As Black History Month 2024 begins on 1 October, we share the story of Fred Corbett, who remains a hugely important figure in the history of West Ham United, one hundred years on from his death.
For Corbett was the first Black player to represent the Club as he played 38 games and scored 15 goals between September 1899 and December 1901.
Reportedly born in Stepney in August 1880, the young Corbett played his first football for the youth team of Old St Luke’s FC in Canning Town. In 1894, church-based Old St Luke’s merged with Castle Swifts, the football team based at the Castle Shipping Line repair yard in Bow Creek, and the new club, Old Castle Swifts, played its home matches at Hermit Road in Canning Town.
After turning professional in November 1894, Old Castle Swifts went bankrupt in March 1895. A few months later, Hermit Road became home to a newly formed works team, Thames Ironworks FC, and a number of Old Castle Swifts players moved from one to the other.
At the time, Corbett was just 14 and playing for Old St Luke’s youth team, which continued to operate and provide an unofficial pathway to Thames Ironworks FC’s senior squad. Among those who ‘gradated’ from this ‘academy’ in 1899 was an 18-year-old Corbett, who also worked as a labourer at Arnold Hills' shipyard.
Playing as a right winger, Corbett debuted for Thames Ironworks, wearing the No7 shirt in a 1-0 Southern League First Division defeat by Reading at Elm Park on 16 September 1899. Two days later, he started his first win as a Hammer in a 4-0 home win over Chatham at the Memorial Grounds.
In the summer of 1900, Thames Ironworks FC was wound up and relaunched as a professional club named West Ham United, and Corbett was one of the many players who moved from one to the other.
He scored his first goal on his second appearance for the ‘new’ Hammers, grabbing the winner in a 1-0 Southern League First Division victory at Swindon Town on 6 October 1900, and netted again the following weekend in a 2-0 home success against Watford.
Corbett netted in both ties as West Ham overcame New Brompton in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round after a replay, and by the season’s end he had scored nine goals in 23 appearances.
The 1901/02 season saw Corbett find the net on six more occasions, including his first career hat-trick in a 4-2 home victory over Wellingborough Town and two in a 4-2 win over Luton Town.
With interest in football booming, a crowd of 9,000 watched Corbett and his teammates face Millwall on 26 October 1901, and 17,000 turned out to see FA Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur edge out the Hammers a week later.
Corbett’s playing opportunities dwindled thereafter, and he would turn out just twice more before joining Southern League rivals Bristol Rovers in December 1901.
He would turn out, and score at a rate of around one goal in every three appearances, for Bristol Rovers (in three separate spells), Bristol City, Brentford, Worcester City and New Brompton before closing out his nomadic career with Merthyr Town, Tranmere Rovers, Croydon Common and Winsford United.
Fred Corbett passed away in west London in April 1924, aged just 43, but his premature death does nothing to diminish the historic mark he has left on Thames Ironworks FC, West Ham United and English football as a whole.
