Ken Parkinson

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For the Watergate conspirator, see Kenneth Parkinson.

Ken Parkinson
Personal information
Full name Kenneth Parkinson[1]
Date of birth (1911-09-21)21 September 1911[2]
Place of birth Neville's Cross, England
Date of death 1987 (aged 75)
Place of death Darlington, England
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
19??–1933 Esh Winning
1933–1935 Sheffield Wednesday 0 (0)
1935–1936 Shrewsbury Town
1936–1939 Darlington 87 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Kenneth Parkinson (21 September 1911 – 1987) was an English footballer who made 87 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Darlington in the 1930s. He was on the books of Sheffield Wednesday, without playing for the club's first team, and also played non-league football for Esh Winning and Shrewsbury Town.[1]

Life and career

Parkinson was born in 1911 in Neville's Cross, County Durham,[3][4] the son of Walter Parkinson, a cokeman, and his wife, Eliza.[5] He played football for Esh Winning of the Northern League, and was a member of the Durham Amateur XI that faced a North-Eastern League selection in April 1933 as part of the Durham FA's jubilee celebrations.[6]

After trials with their reserve team towards the end of the 1932–33 season, Parkinson signed professional forms with Football League First Division club Sheffield Wednesday.[7] He played regularly in the reserves, and was retained for the 1934–35 season,[8] but got no closer to the first team, and was listed for transfer at a fee of £100.[9][3] Described as "a goalkeeper of whom much is expected", Parkinson joined Shrewsbury Town for the 1935–36 season,[10] during which he made 40 appearances and helped them finish third in the Birmingham League.[3]

He then signed for Football League Third Division North club Darlington, whose regular goalkeeper, Harry Walker, was recovering from a knee cartilage operation.[3] He began the season in the first team, and kept his place even after Walker returned to fitness, but a bout of influenza at the turn of the year gave Walker his opening.[11] After a run of five defeats that left Darlington bottom of the table, Parkinson returned,[12] but there was little improvement, and they shared the role until the end of the season.[13] The club's application for re-election was successful, and both goalkeepers were among just six players retained.[14]

Parkinson began the 1937–38 season in possession, but a broken bone in his wrist let Walker back in,[15] and his performances earned him a £1000 transfer to First Division Portsmouth.[16] Parkinson kept goal for the last couple of months of Darlington's season,[17] and for most of the next. He was left out in December to give Frank Gower his Football League debut,[18] but after a 4–0 loss to Southport, Parkinson returned to the team at the end of January and remained in it.[19][20] Along with most of Darlington's contracted players, he was given a free transfer at the end of the season.[21]

The 1939 Register finds Parkinson working as an annealing furnaceman in a steel foundry and living in Darlington with his wife, Maria Annie née Vest, whom he married in 1936,[22] and their baby son, Walter.[23] He died in Darlington in 1987 at the age of 75.[2][24]

References

General

  • Tweddle, Frank (2000). The Definitive Darlington F.C. Nottingham: SoccerData. ISBN 978-1-899468-15-7.

Specific

  1. ^ a b Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: SoccerData. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-899468-67-6.
  2. ^ a b "Player search: Parkinson, K (Ken)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d "New goalkeepers". Northern Daily Mail. West Hartlepool. 14 August 1936. p. 7.
  4. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Walter Parkinson". 1911 England Census. RG14/29977 – via Ancestry Library Edition.
  6. ^ "'Argus' reviews the sports news. Durham Amateurs selected". Sunderland Echo. 7 April 1933. p. 13.
  7. ^ "Untitled". Ripley and Heanor News. 12 May 1933. p. 8.
  8. ^ "Sporting notes. Retained players". Yorkshire Evening Post. 21 April 1934. p. 6.
  9. ^ "For transfer". Daily Independent. Sheffield. 1 May 1935. p. 8.
  10. ^ "Shrewsbury Town". Birmingham Gazette. 23 August 1935. p. 11.
  11. ^ "Albion may recall Wood". Daily Herald. London. 27 January 1937. p. 14.
  12. ^ "Darlington decline". Northern Daily Mail. West Hartlepool. 11 March 1937. p. 9.
  13. ^ Tweddle (2000), p. 38.
  14. ^ "Darlington retain six players". Northern Daily Mail. West Hartlepool. 5 May 1937. p. 7.
  15. ^ "Unlucky Darlington 'keeper". Leeds Mercury. 26 October 1937. p. 9.
  16. ^ "Pompey's new 'keeper". Daily Mirror. London. 3 March 1938. p. 30.
  17. ^ Tweddle (2000), p. 39.
  18. ^ "Goalkeeper's debut". Leeds Mercury. 22 December 1938. p. 9.
  19. ^ Sentinel (26 January 1939). "Rotherham will be unchanged". Northern Daily Mail. West Hartlepool. p. 7.
  20. ^ Tweddle (2000), p. 40.
  21. ^ "Darlington's retained. Five to stay at Feethams". North Eastern Gazette. Middlesbrough. 24 April 1939. p. 9.
  22. ^ "Goalkeeper weds". Sunderland Echo. 26 October 1936. p. 7.
  23. ^ "Kenneth Parkinson". 1939 Register. RG101/2668J FABE – via Ancestry Library Edition.
  24. ^ "Kenneth Parkinson". England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007. Retrieved 23 June 2020 – via FamilySearch.org.
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