It is fair to say that Chelsea’s history is one that isn’t as well-known by many as the club’s more recent successes. So it is that a player like John Harris isn’t one whose name trips of the tongue of a lot of supporters when discussing players who had an influence on Chelsea becoming the club that it is today. Known by the moniker of ‘Gentleman John’, Harris was the club’s first captain the aftermath of the Second World War, helping to get the Blues back into the rhythm of football in the wake of such a devastating period for Europe, and the planet as a whole. Harris was the captain from the moment he arrived at Stamford Bridge.
John Harris’s Honours as a Chelsea Player
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954-1955 | First Division | – | – |
Who Was John Harris?
John Harris was born in Glasgow on the 30th of June 1917. The son of a former Scotland international, Neil Harris, who had played centre-forward for Newcastle United, Harris actually began playing football in any meaningful way in England. That was in 1932, joining Swindon Town but failing to make any league appearances for the club. Still a teenager, he was signed by Swansea Town in 1934 when a face that was well-known to him had the manager’s role: his father. He continued learning the roles of professional football with the Welsh club, up until the point that the Second World War broke out.
Although the war obviously stopped football from happening in any meaningful sense, there were still unofficial games played up and down the country. During that time period, Harris played as a guest player for Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers. As with all players during the time, his Football League appearances ended up being much lower than they would have been had war not happened. In the period between 1939 and 1943, Harris played for Southampton as a guest 121 times, getting on the scoresheet on 15 occasions. He also played a game for Scotland in a wartime international.
Joining Chelsea
When the Second World War was finally over, football began again. The FA Cup was the first competition to resume in an official capacity, being the only competition that took place during the 1945-1946 campaign. Having joined the club from Wolves on loan in 1945, Harris was asked to captain the Blues as they won the Southern War Cup at Wembley. It was the first trophy that Chelsea won at the showpiece stadium, but didn’t go down in the history books as having been the first captain to lift a major trophy there. In fact, that didn’t happen for several decades, thanks to FA Cup replays taking place in other stadia.
Harris captained Chelsea six times in the FA Cup against Leicester City (twice), West Ham United (twice) and Aston Villa (twice), with the Villains knocking them out 2-0 on aggregate. Although he returned to Wolverhampton Wanderers after the war’s conclusion, he had made enough of an impression to earn a permanent transfer to the Blues in 1946 after the London club paid their Midlands counterparts £5,000 for his signature. He was a tough-tackling centre-half who was also known for his skill on the ball, allowing him to help the Blues keep a number of clean sheets during his early years playing at Stamford Bridge.
Having been made captain as soon as he arrived, Harris continued in the role for the majority of his time at the club. His first time with the armband in a league game was in a 4-3 win over Bolton Wanderers in a thrilling home game, quickly followed up by defeats to Manchester United and Liverpool. The game at Anfield finished 7-4 to the home side, showing that Chelsea knew how to score but that Harris had a lot to do to tighten things up at the back. A 3-0 win over Leeds United in September 1946 proved to be something of a false dawn, with Harris then part of a Chelsea defence that conceded at least one in all but one of the 21 games that followed.
Becoming a Chelsea Stalwart
In spite of the struggles at the back, Harris was something of a main stay for Chelsea. From the 1946-1947 campaign through to the end of the 1948-1949 one, he missed just three games in the First Division. Even in the 1949-1950 season he played 39 games in a season that lasted for 42 matches, adding six FA Cup appearances to his tally during the time period. Whilst reliability was one key part of his game, he wasn’t much of a goal scorer. That is entirely understandable given his presence in the defence, but it took until the December of 1947 for him to get his first goal, coming in a 2-2 draw with Blackpool.
It looked as though things were on the up on the goalscoring front when he also scored against Huddersfield Town a few weeks later, but he then didn’t score another one for nearly a year. There were some impressive performances from Chelsea during that time, though. A 6-0 win over Everton came quite early in 1948, as did a battling 4-3 win over Huddersfield Town. Harris had become part of the furniture at Stamford Bridge, even though his appearances began to dwindle ever so slightly. Perhaps the biggest change came when Ted Drake took over as manager and decided to shake things up by stripping him of the captaincy.
Losing the Captaincy & Leaving Stamford Bridge
That came in 1952, although he had played a number of games without being captain before then. It was in 1952 that Drake made the change permanent, albeit with Harris taking on the role a few more times before he departed Stamford Bridge for good. Before then, though, there was the small matter of Chelsea winning the club’s first ever top-flight title. That came during the 1954-1955 campaign, in which Harris made 31 league appearances. Although he didn’t score, he did help the Blues to more than a few wins along the way. In fact, Chelsea finished the season with 20 wins and just 10 losses, ending up four points ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers in second.
If Harris was annoyed about losing the captaincy, he didn’t let it affect his performances. It certainly will have helped that the man who took over from him, Roy Bentley, finished as the club’s top scorer in the league winning campaign with 21 goals. Even so, he will have known that the writing was on the wall for him. He played just three times in the following season, matching his work with Chelsea alongside becoming the first professional coach for Surrey Senior League’s Croydon Amateurs. It proved to be something that he was good at, leaving Chelsea in order to become Chester City’s player-manager in the April of 1956.
On the 20th of April 1959, Harris took over from Joe Mercer as the manager of Sheffield United, finishing third and seven points behind Fulham in second. In his first full season with the Blades he led them to fourth, living up to his ‘Gentleman John’ tag by being a quiet and unassuming man who put the players front and centre, shunning the limelight. The team won promotion from the Second Division in 1961, also reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup. In the years that followed he cemented Sheffield United as a top-flight team until they were relegated and then promoted straight back up, becoming the club’s Senior Executive in 1973.
Harris left Sheffield United in 1977 and became the scout for Sheffield Wednesday, later becoming a lay preacher. He died in the Steel City on the 24th of July 1988.