Chapter 15: EZEKIEL JOHN EDWARDS (1847->1901)

Ezekiel John was born in 1847 in St Peter's parish, Worcester. As a young teenager he spent some time living with his grandmother, Mary Ann Edwards, in Powick lane, Worcester. At that time he was a shoemaker. At the age of twenty he married Frances M. Carsley in Bishops Frome parish church. The couple then moved to Birmingham where at least two children were born before the family moved to Hundred House Lane in Bromsgrove in the mid-1870s. Here Ezekiel John worked as a tailors cutter. Another three children were born in Bromsgrove. About ten years later the family again moved back to Birmingham where Ezekiel John worked as a tailor in his own right from 298 Coventry Road, Deritend. At this latter address he played host to his father's step-son, Phillip Durrant.

Ezekiel John's oldest child, Mary, married Thomas Lee Hutson, a Congregational Church preacher. It is likely that Hutson preached along side Ezekiel John in the Congregational chapel in Aston. Thomas Lee and Mary had a least one child before they moved to Hampshire, where Thomas Lee preached in Petersfield Congregational Church (now United Reform Church) from 1910 to 1923.

By 1901 Ezekiel John was referring to himself as a master tailor. By this time he was living at 2 Green Lane, Aston, with his family. His oldest son had already left home, and indeed left the country, for on 13 September 1894 Benjamin boarded the Cunard ship SS Panovia and sailed from Liverpool for Boston. He arrived in America nine days later with $10 to his name. He headed straight away to Woburn in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Benjamin had been a clerk in England, but soon took up plumbing when in America. On 20 December 1899 he married New Brunswick born Minnie L. Bonnell. The couple then lived in Winchester, Massachusetts where they had at least five children.

SS Pavonia

In 1901 the youngest family member was Ernest, who was a newspaper reporter for the Birmingham Argus at the time. He had played in the 1st rugby XV in 1899/1900 at King Edward School in Birmingham, football for Smallheath and was also a keen golfer. At school he also won the Albert prize for Mathematics in July 1900.

In the summer of 1903, the Liverpool Echo interviewed Ernest to be a sports reporter. Ernest recorded in his diary that the interview did not go well. He was therefore surprised to get a job offer, but was torn between accepting a promotion to the 'big time' and leaving his family and fiance, Emily, in the Birmingham. He did accept the job and moved into temporary accommodation in Walton. Emily did not join him, but they carried on an almost daily correspondence that he read on the tram ride into town. He despaired over their lovers' tiffs and a smelly roommate. Worried about the temptations that may befall him in the big city, Emily gave him an ultimatum that prompted their marriage at St Andrew's Road Congregational Church in Small Heath, during the summer of 1904, and her subsequently joining him in Liverpool. The couple's wedding was a reported on in glowing terms in the local press. The report list the guests with their itemised gifts, including a bridal cake from Ernest's cousin, George Tyler junior and his wife. The cake was probably made by George's father who was a confectioner. The couple spent their honeymoon in Malvern, a place well known to both the Edward's and the Tyler's. Eric, the first of their three children to Ernest and Emily, was born the following year by which time the family was living at 140 Delamore Street, Walton; 'between the poorhouse and the prison' as Eric later referred to it.

By 1905, Ernest was established as the Echo's senior sports reporter and took the pen name of 'Bee'. He was writing the sports column six days a week and it was the only one in the paper with a by-line. Ernest's newspaper career was taking off along with the fortunes of the city's two football teams. The 1905-06 football season was a great one. Liverpool won the league and Everton won the FA Cup. Ernest led off his column of April 23, 1906 with: 'We are THE people of the football world. The Liverpool Football Club had taken the first honour a week ago, it remained for Everton to complete the delightful double. They did as they were expected . . . '. Throughout his career, Ernest's readers always tried to detect whether he was a closet Liverpool or Everton fan. He never let on, but celebrated both teams' achievements equally, indeed to do otherwise would have been bad for the Echo's circulation.

Ernest used his column as a notice board for amateur football in the city and to respond to readers' letters. To save space, only the answer was printed, but they make intriguing reading. To one enquiry he responds: 'kick taken once and the ball hit the crossbar and cannoned in'. In the days before TV and radio, the journalist became the football trivia expert. He was a great lover of the game. He started a competition in which readers were invited to name their all-star teams, a sort of early Fantasy Football League. He was his readers' eyes and ears at the matches so his reports were detailed, with players handsomely praised when they played well and gently criticised when they did not.

Conditions for the fans attending games were very primitive, however Ernest was an advocate of better conditions for the fans. In his column following Good Friday in 1906, he reports on the Liverpool versus Everton derby game. The match ended in a draw and he wrote 'There were 35,000 spectators present and many were the amusing spectacles as the crowd swayed to and fro . . . about 40 yards of hoarding gave way, but no one was hurt fortunately. The new Anfield ground cannot be commenced a moment too soon.' The message obviously got through for on 28 September 1906 he was able to write 'Thanks to the broad, forceful policy adopted by the go-ahead directors of Liverpool FC, the danger is past, visitors to Anfield, whether on the giddy heights of the Spioenkop or the lowland terraces can be sure that they are safe'. Thus it was that Ernest came up with the idea of calling the new stand Spion Kop. Only six years had passed since the Boar War Battle of Spioenkop, where over 300 men of the Lancashire Regiment died, many of whom were from Liverpool. The battle must still have been fresh in the memory of many in Liverpool, especially those who had lost fathers, sons and brothers. In local legend Spioenkop, or 'The Kop' as it soon became known, was a fitting, and enduring, nickname for this new stand. At its largest, the stand could hold 28,000 spectators, and was one of the largest single tier stands in the world.

