Harry Lees (English footballer)
{{short description|English footballer (1900–1966)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{use British English|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name = Harry Lees
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| fullname = Harry Hamilton Lees
| birth_date = {{birth date|1900|5|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = Clapham, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1966|1|14|1900|5|11|df=y}}
| death_place = Birches Bridge, Staffordshire
| height = {{height|ft=5|in=8+1/2}}
| position = Forward
| youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 =
| years1 = 19??–1922 | clubs1 = Woodthorpe (Nottinghamshire)
| years2 = 1922–1923 | clubs2 = Ebbw Vale
| years3 = 1923–1927 | clubs3 = Wolverhampton Wanderers | caps3 = 120 | goals3 = 40
| years4 = 1927–1929 | clubs4 = Darlington | caps4 = 54 | goals4 = 20
| years5 = 1929–1930 | clubs5 = Shrewsbury Town
| years6 = 1930–1931 | clubs6 = Stourbridge
| years7 = 1931–1932 | clubs7 = Leamington Town
}}
Harry Hamilton Lees (11 May 1900 – 14 January 1966) was an English footballer who scored 60 goals from 174 appearances in the Football League playing at centre forward or inside left for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Darlington in the 1920s. He also played non-league football for clubs including Woodthorpe, Ebbw Vale, Shrewsbury Town, Stourbridge and Leamington Town.{{cite book |last=Joyce |first=Michael |title=Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939 |publisher=SoccerData |location=Nottingham |page=155 |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-899468-67-6}}
Life and career
Harry Hamilton Lees was born on 11 May 1900{{cite web |url=http://www.enfa.co.uk/playersearch.php |title=Player search: Lees, HH (Harry) |website=English Football Archive |access-date=16 October 2024 |url-access=subscription}} in Clapham,{{efn|Joyce's Players' Records (2004) lists Nottingham as place of birth. Although Lees was raised in the Nottingham area, primary and more recent secondary sources confirm his birth was registered in the Wandsworth district of London,{{cite web |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=TIrsTOJfiWe6NHbkm5GcPg&scan=1 |title=Index entry |website=FreeBMD |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=16 October 2024}} and he himself said he was born in Clapham, which is within that district.}} the son of Matthew Lees, a commercial traveller for a glass manufacturing company, and his wife Edith.{{cite web |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWSC-NV2 |title=Harry Hamilton Lees in household of Mathew Henry Lees, West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire: England and Wales Census 1911 |website=Family Search |access-date=15 October 2024 |url-access=registration}} When Lees was three, the family moved to West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, where he attended West Bridgford Higher Grade School, captained the football and cricket teams, and qualified to take a job in a chartered accountant's office when he left.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sunday-mercury-lees-on-himself/156955847/ |title=Promotion problem |first=Harry |last=Lees |newspaper=Sunday Mercury |location=Birmingham |date=22 February 1925 |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite web |url=https://nottinghamlocalnews.com/wbhistory-school/ |title=Local History: Did you go to Secondary school in West Bridgford? |website=Nottingham Local News |date=7 September 2021 |access-date=15 October 2024}} He was playing football for Woodthorpe of the Midland Amateur Alliance when a chance invitation to take part in a charity match earned him a move to Ebbw Vale of the Southern League Welsh Section, which he only agreed to because the club's manager, Ike Waterall, "promis[ed him] a business position as well as a playing position."
He became a prolific goalscorer. In February 1923, when he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Football League Second Division, he was reported as "one of the most promising players spotted for many years ... [who] has scored 42 goals in four months, including four hat tricks and four goals in a match twice."{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-gazette-lees-to-wolves/156954948/ |title=Wolves' latest recruit |newspaper=Birmingham Daily Gazette |date=2 February 1923 |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} He made his first-team debut in the visit to Bradford City on 10 February, a 1–1 draw, and appeared twice more in what remained of the season as Wolves were relegated to the Third Division North. Lees was a regular in the team in the 1923–24 season as Wolves finished as Second Division champions; he top-scored for the team with 21 goals, including a run of 12 in seven matches (14 in ten) that featured hat-tricks against Wrexham and New Brighton.{{cite web |url=https://www.wolvesheroes.com/top-scorers/ |title=Goal aces |website=Wolves Heroes |access-date=13 October 2024}}{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-telegraph-lees-14-goals-in-10-ga/156955518/ |title=North and South. The record holder |newspaper=Derby Daily Telegraph |date=2 February 1924 |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
