Tortured: How Celtic fans travelled to England to taunt ex-Rangers striker Sam English over John Thomson's death

dublinbluenose said:
At the fatal accident inquiry a doctor gave evidence that John Thomson had an abnormally thin skull and in fact he should never have been playing football to begin with.maley sowed the seed of doubt with his awful statement “I hope it was an accident” utterly contemptible
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That’s worse than what I thought he said.
 
Scum, utter and total low class , inbred, diseased maniacs.
Look out for the Scottish media spin over the next few days, no doubt this book will be portrayed as a pack of bigoted lies.
 
They are vermin.
These people emigrated to foreign countries both through necessity and choice.
They show no gratitude and make no effort to assimilate. Instead they attack the culture and traditions of their new countries and force their culture and criminal way of life onto them.
I am never surprised by how low they stoop.
Scum.
 
WHEN Jeff Holmes started the research for his biography of the Rangers legend Davie Meiklejohn, the author had, like so many people over the decades, a preconceived idea about who his team mate Sam English had been.

“I always thought of him as ‘the guy who killed John Thomson’,” he said. “I didn’t know any better. That was really unfair, really incorrect.”

Celtic and Scotland goalkeeper Thomson lost his life at the age of just 22 as a result of the injuries he sustained in a collision with English in an Old Firm game at Ibrox on September 5, 1931.

Yet, as Holmes delved deeper and unearthed further information, he found the commonly-held perception of the Northern Ireland-born, Glasgow-raised footballer did him a gross disservice.

English was cleared of any malicious intent by a fatal accident inquiry and graciously absolved of any blame by Thomson’s grieving family. Psychologically, however, he was deeply traumatised by the tragic death of his brilliant opponent. It would haunt him for the remainder of his days.


The striker was also singled out for abuse by rival players and supporters - including by Celtic fans when he was playing for Liverpool and Hartlepool down in England - for years afterwards until he was forced out of the game at 28.

It was a sad end to the career of a one-time goalscoring phenomenon who had been the hottest property in British football during his brief but glorious peak and had commanded record transfer fees on every occasion he was sold.

What Holmes discovered inspired him to write Tortured: The Sam English Story. It is a detailed, absorbing and compassionate work about an individual who still, 88 years on, holds the record for the most league goals scored by a Rangers player in a single campaign.

I don’t think Sam ever put it behind him,” he said. “It was always there. It never went away. I spoke his son-in-law, Ronnie Cree, when I was writing the book and he told me it had affected him until the day he died.


“He would slump into a state of depression every September around about the time of the game and refuse to speak to anyone. He never spoke about football, never spoke about his career, never spoke about that incident.”

The Rangers striker would endure open hostility towards him on the park as well as some brutal treatment following the death of Thomson. It started when he returned to action in the Glasgow Cup semi-final against Celtic at Parkhead a few weeks later.

“The Celtic players said publicly they had nothing but sympathy for Sam,” said Holmes. “But in his next match he had to go off twice because of fouls against him. He was kicked off. At one point his captain Davie Meiklejohn went over to the referee and asked him to do something about it. There was obviously ill feeling towards him.

In the first-half, Sam went up with the keeper John Falconer for a ball and accidently caught him in the jaw with his head. Falconer went down motionless. As soon as it happened the Celtic players got a hold of English. But the keeper got up and played on.”

He continued: “There was sympathy there at first. He got a lot of sympathy from players and fans over the next month or two. But it slowly dissipated. Before he knew it he was a target. Players would say: ‘Watch that murderer’. If he went near a keeper they would say: ‘He’s killed somebody else’.

“I always wondered how he could end up as Rangers record goalscorer in that first season (he netted 44 times in 35 league games in the 1931/32 season). How could he do that with the death of John Thomson preying on his mind? It would eventually finish him. But it was because he had a lot of sympathy at the start. It got worse and worse and worse.”


Bill Struth, the Rangers manager, sold English to Liverpool for £8,000 in 1933 after the troubled forward’s form in front of goal waned. Initially, he performed well at Anfield and netted regularly. But he quickly realised would be unable to escape his notoriety and enjoy a fresh start down south.

