These are a selection of photos from an article in the then popular weekly magazine Picture Post from 3rd December 1938; the title is "The making of a football star". The two young players are Eric Lancelotte and my dad Stan "Ticky" Armitage, who signed for Charlton in 1938 at the age of 18. Dad played, and scored, regularly for the reserves up to the outbreak of WW2, when he was conscripted into the Royal Navy. He served right through the war and was demobbed in late 1945 when he resumed his career at Charlton, again in the reserves. He suffered several injuries and cartilage operations before being transferred on a free to QPR at the end of the 1945/46 season and then to Gravesend & Northfleet at the end of the 1946/47 season. People have told me over the years that he had a promising career ahead of him but sadly the war took away his best years.
My dad was good friends with Bert Turner and Harold Hobbis during and after his playing days; I think Hobbis later ran a pub down in Manston, Kent, where my dad said he left most of his sporting trophies (the only memorabilia I had of my dad was a medal he won playing for Woolwich schoolboys and another for representing the London Sunday League XI at the age of 36!). Hobbis became the London scout for Wolves in the late 50s early 60s and got my dad to assist him, which was great for me as dad took me with him to most of the matches he was allocated. I can only remember going to Dulwich Hamlet to watch a London schoolboys match, to Leytonstone and Wycombe Wanderers. The only famous name I can remember dad mentioning was Johnny Sissons; apparently dad and Harold went round to his house to sign him only to have been pipped by West Ham. They were shown up to Johnny's bedroom where apparently he had pictures of the Wolves stars pinned to the wall, as he was a Wolves fan and would have loved to have signed for them instead.
Now thanks to the internet I have been able to add to my memorabilia and have about ten Charlton first team programmes where my dad gets a mention in the reserves match review; in one match against QPR he scored four times. I also have some QPR programmes where dad played, one having a photo of him on the front page. Dad used to tell me that he was featured in a national magazine but couldn't remember the name of the magazine or when it was published other than it was before the war. Last year my uncle told me it was either the London Illustrated News or Picture Post; armed with this information I went down to my local library where I was told they held back copies of these magazines. By trolling through this archive and to my great joy I found the issue in question and was able to get the friendly librarian to photocopy this page that I've uploaded. My dad is the player where Jimmy Seed is demonstrating a throw-in (6) and passing the medicine ball back to Eric Lancelotte (7). The bath scene (8) looks like a picture from a gay magazine and I would have really pulled my dad's leg with this one! Then last September during a week's holiday in North Norfolk we visited Cromer and outside an antique shop was a box containing old copies of Picture Post. I eagerly searched through the box but the issue I wanted wasn't there. On my wife's prompting I went inside and asked the proprietor if he had any other old copies; he said he had some in the basement and asked for the date I was looking for. He said he would look later and asked me to come back tomorrow to see if it was there. This was on a Friday and we were leaving for home early the next day so I told him I couldn't do that; the man, bless him, said he would look during his lunch break and we left our mobile number with him. To my joy he phoned back later that day to say he had it and it is now in my proud possession. The only sad thing is that my dad died back in 1997 so I couldn't share this with him.
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V portsmouth 24/11/45
V QPR 9/2/46 both home games in the football combination leage .
Interesting to hear memoirs of former eras from a player's viewpoint.
My dad went to Wood Hill pre-WW2.
Do you mind if we use the story and pictures on the Charlton Athletic Museum website and twitter?
Interesting, thanks for posting
I remember your dad when he played darts for either the Woodman or the Wellesley. He had a dodgy leg then.
It was definitely Ticky Armitage and thinking about it he was playing for the Wellesley which was between the Kings Arms and the
Woodman. It was in the late sixties/ early seventies . Everyone called him Ticky.