free online talk concerning Parlby and City see:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/joshua-parlby-the-launch-of-manchester-city-tickets-537769542177

The full series of True Blue profiles will feature:

Lawrence Furniss, John Allison, Joshua Parlby, Walter Chew, William Sumner, Tom Maley, St Mark’s community leaders, Billy Meredith, John Chapman, William Beastow and James Moores.