“Jackie” Milburn (11 May 1924–9 October 1988) was a footballer who made his name with Newcastle United and England, though he also spent four seasons at Linfield. He was also known as “Wor” Jackie (particularly in North East England, a Geordie dialectal).
Milburn was born on 11 May 1924 in the upstairs flat of his grandparents’ house at 14 Sixth Row in Ashington to Annie (“Nance”) Thompson and Alexander (“Alec”) Milburn.
Alexander Milburn was the uncle of four professional footballing brothers John (“Jack’) Milburn (born 1908) who played for Leeds United and Bradford City. George Milburn (born 1910) played for Leeds United and Chesterfield. James (“Jimmy”) Milburn (born 1919) played for Leeds United and Bradford City and Stanley (“Stan”) Milburn (born 1926) who played for Chesterfield, Leicester City and Rochdale. They in turn had a sister, Elizabeth “Cissie” Milburn (born 1912) who was the mother of Jack and Bobby Charlton.
Alexander Milburn worked as a coal cutter at the nearby colliery. Jackie Milburn later told his son, Jack Jr., that “I used to shiver as he disappeared into that deep shaft leading to the coalface”
When he was eight years old, Milburn was given his first pair of football boots as a Christmas present from his parents and from that point “football dominated his life”. The young Milburn idolised Joe Hulme, the Arsenal player who he hoped to emulate
Although an initially confident boy, Milburn recalled an incident where, having already won the sprint, sprint relay, long jump and high jump at his school sports day, his father arrived just in time to see him win the 440 yard race. Exhausted, he collapsed to the floor — a gesture his father mistook for showboating and resulted in him receiving “a real hiding”. Reflecting later, Milburn contended that “maybe my father’s intentions were the best in the world…but that thrashing laid the foundations for an inferiority complex I’ve fought all my life to overcome”
When he was twelve, Milburn moved to Hirst East Senior Boys School and was selected to play right-wing for the school football team. His father promised to award him a penny for every goal he scored. He duly earned two pence for scoring twice on his debut in a 6–4 win against Linton School. He was selected for East Northumberland Schools, and he scored in a 3–2 semi-final defeat by Lancashire at Maine Road.
Milburn left school at fourteen, telling his father that he was too claustrophobic to follow him into coal-mining, he found employment stacking shelves and filling sugar bags on eight-shillings a week, after an abortive spell as a pantry boy in London.
In 1939, he attempted to join the Royal Navy but was rejected for being an inch too short. Milburn joined the Ashington Air Training Corps instead. At sixteen, Milburn accepted an apprenticeship as a fitter at a local colliery. This meant that he was not conscripted during the war as ‘fitter’ was a reserved occupation.
Milburn, along with his old schoolfriend Ronnie Coulson, began entering local sprint races to earn money, clocking a 9.7 second personal best for the 100 yard dash. In 1940, he entered the Powderhall Sprint and won his first race. Milburn was then instructed to run poorly in the semi-final so to artificially conflate his handicap in the 1941 renewal, where his odds would be higher and he would be better prepared. Milburn duly came last, allegedly with a dozen pennies weighing down his left running shoe, causing him to “run like a lop-sided whippet with three legs”
He continued to play football for the Air Training Corps and told one afternoon that a scout from Newcastle United was in attendance, he duly scored five in an 8–3 win. When he was told afterwards that the promised scout had failed to arrive, Milburn described it as “a bitter pill to swallow”.
Newcastle United — Trial and signing
Milburn and his Northumberland ATC teammates were invited to St James’ Park by Newcastle United director Wilf Taylor, after a match against Yorkshire ATC in 1943. Milburn, along with his friend and teammate Raymond Poxton, attended United’s final home game of the season. Milburn was distinctly unimpressed with what he saw, turning to his friend and saying “Raymond, we could play better than this, surely?”
Soon after, he responded to an advertisement for trialists published in the North Mail Newspaper by Newcastle United prior to the 1943–44 season. The first trial was held in midweek and Milburn scored two goals in one half, earning an invitation to return on Saturday for a public trial at St James’ and an ‘amateur contract’. He arrived long before the 2pm kick-off with a pair of borrowed football boots wrapped in brown paper, and his lunch — two pies and a bottle of pop. Milburn’s team of fellow trialists (‘The Stripes’) played against a Newcastle United First XI featuring Albert Stubbins and Jimmy Gordon (‘The Blues’). The Stripes trailed 3–0 at half time and Joe Richardson told Milburn: “you’d better buck your ideas up son, if you want to come here”.
Switched to centre forward in the second half, Milburn scored six times as his side won 9–3. The Sunday Sun reported that “United’s second trial proved a triumph for Milburn, the Ashington inside-left, who was signed as an amateur earlier in the week. Milburn, a tall youth, showed a capacity for opportunism. Twice Milburn scored two goals within a minute”.
Newcastle’s manager, Stan Seymour, was sufficiently impressed by Milburn’s performance that, according to author Mike Kirkup, he “asked him to sign on the spot”.
Milburn, now 19, had been told by his father not to sign anything until he had first shown it to him and so he refused, instead promising to return in due course with a signed professional contract once his father had approved it. Seymour, apparently concerned that news of Miburn’s trial performance might alert other clubs, decided not to wait and on the Sunday following the trial he arrived, unannounced, on the Milburns’ doorstep in Ashington.
