Ernie Toseland – F.A. Cup winner 1934 … another story by Tony Goulding

This is one of those occasions when a chance encounter throws up an addition to a previous story. I have written before of Chorlton-cum-Hardy's links to Manchester City’s cup winning teams of both 1934 and 1956. (1)

 Ernie Toseland

As revealed in the above-mentioned story both the goalkeeper, Frank Swift, and right-half, Matt Busby, of the 1934 team had homes in Chorlton-cum-Hardy during the 1950s and 60s. I have now learnt that “City’s” right-winger that day, Ernie Toseland was also a resident, living for a time on Wilbraham Road. 

 Ernest Toseland was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire on St. Patrick’s Day, 17th March 1905. After playing for a couple of local amateur teams he appeared professionally for Coventry City; a club then a fixture in the old Third Division (South). A successful initial season in which he scored 11 goals in only 22 matches brought him to the attention of clubs from the higher divisions and in March 1929 he was signed by Manchester City; the transfer fee of £3,000 being a club record at the time.

 Ernie, as he was more widely known, remained in Manchester for the next ten years, making a total of 411 appearances and scoring 75 goals. With Matt Busby and Frank Swift mentioned above, he played in the 1934 F. A. Cup final when City defeated Portsmouth 2-1. Like Busby, he had also appeared in the final the previous year; City being beaten 3-0 by Everton on that occasion. Ernie was also featured in every match in the 1936-7 season when City were crowned League Champions for the first time in their history.

 While playing at Maine Road, like many of his fellow team members, he lived close to the ground. The 1939 Register shows Ernie living with his wife Florence Grace (née Renard) (2) and his two young daughters at 17, Bowdon Avenue, Fallowfield, Manchester. (a third daughter was born post-war in 1948). Interestingly although now in the Fallowfield ward, the 1941 Manchester rate books reveal that Bowdon Avenue was then in the Chorlton-cum-Hardy ward.

 The Toseland family rented their house from the Manchester corporation Ernie only earning the maximum wage allowed by the Football League, which in 1939 was £8-00 a week during the 37 weeks of the season, dropping to £6-00 a week in the close season. 

The “National Register” was taken on 29th September 1939 by which time the 1939-40 Football League season had been abandoned, curtailing Ernie’s playing career. He had in fact already played his final game for Manchester City, a 3-1 loss at home to Plymouth Argyle in the Second Division on 18th February 1939 and had been transferred to Sheffield Wednesday for whom he made a total of just 15 appearances though 3 of these were in the cancelled 1939-40 season the details of which were expunged from the records.

 Ernest did not play League football again when it started up again in 1946-7 but did play a number of games for Rochdale in the regionalised League and Cup competitions, which did take place (3) Ernest had a successful swan-song season for Mossley in the Cheshire County League during 1946-7 in which he scored 12 goals in 49 appearances.  With his career as a professional footballer coming to an end Ernest began working for G. & W. Turner, a chain of wine and spirit merchants / off-licenses in the South Manchester area (4).  He worked his way up the company eventually becoming a shop manager and this is how he came to be living above this shop on Wilbraham Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy near to its junction with Barlow Moor Road. 

Shops on Wilbraham Road, 1959

For those who remember this area from the 1950s and 60s, it was between Quarmby’s the stationers cum toy shop and the Norweb/Manweb Electricity office and showroom.

To complete Ernie’s story, after retirement he moved to Bramhall, Stockport where he died on19th October 1987. He was cremated at the Manchester Crematorium on Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Pictures: - Ernie Toseland from collection of Tony Goulding, shops on Wilbraham Road (1959) m18444  by A.E. Landers courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council. http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes: -

   1)  Chorlton-cum-Hardy’s F. A. Cup Final “triangle” 19th November 2016.

   2) Ernest and Florence Grace were married in the morning of 26th November 1932 at St. Crispin’s Church, Hart Road, Fallowfield, Manchester. This church was probably the closest one to the Maine Road ground, which was just as well as Ernie was in the Manchester City team to face Aston Villa in the First Division the same afternoon. His performance doesn’t appear to have been affected as City triumphed 5-2 against a very strong Aston Villa side who went on to finish the season as runners-up in the League to Arsenal. Perhaps the presence of his new wife in the stand spurred Ernie on!

     3) Football in the wartime years was somewhat chaotic as many players (including Ernie) were in the armed forces and though matches were played their competitive nature was limited as the exigences of war service meant that clubs teams would be depleted and would feature guest players. In this way Ernie played some more matches for Manchester City, quite regularly for Stockport County as well as occasional appearances for a club in Scottish “junior” Football – Carnoustie Panmore. These appearances are not included in the career records of players, they did nevertheless often attract substantial attendances. Ernest’s debut game for Rochdale, versus Crewe Alexandra, on 29th December 1945 was witnessed by a crowd of almost 6,000 as reported in the Evening Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) following the match.

4) G.& W. Turner Ltd. consisted of least 6 shops: -

3 in the City of Manchester viz.

 369, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

 99, Yarburgh Street, Moss Side.

 21, Moss Lane West, Hulme.

           And   

337, Stretford Road, Old Trafford, Stretford.

 86, Heaton Moor Road, Stockport.

 21, Deansgate, Radcliffe, Bury.

Acknowledgements – In addition to the usual sources on Find My Past I have used a number of Football Archives available online Two Manchester City sites, Bluemoon-MCFC https://bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/Club and City till I die https://www.citytilidie.com 

Also, for Ernie’s games for Sheffield Wednesday,

  The Sheffield Wednesday HYPERLINK "https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=93e91a659eadb974JmltdHM9MTcyNDcxNjgwMCZpZ3VpZD0wZjVlZjQwOC1mNTNhLTYxNGQtMzRmMC1lMGIzZjQ4MTYwZjYmaW5zaWQ9NTIwMQ&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=0f5ef408-f53a-614d-34f0-e0b3f48160f6&psq=sheffield+wednesday+archives&u=a1aHR0cDovL2FkcmlhbmJ1bGxvY2suY29tL3N3ZmMvc3RhdHMvc3dmY2FyY2guaHRt&ntb=1"Archive

http://adrianbullock.com/swfc/stats/swfcarch.htm

    Finally, delving into my substantial stack of old Manchester City match programmes I made use of two articles. These were from the match vs Southampton of 25th September 1971 which included a short biography of Ernie by Eric Todd of “The Guardian” in a series called “Memories of the Past”. The second was an obituary by Richard Bott of The Sunday Express published in the regular feature “Past Masters” from the programme of the match versus Barnsley on 24th October 1987.