“Liverpool played Sheffield United in his third match,” said Holmes. “A rival player called him a murderer and gave him a hard time. A report of the game said that English adopted a fighting stance when he did. The referee found out about it afterwards, the player was reported to the FA, severely censured and forced to apologise.

“Sheffield United had an outstanding Irish striker called Jimmy Dunne at that time. He was a staunch Republican and had once served time in his homeland for being a member of the IRA. He was playing in that game. Was he in the dressing room winding his team mates up before the game? You just don’t know. But the death of Thomson followed English.”

An ill-considered comment by Willie Maley, the Celtic manager who hadn’t witnessed what happened in the fateful Old Firm game from his vantage point in the main stand, inadvertently turned many of those who stood on the terraces at Parkhead against English.


“Maley was renowned for being gracious when it came to Rangers,” said Holmes. “But he was asked if he thought it was an accident. He said: ‘I hope it was an accident’. That coloured how English was regarded by a lot of Celtic fans.”

Cree, who married one of English’s three daughters, revealed they had pursued the forward after he had left Scotland. “He told me that Celtic supporters used to travel down to England so they could jeer him at matches,” he said. “Even when he moved to Hartlepool, who were in the bottom league, they were down there giving him a hard time.”

English eventually grew disillusioned, hung up his boots after what he described as “seven years of joyless sport”, returned to Glasgow, took a job as a sheet metal worker in the shipyards and retreated from public view.

“It scarred him,” said Holmes. “He tended not to go anywhere. He loved his wife and his kids and his garden. His roses were his big passion. He played a lot of golf at Dalmuir too. But his son-in-law told me he despised being out, having people looking at him. He described himself once as ‘a grizzly peep show’. People would just stare at him. It must have been awful.”

English passed away aged 58 in 1967 following a battle with motor neurone disease. Rangers have since honoured their former player posthumously by inducting him into their Hall of Fame. They also award the Sam English Bowl to the player who finishes each season as their leading scorer in the league.

It is such a gorgeous, unique trophy,” said Holmes. “There are 44 balls, which signify each goal he scored in the 1931/32 season, on a silver rose bowl. It is really beautiful. His family absolutely love it. Roses were his passion.”

It is a fitting commemoration. So is Tortured: The Sam English Story. Hopefully, the book will help to ensure that future generations have a different opinion of a true Rangers great.

Tortured: The Sam English Story, published by Pitch Publishing, is now available from all good bookshops, or by contacting the author, Jeff Holmes, via Twitter at @JeffH1960 or through his website at jeffholmes.co.uk.
 
Really sad story all round. Mr English should've been at Rangers for a lot longer and might well have been our all time top scorer.
Chased out of Scotland and hounded by scum but they are the victims? sickening.
 
Absolute shocking but comes as no surprise for me! These vermin are a stain on human life. Born into and follow an evil cult of a religion til death. Theres no end to the evil they spawn, teach and act.
 
Orange Peel said:
They are vermin.
These people emigrated to foreign countries both through necessity and choice.
They show no gratitude and make no effort to assimilate. Instead they attack the culture and traditions of their new countries and force their culture and criminal way of life onto them.
I am never surprised by how low they stoop.
Scum.
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Same as present day life and not just with the fkn mhutants unfortunately.
 
A tragic story all round, obviously for Thomson and ultimately for English too. How do you even begin to understand the mentality of folk who believe that a player deliberately set out to kill another?

What that article doesn't state is that Johnny Thomson was known as an incredibly brave keeper, bordering on reckless and that he'd been injured not long before, diving at the feet of a forward.

The footage of the incident completely exonerates Sam English and proves beyond doubt that it was a tragic accident. Malley's malevolent suggestion to the contrary was despicable.
 
Orange Peel said:
They are vermin.
These people emigrated to foreign countries both through necessity and choice.
They show no gratitude and make no effort to assimilate. Instead they attack the culture and traditions of their new countries and force their culture and criminal way of life onto them.
I am never surprised by how low they stoop.
Scum.
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Your post in two sentences, really does sum them up. With that minority in power all over the place, and imposing a minority culture on the majority when will the majority finally take power back?
 
omega said:
Maley was a prick, completely agree this shows their behaviour now is not new. In saying that their club was founded by robbing another team of all its players so it’s been ingrained in them from the moment they were shat into existence.
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Yes, it's amazing how they try, and are allowed, to re write history isn't it ?
 