Ernest had a large part to play in a change to the corner kick rules that came in to force in June 1924. Prior to 1924 a goal could only be scored from a corner kick if another player made contact with the ball. In that year, the Football Association (FA) changed the rules so that a goal could be scored directly from a corner kick (without another player touching the ball). However, the wording of the new rule vague. Ernest Edwards spoke to officials at Everton about this and Sam Chedgzoy, the Blues' regular corner taker, agreed to expose the limitations of the rule. "There's nothing in the book as it stands to prevent you dribbling the ball right into the middle instead of kicking it from the corner," explained Ernest . "Why not try it out and see what happens?". Chedgzoy did just that in a match against Tottenham Hotspur early that season he placed the ball for a corner kick, then calmly dribbled it through to the goalmouth, while referee, linesmen and players stood dumbfounded. The referee began to lecture Sam, but primed by Ernest, the winger innocently declared: "What's in the rules to stop me doing it ref?". There wasn't anything and after deliberation by the FA, it was decided that the goal was legal, but the rules were rapidly amended to make it clear that the player taking the corner could only strike the ball once before another player must make contact. This ensures that corner kicks cannot become corner dribbles, but also permits a goal to be scored direct from a corner.

Ernest Edwards

(photo courtesy of Mason Edwards)

In addition to sports reporting, Ernest was for some time a theatre critic for the Echo and was well known in the 1920's as a broadcaster from the 6LV station at Liverpool. He was an accomplished musician and was for many years organist at Claremount Road Methodist Church, Wallasey.

In 1936 Ernest and Emily are recorded as travelling to New York on-board the SS Berengaria which sailed from Southampton. They were perhaps visitting his brother Bejamin and his family. Their home address was given as Meols in Cheshire. Ernest retired from reporting in 1937, but was remembered by his readers for very many years afterwards. He died in hospital on Saturday 10 January 1959, after collapsing suddenly the previous evening whilst preparing to go to watch Everton play the following day.

Ernest's younger son, Leslie, was a sports editor of the Liverpool Daily Post and later its sister paper, the Liverpool Echo. Leslie was one of the founder members of the Golf Writers Association and at the time of his death was their oldest member. He was an excellent golfer as well as a golf writer. He was a member of the Royal Liverpool Golf Club and also The Royal & Ancient in St Andrews, Scotland.

0 .Ezekiel John EDWARDS b.1847 d.>1901 m.Frances (aka Fanny) M. CARSLEY
1 . . Mary EDWARDS b.c1872 d.>1901 m.Thomas Lee HUTSON
2 . . . Grace HUTSON bc1900 d.>1901
1 . . Benjamin EDWARDS b.c1875 d.>1910 m.Minnie L. BONNELL
2 . . . Dorothy EDWARDS b.c1902 d.>1910
2 . . . Grace EDWARDS b.c1904 d.>1910
2 . . . Frank EDWARDS b.c1905 d.>1910
2 . . . Ruth EDWARDS b.c1908 d.>1910
2 . . . Ray EDWARDS b.c1910 d.>1910
1 . . Frank E. EDWARDS b.c1879 d.>1901
1 . . Samuel EDWARDS b.1880 d.>1891
1 . . Ernest EDWARDS b.1882 d.1959 m.Emily Winnie HANDS
2 . . . Eric EDWARDS b.1905 d.- m.Gladys –
3 . . . . .John EDWARDS b.- d.- m.#1 - -, #2 Andrea -
4 . . . . . . male EDWARDS
4 . . . . . . male EDWARDS
3 . . . . .Mary EDWARDS m.Alan BROWN
4 . . . . . . Mike BROWN
4 . . . . . . Jan BROWN
5 . . . . . . . Max BROWN
2 . . . Leslie Ernest EDWARDS b.- d.- m.Caroline Elizabeth MASON
3 . . . . .Carole E. EDWARDS m.J. Christopher OWEN
4 . . . . . . Paul OWEN
4 . . . . . . James OWEN m.Veska -
5 . . . . . . . family OWEN
3 . . . . .Susan E. EDWARDS m.Charles HALL
4 . . . . . . Charlotte HALL
4 . . . . . . Sally HALL
4 . . . . . . Caroline HALL m.Tim BEDINGFIELD
5 . . . . . . . family BEDINGFIELD
3 . . . . .Mason E, EDWARDS m.Gladys AYNSLEY
4 . . . . . . Sophie EDWARDS m.John SIMPSON
5 . . . . . . . Elizabeth (Beth) EDWARDS
4 . . . . . . Laura EDWARDS
2 . . . Edna EDWARDS m.Jock BURRELL

Acknowledgement: Writing the above essay would not have been possible without the generous contribution of information by Frederick Edwards, Pat Marshall and Mason Edwards.