Bert Crossthwaite

Crossthwaite played football for Preston Post Office before signing amateur forms with Football League First Division club Preston North End, but made no senior appearances for that club.[1][2] Having turned professional,[2] he did play one match in the Football League for their West Lancashire rivals Blackpool, in the Second Division away to Gainsborough Trinity on 29 September 1906.[3] Crossthwaite joined Fulham for a £15 fee ahead of the 1907–08 season,[4] and made two more Second Division appearances in the second half of that campaign, standing in for first-choice goalkeeper Leslie Skene on each occasion.[1][5] He was retained for 1908–09,[6] but took no further part in the first team,[1] and signed for Southern League club Exeter City in 1909.[7] He missed only one Southern League match in the 1909–10 season.[8]

He then moved to Birmingham, joined the police,[9] and was reinstated as an amateur.[2] He returned to football with Birmingham in 1911, for which he played 49 Second Division games, most of which came in a spell from October 1912 to New Year's Day 1914.[10][11] He later signed for Stoke, before retiring from the game in around 1915.[12]

After retiring as a player, he became a referee, and officiated in matches up to Football League level.[13] He was also a competent sprinter, despite being a heavy man,[14] and was for many years actively involved with the charity sports meetings organised by the Birmingham police.[2][13]

Herbert Crossthwaite was born on 4 April 1887 in Preston, Lancashire,[12] to Thomas Crossthwaite, a general labourer, and his wife Esther, a cotton operative.[15] The 1901 United Kingdom Census records him as a postal telegraph messenger.[16] He married Agnes Carter in 1909, and the couple had two children, Ann and Herbert.[17]

Crossthwaite joined the Birmingham City Police in September 1910, giving his previous occupation as that of postman.[17] His police file describes him as 5 ft 9+3⁄4 in (1.77 m) tall, of dark complexion with dark brown hair and eyes.[17] He was promoted to sergeant in 1917 and to inspector in 1925,[17] spending much of his career serving in the Chief Constable's office, specialising in entertainment tax enforcement before such work was taken over by the Inland Revenue.[17] He was a recipient of the King's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935,[2] and retired from the police later that year having completed his 25 years' service.[17]

The 1939 Register finds him living with his family in the Erdington district of Birmingham and working part-time as a nightwatchman.[18] On 20 May 1944, at the age of 57, he collapsed and died in Erdington.[9][19]

A cousin, Harry Crossthwaite, played League football for Stockport County and Stoke.[12][10]

• Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.