Jimmy Gemmell

Robust and dour, this long-kicking defender joined Southport as player-coach after Bury agreed to give him a free transfer. He gave the Shakers grand service after joining them as an 18-year-old. Between 1934 and 1937 he missed only 3 League games. Gemmell was signed by Southport on a 2-year coaching contract but, with so many part-timers and his frequent requirement in the first team, it was not possible for him to undertake much coaching. He gave up League Football at the end of 1946—47 as he would have required a cartilage operation and he obtained an engineering job in Bury. Later he had a spell on Lincoln City’s training staff and for 3 years became Coventry City’s assistant trainer. He came from a footballing family. His father was a Sunderland forward and his brother-in-law was Billy Simpson, the Aston Villa and Scottish International. During the war, he worked on Wellington and Lancaster aero engines in Coventry; he lived in Birmingham from 1950 until his death from a heart attack a few months after his 80th birthday.

Profile reproduced with Permission from:
The Sandgrounders: The Complete League History of Southport F. C., by Michael Braham and Geoff Wilde (Palatine Books, 1995). ISBN 978-1-874181-14-9

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Jimmy Gemmell