Harry Bert Image 1 Crystal Palace 1922

Description

Kingston upon Thames, Surrey born outside right Bert Harry began his football career with Athenian League club Kingstonian after the First World War, from where he was signed by Second Division club Crystal Palace in 1921 by then manager Edmund Goodman who had spotted Harry playing for Kingstonian in the Surrey Cup Final, Harry scoring twice on his Football League debut in a 4-1 win over Bury in March 1922 playing at centre forward. From September the same year he featured mainly at outside right, and for most of his thirteen seasons at Selhurst Park he was a regular in the Palace first eleven, being ever present in 1931-32 and missing three or less matches in another six of those seasons.

Although Palace were relegated from the Second Division in 1925, when he missed only one match, despite a number of competitive finishes they couldn’t find their way back to the Second Division. Harry was part of their 1928-29 and 1930-31 teams that finished runners up in the Third Division (South), narrowly missing out on promotion, and they finished in the top half dozen in six of his nine seasons at the level. Harry was not a prolific goalscorer, rather he “chipped in” with a few, and only in 1928-29 did he score 10 goals in any single campaign.

He played his final match for Palace in March 1934, setting a club record which stood until surpassed by Terry Long in 1960, having scored 56 goals in 440 appearances for Crystal Palace. He joined Southern League club Dartford in August 1934 before following a number of other British professionals by playing in the French League, where he first played for Mulhouse in 1935 and then Nancy in 1936, before returning in 1937 to join Birmingham & District League club Shrewsbury Town, with whom he played until his eventual retirement.