Black History Month Players: John Charles
As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link, but this post and today's thread on X is a very special one as we're not only celebrating the first black player to play for West Ham in the football league, but also the first black player to represent England at any level, John Charles.
Born on the 9th of September 1944 in Silvertown, East London, Charles or “Charlo” as he became known, was the second youngest of nine children and was born to an English mother & Grenadian father. Growing up as one of the only black children at school, with his sister Rita being the other, Charles was an arduous student who performed well academically & in sports. But it was the latter that would make his career.
Picked to play for West Ham schoolboys from a young age, as well as representing Essex & London boys too, Charles had a promising youth football career before the club signed him on a youth contract in 1959 when he was 15. By 18, Charles had represented England Under 18s side, becoming the first player of black origin to represent England at any recognised level, although this honour has wrongly never been formally recognised. This is made more remarkable by the fact that Charles has never earned any schoolboy caps beforehand. He would go onto make 5 caps and scored 1 goal for the England youth sides, but never played officially at a higher level. Here’s Charles on the far left of the back row in the picture below.
Charles would also feature once in the 1963 UEFA youth tournament, which is now known as the U-19 European Championships, technically making him a part of the England squad that won the tournament that year. However, in the official team picture of that squad as shown below, Charles is glaringly absent. I wonder why…
But this was England’s loss and West Ham’s gain as Charles captained the West Ham Youth team to cup glory in 1963, beating Liverpool in the youth cup final. As a result, Charles was the first player & captain of black origin to lead a first-class side to cup success. 1963 was a busy year for Charles who would make his first team debut for West Ham against Blackburn in May.
Over the next 7 years, Charles would make 142 appearances for West Ham in all competitions, scoring 2 goals in the process, playing primarily at Left-back. In those 7 years, Charles became the first recognisable face of black origin in the football league alongside fellow Hammer Clyde Best. But to him, he was just “one of the lads” and he was treated the same way as everyone else. In fact, Charles’ teammates didn’t stand for any racist abuse that was given to him.
One instance of this was when playing for West Ham reserves against Ipswich, Charles was unfortunately subject to such abuse. Eventually, teammate John Bond told the ignorant Ipswich supporter in question: “If I f****ing hear you say that again, I’m going to thump you”. Rightly so too!
Charles was obviously aware of such racial abuse, but he never let it faze him as he was never treated any differently by his West Ham teammates or supporters because of it. Growing up in the multicultural mixing pot that is East London, why would it?
Sadly, due to persistent hamstring injuries, Charles would unfortunately retire early at the age of 26, becoming a greengrocer to earn a living, but would later have to close his stall due to the rise of supermarkets. In fact, to coin the adage, if you can’t beat them, join them, Charles would eventually end up working at Tesco, where he finally discovered his legacy as a footballer.
When introduced to a younger colleague, he was instantly recognised as John Charles, the footballer. Charles was told that he had been a hero to young black men like his colleague as an unwitting trailblazer in football to which Charles perfectly responded to this with “Am I?”
Charles would sadly die young at the age of 57 in August 2002 following a brave battle with Cancer, a year before his younger brother Clive, who was featured in these posts last week, was taken by the same horrible disease. He is remembered fondly by all who met him as a lovely, kind character who had others define him by his character and style more than anything else. His legacy is best described by his teammate Brian dear who said at Charles’ funeral that: “Football is surely indebted to him as he undoubtedly paved the way for his black brothers who now enjoy the fame, riches and adulation, which he most certainly helped make possible.”
Charles is and will always a trailblazer and his place in the legacy of black representation of English football should never be forgotten.
Thanks for reading today’s post. If you’d like to learn more about John Charles, Brian Belton’s book ‘The Black Hammers’ has a lovely and warm interview with the man himself. Belton’s other book on Charles, ‘Johnnie the one’ covers his wonderful legacy and paints a lovely picture of a man who never truly understood why he became a trailblazer to so many and never felt he deserved such plaudits.
Additionally, Roshane Thomas’ article is an excellent read too and does the man and his legacy more justice than this post ever could:
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