He had been on the books of Falkirk, but while stationed at Hednesford, Staffordshire, during the Second World War, he appeared for Birmingham City in the wartime Football League South.
The Cannock Extension was a late addition, being authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1854, for the construction of a branch between Pelsall and the coal mining area of Hednesford, near Cannock.
From 1884 he also trained racehorses for over ten years, mostly near Newmarket but also at Headbourne Worthy and Hednesford.