Blue plaque honours first football club captain

A blue plaque honouring a player who captained the world's first football club is to be unveiled.

John Charles Shaw became captain of Sheffield FC after it was established in 1857 and went on to found Hallam FC in 1860.

Steve Wood, trustee of charity Sheffield Home of Football, which was behind the plans to honour Shaw, said he was a "forgotten but significant figure".

The plaque will be unveiled on Norfolk Row, where Shaw lived and ran his legal stationer's business.

Shaw was also the victorious captain of the world's first football tournament and helped to unify the rules of the game, Mr Wood said.

He was born in 1830 in Penistone, the son of a bootmaker, and moved to Sheffield in 1853, after marrying local girl Mary Ann Garnett.

Shaw started to organise kickabouts with other men near East Bank Park and "loved his football," Mr Wood said.

In 1857 Sheffield Football Club was established by Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, with Shaw becoming the first club captain.

In 1860, he set up his own club, Hallam FC.

He was the winning captain of the Youdan Cup, the first football tournament, in 1867.

"Modern football was forged during the two decades between 1857-1877," Mr Wood said.

"Sheffield was the world's leading crucible during this formative time and developments in the world's first city of football helped ignite developments nationally."

Shaw became vice-president of the Sheffield Football Association in 1868, before becoming president a year later, a position he held for 14 years.

During his time as president, he helped to develop a universal code of football in England, collaborating with Charles Alcock from the London Football Association.

He died in 1918 at the age of 88 and is buried in an unmarked grave at Brandwood End Cemetery, Birmingham.

"The name of John Charles Shaw is the forgotten significant figure from this era," Mr Wood said.

"Any one of these achievements would each deserve an individual blue plaque, but he did all that and much more."

Kevin Neill, a football historian and former teacher at Penistone Grammar School, said Shaw's contribution to the sport "cannot be underestimated."

"I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted we've now got this plaque to commemorate him."

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