Richmond: Joseph (Joe)

1922-1926 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Leasingthorpe, Nr Durham: 01-04-1897

Debut: Wolverhampton Wanderers (a): 09-12-1922

5’11” 11st 10lb (1925)

A Durham Schools representative player, he played for Sittingbourne before serving with the Royal Flying Corps as a flight-sergeant in World War War One, winning the French Medal Militaire. In March 1922 he signed for Shildon Athletic from where he joined Leeds in December 1922 when he was twenty-five. Although he was fairly inexperienced, Richmond led the Leeds 1923-24 promotion side side with panache and vigour, scoring fifteen goals in thirty-five League games. In the top flight he struggled to reproduce his form of the Second Division Championship winning season. He gave way to Jack Thom for a short while but both were pushed aside as the new goalscoring sensation, Tom Jennings, forced his way into the team. He moved to Second Division Barnsley in February 1926 and found it more to his liking scoring five times in thirteen League games, but in July that year he went to Norwich City. He made his debut as a centre forward in a 1-6 defeat at Millwall on 26th August 1926 and it did not take long before he was regularly finding the net, hitting a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of Watford on 18th April 1927. However, he made a successful transition to left-back to partner Joe Hannah before retiring in 1930. He made one hundred and twenty-four League appearances, scoring nine goals, mostly while he was in the centre forward position, and also played in six other games in the F.A. Cup. After World War Two he coached Letchworth Town, before becoming a publican in Norwich, running the Quebec Tavern, from 25th November 1930 until 1943 and then the Beaufort Arms from 29th August 1946 and was still landlord there when he died in Norwich on 6th March 1953.