Seymour patiently put his case to Milburn’s father, explaining that he would be taken on part-time because of his continuing pit work, on thirty shillings a week, plus two shillings and sixpence a game “for his tea” and the same amount again for his bus fare to and from the ground. At this point, as Milburn Sr. was considering the terms, Seymour reportedly began rubbing two five pound notes together behind his back. The rustling caught his fathers attention and persuaded him to allow Jackie to sign. Seymour, elated, invited everyone to the West End Club for a celebratory drink, later exclaiming that “I had secured my finest ever signing for ten quid and a couple of rounds of Newcastle Brown Ale”.
Milburn’s official registration as a Newcastle United player came on 23 August 1938.
He made his competitive debut in the FA Cup in the 1945–46 season and was initially played on the left wing as a supplier to Charlie Wayman. However, Wayman was dropped before a 4–0 defeat to eventual winners Charlton Athletic in a 1947 FA Cup semi-final and when he afterwards vowed not to play for United again, manager George Martin made the decision to switch Milburn to centre forward. In his next match, on 18 October 1947, Milburn wore the number nine shirt for the first time and scored a hat-trick.
His subsequent achievements, particularly his two goals which won the 1951 FA Cup Final and his 45-second opener in the 1955 FA Cup Final which was the fastest ever Wembley FA Cup Final goal until it was beaten by Roberto Di Matteo in 1997, brought him national recognition and afforded him iconic status on Tyneside
In total, Milburn played in three FA Cup winning finals for United; 1951, 1952 and 1955.
Despite his achievements, Milburn was reportedly a very shy and self-deprecating individual, whose modesty further endeared him to Newcastle United supporters, though according to Tom Finney, this stemmed from an “innate inferiority complex”.
By the time Milburn left Newcastle in 1957, he had become the highest goalscorer in Newcastle United’s history. In total he played 353 times for Newcastle and scored 177 goals.This total was surpassed by Alan Shearer in February 2006. Milburn remains Newcastle’s second highest goalscorer.
He was capped 13 times for England, between 1948 and 1955, scoring 10 goals.
Milburn’s transfer to Linfield in 1957 was almost jeopardised when the Newcastle board demanded a substantial signing fee and much to the anger of fans, Milburn was not immediately granted a testimonial. His signing for Linfield “added thousands to the gate” and he made 54 appearances, scoring 68 goals in four seasons in all competitions for the club. He was finally granted a testimonial ten years later in 1967.
Legacy
In 1987, Newcastle United opened their new West Stand at St James’ Park. This was named the Milburn Stand, in honour of Jackie. This remains the only stand named after a player at St James’ Park.
Three statues of Milburn were commissioned. One was placed in Station Road in his birthplace Ashington. The funds were raised by the Civic Head, Cllr. Michael George Ferrigon during his term of Office. It now stands at Ashington Leisure Centre in Lintonville Terrace.
A second statue of Milburn was unveiled by Laura Milburn on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street in 1991. It was designed by sculptor Susanna Robinson and cost £35,000. The fee was raised after an appeal by the local newspaper attracted donations from local businesses and Newcastle United supporters. The statue stands 12 feet (3.7 m) high and the inscription reads: ‘John Edward Thompson Milburn, footballer and gentleman’. It was relocated in 1999 to St James’ Boulevard, and then moved again to its present position on Strawberry Place, just outside St James’ Park.
The whereabouts of the third statue had caused some local consternation in 2011, when the local newspaper recounted a fibreglass statue of Milburn located outside St James’ Park between 1996 and 1998, but which had since vanished. The statue was ‘found’ in the garden of the sculptor who had created it, Tom Maley, who had held it after it was returned to him by Newcastle United to cast in bronze — an arrangement which was cancelled when the club was sold to Mike Ashley in 2007.
In 1987, Milburn was voted the ‘greatest post-war North East footballer’ by the local press.In 1991, a steam locomotive which had previously hauled coal at Ashington Colliery where Milburn had worked was renamed Jackie Milburn in his honour. After a fundraising initiative launched in 2006, by Jack Milburn Jr to restore the locomotive, it was displayed in Milburn’s home town again in 2011.
In 2006, Milburn was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his contribution to English football. In 2008, Excelsior Academy School in Newcastle’s West End was assigned the official name ‘Milburn School of Sport and Health-related Studies’
In 2009, Goal.com listed Milburn 43rd in their list of the ‘top English players of all time’. A feature in the Belfast Telegraph to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Linfield, listed Milburn as the second greatest player to have ever represented the club.
In 2012, a survey by the Evening Chronicle placed Milburn first, ahead of Bobby Robson and Catherine Cookson, in their list of ‘100 Greatest Geordies’. Sport Newcastle’s ‘Young Talent’ award is entitled the ‘Wor Jackie Award’ in honour of Milburn.
He was also the subject of a 53-minute documentary, “A Tribute to Jackie Milburn: Tyneside’s Favourite Son”, produced by Tyne Tees Television, and later released in 1989 by Video Gems on VHS. It covered his life, times and career with Newcastle United.
Personal life
In 1947, Milburn was staying in Hertfordshire at a Letchworth hotel with his Newcastle teammates, when he met Laura Blackwood — a silver-service waitress working at the hotel. According to Blackwood, she was serving him breakfast when he ‘asked her out’ and they went to the cinema. Three months later, she travelled to the family home in Ashington and Milburn proposed.
They married on 16 February 1948 at Willesden Register Office in North London. They had three children — Linda, Betty and Jackie Jr — and six grandchildren.
Milburn died of lung cancer on 9 October 1988, aged 64. His funeral took place on 13 October, and was attended by over 1,000 mourners at St Nicholas’s Cathedral in Newcastle. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to watch the cortège pass.
