Talk:John Westwood (footballer)

Citations needed

I have raised citation needs on two points, to encourage seeking of published sources that support them:

• The statement he died serving in World War I. He does not appear on the Professional Footballers' Associations's website Football in the First World War (page list of footballers known to the PFA as killed in the war). Nor does he seem known to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission - the only WWI soldier listed by them who has exactly the same names (who served in the Sherwood Foresters) was killed on 6 May 1917 but reportedly aged only 20 (whereas someone born in 1886 would be aged 30 or 31 that year) and his parents are indicated as living at Burton on Trent, not very close to Rotherham area. There are eight plain John Westwoods of WWI known to the CWGC but one can confidently rule out two who died in 1914, the year before he left Bristol Rovers, and an Australian soldier who at 44 years old in 1917 was too old to be the player. The rest do not appear to have background or family information connecting them to the Rotherham or Bristol areas. (It may be he is a candidate for investigation by the In From The Cold Project who can't proceed to present the case to the CWGC without a documentary lead fixed to his identity.)
• The statement the darts player Dennis Priestley is his grandson. The latter's own wikipedia biography does not mention any link or any prior family history. I notice in the View History that the information was originally added one-off by WaynePriestley1979, sounds like a relative with possible COI.

Cloptonson (talk) 18:35, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Identification with Bristol Rovers player - two players conflated?

There is cause to doubt the Rotherham player was also the same one that played for Bristol Rovers 1909 to 1915. In the page on Bristol Rovers in the PFA website Football in the First World War, the only Westwood recorded in the 1914-15 season squad was a William Westwood, who the site identifies with William Howell Powell Westwood, Corporal, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, birthplace Langley Green, Worcester,[may mean 'Worcestershire' - Langley Green is part of Oldbury now in the Sandwell Council (West Midlands County) area near Dudley], killed in 1917 and known to the CWGC - whose listing omits details of home and family. See https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/776665/william-howell-powell-westwood/ and this page from the FIFWW website: https://www.footballandthefirstworldwar.org/william-howell-westwood-service-record/

I note the sentence summarising his team career is cited to a book published in 2004, but this may have arisen from a research error so long after the WWI period.Cloptonson (talk) 18:45, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

I find that the identification of Corporal William HP Westwood with the Bristol Rovers player is mentioned in the Doncaster 1914-18 community history project's Facebook page. A post mentions the relationship with Dennis Priestley, a descendant (not DP) has donated some photos including a team photo of the Bristol Rovers with him in it.

Link enclosed https://www.facebook.com/DoncasterWW1/posts/william-howell-powell-westwood-worked-as-a-coal-mine-pony-driver-in-conisbrough-/891645524236771/

Don't know if it would be admissible evidence for Wikipedia but the information they contain would be material for rewriting this article if it is.

It seems to me now that, given they had different birthplaces as well as different given names, two different players might be conflated into one article and need drawing apart.Cloptonson (talk) 20:26, 14 August 2022 (UTC)

I am please to note someone has found and introduced as a reference in this article a newspaper report of his death in action which indicates he played for both Bristol and Rotherham among other teams. This to me closes need for discussion. One tantalising matter is that the newspaper report gives his regiment parenthetically as "(Y. and L.)" (ie York and Lancaster Regiment) but no one of his name and of that regiment appears commemorated by the CWGC.Cloptonson (talk) 17:32, 13 August 2024 (UTC)