Scot_ said:
Roll on 80 plus years and the legacy of hatred and bile is still there to be witnessed today, handed down generation to generation.
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Absolutely. And what do we have in 2020? Different circumstances but - 1. Them / smsm hounding and abusing a top Rangers striker with the intent of driving him out of the Scottish game. 2. Referees hell bent on giving every opportunity to other players to injure our players without sanction. 3. Rangers management (maybe previously) considering offloading a player to appease them / smsm and stop the targeting of him. 4. Rabid republican terrorist supporting players, no matter where they play, infecting other teams with their vile world views. And how did the scum get the money to travel around to hound Mr English at a time when ordinary working people lived in abject poverty? Get the plate round at the pineapple. History always repeats itself.
 
Rangerista said:
A tragic story all round, obviously for Thomson and ultimately for English too. How do you even begin to understand the mentality of folk who believe that a player deliberately set out to kill another?

What that article doesn't state is that Johnny Thomson was known as an incredibly brave keeper, bordering on reckless and that he'd been injured not long before, diving at the feet of a forward.

The footage of the incident completely exonerates Sam English and proves beyond doubt that it was a tragic accident. Malley's malevolent suggestion to the contrary was despicable.
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As a boy when having heated arguments with my generation of Celtc fans they would always throw this in your face as their ace card. The only thing that we had in common with the Thomson/English incident was our shared ignorance.
I spoke to my Grandfather who was at the game and he spoke of it in hushed terms, but like everyone else at the game, the subsequent furore was his best memory of the whole tragic incident.
When I seen the footage of the incident many years later, as you say, it completely exonerates Sam English. If only they had the TV technology and camera angles then that we have today. John Thomson would have remained as the brilliant and brave young goalkeeper that he was, and Sam English could and would have had the empathy of the football world. Except of course, the Celtc minded, who pass their ethos of hate and bogus victim mentality from generation to generation so seamlessly.
 
Jan Wyck said:
As a boy when having heated arguments with my generation of Celtc fans they would always throw this in your face as their ace card. The only thing that we had in common with the Thomson/English incident was our shared ignorance.
I spoke to my Grandfather who was at the game and he spoke of it in hushed terms, but like everyone else at the game, the subsequent furore was his best memory of the whole tragic incident.
When I seen the footage of the incident many years later, as you say, it completely exonerates Sam English. If only they had the TV technology and camera angles then that we have today. John Thomson would have remained as the brilliant and brave young goalkeeper that he was, and Sam English could and would have had the empathy of the football world. Except of course, the Celtc minded, who pass their ethos of hate and bogus victim mentality from generation to generation so seamlessly.
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Brilliantly said Jan.
 
Absolutely sickening - had tears in my eyes reading that. They are a truly disgusting club from the boardroom to the management, staff and fanbase.

As other posters have said, they are Ireland's shame and Scotland's burden.
 
The strange thing about this tragedy is that even though it's close on 90 years ago, the video and photo evidence is remarkably good, and dispels any warped notion that Sam English's challenge was in any way malicious. Not in the twisted minds of that lot though.
 
What Willie Maley said was utterly abhorrent, it wasn't a general musing (as has been made out) hoping that English's only intention was to get to the ball 1st, it was a deliberate soundbite to motivate people's minds into thinking that it was plausible.

Quite fitting that the mental gymnastic champions of all eternity hold that piece of shit (who was basically Bill Struth's bitch) in such high regard.
 
The Herald inaccurate even all those years ago. Read in the book "Struth" that Sam English had teeth marks on his knee but the Herald reports that Sam smashed into him with his steel toe capped boots.
 
"And so that is the story my father told to me,
He said 'now son, when you're a man, just for Sammy's memory,
Each Saturday down Ibrox way, whatever may befall,
Every time the Glasgow Rangers score, will you sing old Derry's Walls.'"
 
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