He continued as a regular in the 1924–25 Second Division, contributing nine goals to the team's sixth-place finish, and remained with the club for a further three seasons, albeit playing increasingly infrequently. He was placed on the transfer list in October 1926,{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-gazette-lees-transfer-listed/156956480/ |title=Harry Lees on transfer list |newspaper=Birmingham Gazette |date=8 October 1926 |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} and there was interest from First Division club Derby County but terms could not be agreed.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-express-lees-to-derby-fell-throu/156957350/ |title=Whirligig of Football. More transfers coming |first=W. Leslie |last=Unsworth |newspaper=Evening Express |location=Liverpool |date=13 November 1926 |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} Lees played occasionally for the senior team in the second half of the season; replacing the injured Wilf Chadwick for the FA Cup fifth round tie against Hull City, he provided the only goal of the game, albeit a fortunate one, when his shot bounced back off a defender and he scored from the rebound while the Hull players appealed for handball.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-gazette-lees-goal-wolves-v-h/157115770/ |title=Lucky passport for the Wanderers |author=Wanderer |newspaper=Birmingham Gazette |date=21 February 1927 |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} He played in the first five matches of September 1927 before a leg injury forced him out, and he never regained his place.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sports-argus-lees-out-injured/157120075/ |title='Wolves' roused |author=Wulfruna |newspaper=Sports Argus |location=Birmingham |date=24 September 1927 |page=4 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In October 1927, Lees signed for Third Division North club Darlington.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-gazette-lees-to-darlington/156958593/ |title=Lees for Darlington |newspaper=Birmingham Gazette |date=28 October 1927 |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} He scored 15 league goals in what remained of the campaign as the team failed to regain their Second Division status. In January 1928, both he and Tom Ruddy scored hat-tricks in a 9–2 win against Lincoln City that remained Darlington's record Football League victory.{{cite web |url=http://www.redimps.com/archive3/index.mv?cat=highscores&drop=matchsearch |title=High scoring games |website=The Lincoln City FC Archive |publisher=Lincoln City F.C. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191421/http://www.redimps.com/archive3/index.mv?cat=highscores&drop=matchsearch |archive-date=3 March 2016}} He added 5 goals from 26 matches in 1928–29 before putting an end to his Football League career.
Lees returned to Wolverhampton, where his wife, Evelyn, had a hairdressing business, and signed for Birmingham & District League club Shrewsbury Town in July 1929.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-gazette-lees-to-shrewsbury/156958695/ |title=Darlington player for Shrewsbury |newspaper=Birmingham Gazette |date=30 July 1929 |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}} He spent the 1930–31 season with another Birmingham League club, Stourbridge, and was reported to have scored 20 goals for them. His final season was with Birmingham Combination club Leamington Town, to add experience to a team of new young players.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/coventry-evening-telegraph-lees-to-leami/156954078/ |title=Leamington Town F.C. Team building with young players |newspaper=Midland Daily Telegraph |location=Coventry |date=15 August 1931 |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}
He was reported to have turned down offers from Football League clubs because of his involvement in the hairdressing business.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sports-argus-lees-hairdessing/156959044/ |title=Leamington Town's capture |newspaper=Sports Argus |location=Birmingham |date=15 August 1931 |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} The 1939 Register lists Evelyn working as a ladies' hairdresser, while Lees is an unemployed clerk.{{cite web |url=https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/discoveryui-content/view/32774726:61596 |title=1939 England and Wales Register for Harry H Lees |at=RG 101/5344A OQAH |url-access=subscription}} He was later employed as works accountant for a company in Tipton, and retained an active interest in Wolverhampton Wanderers until illness intervened a couple of years before his death. Lees died at his home in Birches Bridge, Codsall, Staffordshire, on 14 January 1966 at the age of 65.{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003126/19660119/526/0035 |title=Harry Lees' death recalls Wolves' promotion fight |newspaper=Express and Star |location=Wolverhampton |date=19 January 1966 |page=35 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription}}
Career statistics
| class=wikitable style="text-align:center" | ||||||
| rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season !colspan="3"|League !colspan="2"|FA Cup !colspan="2"|Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| rowspan="7"|Wolverhampton Wanderers | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 1923–24 | 40 | 21 | 5 | 1 | 45 | 22 |
| 1924–25
|Second Division | 39 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 12 |
| 1925–26
|Second Division | 21 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 5 |
| 1926–27
|Second Division | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 4 |
| 1927–28
|Second Division | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| colspan="2"|Total
!120||40||9||3||129||43 | ||||||
| rowspan="3"|Darlington
|Third Division North | 28 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 31 | 16 |
| 1928–29
|Third Division North | 26 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 7 |
| colspan="2"|Total
!54||20||6||3||60||23 | ||||||
| colspan="3"|Career total
!106||0||5||0||111||0 |
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lees, Harry}}
Category:Footballers from the London Borough of Wandsworth
Category:English men's footballers
Category:Men's association football forwards
Category:Ebbw Vale F.C. players
Category:Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players
Category:Darlington F.C. players
Category:Shrewsbury Town F.C. players
Category:Stourbridge F.C. players
Category:Southern Football League players